DOJ antisemitism task force to meet Boston officials

Representatives of the Trump administration's task force on antisemitism will be in Boston to meet with city officials Wednesday.

The group announced last month that it planned to probe how the city has dealt with alleged antisemitic incidents. New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles received similar notices from the task force, which also has taken aim at Harvard and nine other universities.

The Department of Justice is sending a member of its Civil Rights Division to Boston to discuss “alleged harassment and discrimination against Jewish people” at schools in the city. Emails obtained by WBUR show Wednesday’s meeting is being called an "advance site visit," ahead of a broader meeting the DOJ has scheduled at City Hall on April 23.

The emails indicate Mayor Michelle Wu's legal counsel and policy chief will attend the Wednesday session, as well as the chief executive of the nonprofit Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. Suffolk County’s District Attorney is sending his chief legal counsel.

Boston officials said Tuesday that they've asked for specific incidents the task force is concerned with, but had yet to receive a response.

In a letter to the mayor dated March 13, Leo Terrell, head of the DOJ's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, indicated that he wanted to visit Boston within 30 days. Terrell said in the letter he aimed to discuss steps by the city “to address alleged discrimination or hate crimes against Jewish individuals in any Boston schools, to include K-12 institutions and post-secondary institutions.”

It's uncertain whether the task force is focused on the wave of campus protests in 2023 and 2024 over the war in Gaza, during which some Jewish students reported feeling threatened or uncomfortable.

Wu took heat in Boston in some quarters for police responses to protests. Police forcibly cleared a tent encampment blocking a public way at Emerson College on her watch, arresting 118 people protesting the war and urging the school to divest from Israel.

Protests also took place at Boston Latin School and at Northeastern University, where more than 100 people were arrested after police cleared an encampment.

The Trump administration has in recent days taken aim at federal funding at universities, including Harvard, that it claims did not adequately shut down acts of antisemitism. It also has revoked some international students' visas and emboldened immigration agents to detain pro-Palestinian students.

City corporation counsel Adam Cederbaum responded to Terrell's letter on March 21, saying, “We are proud to have built a partnership with the Jewish community of Boston over many decades and are encouraged that the [DOJ Civil Rights] Division will engage community leaders in these discussions as well.”

DOJ staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.