Alternate Title
Lessons for the Trump Administration from the Biden U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism
Keywords
National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, antisemitism, white nationalism, news media, press, Gaza war, Holocaust education, partisan views on antisemitism, Textgate, anti-Zionism, affective education, antisemitism awareness through the arts
Abstract
In May 2023, the Biden Administration issued the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism with a goal of hindering further normalization of antisemitism by increasing public awareness of antisemitism and highlighting positive Jewish contributions to America. Recent events, however, particularly the social and political upheaval over protests of the war in Gaza, have led to public contestation over Israel, increased instances of antisemitism, and the partisan politicization of Jewish issues. All this has raised questions about whether the National Strategy's assumptions about public attitudes, the viability of antisemitism awareness initiatives, and the possibility of whole-of-society agreement on countering antisemitism continue to be valid and relevant. The change at the White House with the election of Donald Trump as President also raises the question of whether the Biden Administration's National Strategy will survive. This Article argues that rather than scrapping the antisemitism awareness goal of the National Strategy, the current moment instead reinforces the need to focus effectively on antisemitism awareness. It calls on the Trump Administration to commit to the anti-antisemitism goals of the National Strategy. Investing in effective antisemitism awareness initiatives is critical, not only because of the threat of increasing antisemitism for American Jews but also because research shows that antisemitism generalizes to other outgroups and because antisemitism is a central element of the white nationalism that threatens American society and democracy as a whole. The true question, then, is what kind of antisemitism awareness initiatives are likely to be effective. Is the National Strategy still the right approach? The National Strategy document is to be commended for its reframed take on Holocaust education in school. Because education happens as much outside school as inside, the National Strategy is also right that anti-antisemitism initiatives in the arts, cultural life, and the press could be helpful. However, this Article argues that operationalizing the National Strategy's approach requires a much more intensive focus on affective, emotion-focused initiatives in Holocaust education than is now explicit in the document. The Article also suggests that any call to anti-antisemitism in culture and media must confront both the structural factors in the arts and news coverage that tend to stereotype and reinforce antisemitic tropes, as well as the complex history of antisemitism in American media and the arts. Ultimately, as the National Strategy recognizes, further and continuing empirical research is needed to help ground such anti-antisemitism initiatives.
Recommended Citation
Lili Levi, Lessons for the Trump Administration from the Biden U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, 19 FIU L. Rev. 789 (2025), https://doi.org/10.25148/lawrev.19.3.10.
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