Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced Friday that the department has opened investigations into seven different schools, including Cornell, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania, after receiving several complaints regarding five cases of antisemitism and two of Islamophobia on the campuses. 

The schools were informed about the investigations within the last 24 hours. They include one K-12 school, the Maize Unified School District in Kansas, and six colleges: Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, Cornell University in New York, Columbia University in New York, Wellesley College in Massachusetts, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told CNN on Friday that he anticipates more investigations are coming.

Due to the anticipated increase in the number of investigations regarding antisemitism and Islamophobia, along with any complaints regarding discrimination against ethnicity or ancestral characteristics, the Education Department has begun making a list that is available on its website and will update it every week. 

For any school that is investigated for these incidents and is found to be in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act regarding discrimination and racism in schools, the Education Department will make corrective recommendations, as well as potentially cut any and or all federal funding they receive until they fall back into compliance with the law. Secretary Cardona said, “If an institution refuses to follow the law to protect students, we would withhold dollars." However, the details about how much money would be withheld or fined against the schools were not discussed. 

Ever since the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7th, there has been an explosion of antisemitic incidents and attacks all over the country. Colleges across the country have seen massive crowds of pro-Hamas and/or anti-Israel protestors spilling onto their campuses, which has sent Jewish students into hiding. Incidents of hate crimes against Jewish residents in the country have also sharply increased. The Anti-Defamation League has reported a mind-blowing 388 percent increase in anti-Jewish or antisemitic events since last year alone. 

ADL recorded a total of 312 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7-23, 2023, 190 of which were directly linked to the war in Israel and Gaza. By comparison, during the same period in 2022, ADL received preliminary reports of 64 incidents, including four that were Israel-related. An interactive map plotting where incidents have occurred in October 2023 can be found here.

However, the problem is not isolated to the United States. The entire world has seen an explosion in the number of antisemitic attacks or protests. 

The rise in antisemitic incidents has not been limited to the U.S. In France, the Minister of Interior announced on Monday that 588 antisemitic incidents had been reported to police, resulting in 336 arrests. In the UK, London police said that there were 218 antisemitic hate crimes reported from October 1-18, over 13 times greater than the same period last year. In Germany, antisemitism monitoring organization RIAS reported a 240-percent increase in antisemitic incidents since Oct 7, compared to the same time period last year. There have also been antisemitic incidents in other countries in Europe, as well as in Latin America, North Africa, Australia and elsewhere.

Back home to Southern California, where an elderly man was violently attacked and killed in Thousand Oaks. Thousand Oaks is located in Ventura County, which is just west of Los Angeles County. The victim, Paul Kessler, was killed during a protest where pro-Hamas and pro-Israel supporters were shouting at each other.   

[...] a Hamas supporter hit Paul Kessler over the head with a megaphone during a confrontation on Sunday, causing Kessler to fall and hit his skull on the pavement. Video posted to social media showed Kessler lying in a pool of blood, and he died of his injuries on Monday morning.

The killer in Kessler's death was a pro-Hamas protestor who is also a college professor. The suspect, Loay Alnaji, was arrested for manslaughter. 

Moorpark College professor Loay Alnaji was arrested early Thursday morning by deputies with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office and charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Paul Kessler. Kessler, a Jewish man, was attending a counterprotest to a pro-Hamas rally in Thousand Oaks, California on November 5 when Alnaji confronted him and allegedly hit him in the face with a bullhorn, causing Kessler to fall backward and hit his head on the pavement. Kessler died hours later at a local hospital.   

Anti-Islamic hate incidents are also on the rise in America and the rest of the world as well. CAIR, the nation's largest civil rights organization for Muslims, reported that they received 1,283 reports of bias and requests for help. This time last year, they had received approximately 400 such complaints.  

Those submitting complaints of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bias in the U.S. have included "a wide variety of Americans, including public school and college students, doctors and other workers, protestors, and mosques," CAIR said in a press release.

"Both Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism are out of control in ways we have not seen in almost 10 years," CAIR research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said in a statement. "The Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric that have been used to both justify violence against Palestinians in Gaza and silence supporters of Palestinian human rights here in America has contributed to this unprecedented surge in bigotry."

It would not be surprising if the number of complaints against schools and universities increases over time. Hopefully, the Education Secretary has a legitimate plan to address this with an actual and hard-hitting remedy, lest we see the rates of hate incidents against Jewish Americans and Muslim Americans rise further.