Trump turns up heat on California campuses with antisemitism crackdown

California’s embattled public universities are back in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.The Department of Education on Thursday launched federal civil rights investigations into two deep-blue state schools, San Jose State University and San Francisco State University, over allegations they allowed antisemitism to flourish while Jewish students were threatened, isolated and driven into fear on campus.The probes, opened by the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), will determine whether the universities violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination and harassment.The latest investigations mark another front in President Trump’s widening crackdown on colleges accused of embracing left-wing extremism while failing to safeguard Jewish students in the wake of Hamas’ Oct.7 terrorist attack on Israel.According to complaints filed with OCR, Jewish students at San Jose State faced a hostile campus climate where they were allegedly threatened, shunned and made to feel unwelcome in classrooms because of their Jewish ancestry.The complaints also describe anti-Israel protests disrupting classes, forcing students and staff from campus spaces, and physical attacks targeting Jewish students.One allegation centers on an email from the university’s Vice President for Student Affairs and former Interim Chief Diversity Officer that allegedly distinguished between “good Jews” and “bad Jews” depending on whether they supported the Israeli government.San Francisco State faces a separate federal investigation after complaints accused faculty members of using their authority to foster an antisemitic environment.OCR said the allegations include antisemitic graffiti, attempted break-ins targeting Jewish students and campus events featuring extremists with terrorist group ties hosted by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas program.Jewish students described the atmosphere at the university as o...