Leo Terrell’s Crusade Against Antisemitism: “The Jews Are Facing the Same Problems that Blacks Faced”

By: Fern Sidman

At the heart of the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights battle against antisemitism is a room filled with symbols of historical memory and moral purpose. One wall of Leo Terrell’s office displays a chilling replica of a World War II-era form—an official Nazi document that concentration camp inmates were forced to sign, falsely attesting that they had received humane treatment. On another wall hangs a tribute to fallen Israeli soldiers, whose names serve as a permanent reminder of the cost of defending the Jewish state.

These emblems are not decoration. They are convictions rendered physical, and they reflect the mission of a man who has made it his goal to force America’s institutions—especially its most elite universities—to account for the rising wave of antisemitism within their walls. Terrell, a seasoned civil rights attorney and now chair of the federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, offered an unfiltered, determined assessment of his work in a recent in-depth interview with Mike Wagenheim at The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS).

“We have to sue them to get them to comply with fundamental rights for Jewish American students,” Terrell told JNS. “They are basically facing criminal attacks… Those individuals should be prosecuted.”

The Trump administration, under which Terrell serves as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, has taken what he described to JNS as an “unapologetically aggressive” approach toward universities that tolerate or enable antisemitism.

This includes revoking federal funding to noncompliant schools, placing Columbia University’s Middle East Studies program under receivership, and barring Harvard University from enrolling foreign students until reforms are made.

While some critics—both conservative and liberal—worry that the administration’s hardline policies might provoke backlash or infringe upon academic freedom, Terrell rejected those concerns outright in his interview with JNS:

“I think those fears are false. This is not a free speech issue,” he said. “When people talk about the Trump administration’s approach, I submit to you that the previous four years, they did nothing to stop the harassment on these college campuses.”

“They did nothing to enforce hate-crime laws,” he told JNS.

Terrell’s indignation is not theoretical—it’s personal. His alma mater, UCLA, is one of the institutions currently under investigation by the task force. Encampments on the UCLA campus in the spring of 2024 reportedly barred Jewish students and staff from entering certain areas unless they denounced Israel or removed religious items. The task force formally launched a probe in March, citing a “pattern or practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin.”

According to the information provided in the JNS report, the Trump administration’s initial efforts to engage schools through consent decrees—court-approved settlements that require no admission of guilt—have largely failed. “Resistance” from university leaders has prevented in-person campus visits the task force planned across ten U.S. campuses, including Columbia, Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, and George Washington University.

“So we have to take these individuals to court,” Terrell told JNS. “There are boatloads of evidence.”

He explained that the administration is preparing a lawsuit against the entire University of California system, and is coordinating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute hate crimes that local prosecutors have allegedly ignored.

“We’re also using visa cancellations as a weapon,” Terrell told JNS, referencing foreign students who participated in anti-Israel protests that escalated into violence.

Terrell is particularly vocal about what he perceives as institutional dishonesty among elite universities. In the interview with JNS, he reserved his strongest criticism for Harvard, saying: “I don’t trust Harvard. I’m sick and tired of $10,000 PR letters stating, ‘We’re combating antisemitism.’ That’s a lie.”

His fury extends to the media as well, especially CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, whom he accuses of “justifying” antisemitism.

“They conflate the First Amendment with criminal conduct,” he told JNS. “I’ll challenge anyone in this country to tell me what’s happening at Harvard and Columbia is First Amendment speech.”

Terrell is clear on what he sees as the line: “You want government funding? You cannot discriminate.”

This, he emphasized to JNS, is not about partisanship—it’s about civil rights. The administration is simply demanding that institutions comply with Title VI and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibit discrimination in federally funded programs and in the workplace.

Terrell’s passion stems from a deeply rooted belief that Jewish Americans today are being forced to pay for their safety, in a way that echoes historic injustices. “Jewish Americans have to pay for security to go to school, to walk the streets, to go to their synagogue,” he told JNS. “We don’t need a Jewish tax in this country.”

“That’s what I call it,” he said, likening the phenomenon to the poll taxes imposed on Black Americans during Jim Crow to disenfranchise them.

In this light, Terrell sees his mission as continuing the civil rights movement, this time on behalf of Jewish Americans. During a recent White House event with 90 Black pastors, Terrell recounted for JNS how he reminded them of the shared history between Blacks and Jews: “The Jews are facing the same problems that Blacks faced. We have an affirmative obligation to make sure Jewish Americans are protected like we’re protected.”

He also invoked the memory of Jewish activists who died during the Civil Rights Movement, such as Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, murdered in Mississippi in 1964 for helping Black Americans register to vote. “There has been a strong history of Blacks and Jews in this country,” he said. “I reminded them of that.”

As reported throughout the JNS feature, Terrell’s work is not about maintaining appearances—it is about forcing accountability. From targeting university leadership to prosecuting hate crimes, the task force has become a flashpoint in the national debate over how far the government should go in fighting antisemitism.

For Leo Terrell, however, the answer is simple: “We can’t have success unless every university, in every blue city, in every red city, treats Jewish Americans like they treat all Americans.”

It is a mission as legal as it is moral. And, as JNS continues to document, it may be the most comprehensive governmental pushback against institutional antisemitism in American history.