The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced on January 4 that they are delaying a regulation codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism for civil rights investigations for at least another year.
The Algemeiner and Politico both reported on the delay of the regulation, but noted that OCR Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Catherine Lhamon wrote in a letter that “the rise in reports of anti-Semitic incidents, including at schools, underscores of addressing discrimination based on shared ancestry and characteristics.”
Kenneth L. Marcus, who founded the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and served as the Assistant Education Secretary for the Office of Civil Rights during the Trump administration, told Politico that while he was “disappointed” at the delay, he was “pleased” that Lhamon is utilizing the “bully pulpit” to fight antisemitism on campuses. Marcus also pointed to the fact sheet released by OCR explaining that students are protected under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as further evidence that the Biden administration has embraced IHRA “very much an active part of policy” even if OCR hasn’t officially codified it.
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations Chair Diane Lob and CEO William Daroff similarly said in a statement they were “heartened” that Lhamon “used the release of the fact sheet as an opportunity to confirm their commitment to enforcing the previous administration’s Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism, which incorporates the IHRA definition.” “We note our disappointment in the 12-month delay in the Department of Education’s promulgation of long-promised regulations to combat antisemitism, but in the interim look forward to engaging with the Department on other efforts to combat antisemitism in academic setting,” they later added.
The OCR regulation codifying IHRA was initially scheduled to go into place in September 2020, but was delayed until the following January due to a backlog at OCR. The subsequent Biden administration then delayed it again for January 2022, and then to the following December before the January 4 announcement.
In a December 28 Journal op-ed, Marcus stressed the need for the Biden administration to utilize IHRA for civil rights investigations because prior to the definition “OCR was long rudderless in its efforts to address a form of hate which it simply did not understand. And absent such a formal definition, the agency was unable to handle systemic campus anti-Semitism cases for nearly a decade and a half following the initial 2004 guidance.” Current OCR guidance includes IHRA.
“President Biden has correctly identified the seriousness of confronting anti-Semitism,” Marcus wrote. “Now his administration needs to deliver a strong regulation to ensure, in his words, that evil will not win and hate will not prevail.”
