US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks during a ceremony in the Indian Treaty Room in Washington, DC, US, on Oct. 26, 2023. Photo: Ting Shen/Pool/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

Senior Biden administration officials on Thursday attended a fraught meeting at Towson University in Maryland, where students from three local colleges aired their frustrations about a surge in antisemitic incidents on their campuses since Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel.

US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and President Joe Biden’s domestic policy advisor, Neera Tanden, visited the campus to promote the US Education Department’s Antisemitism Awareness Campaign — a component of the White House’s national strategy to combat antisemitism that aims, in part, to address the prevalence of anti-Jewish hatred and discrimination in higher education.

During the meeting, students from Towson University, John Hopkins University, and Goucher College recounted disturbing encounters with anti-Israel activists. One Towson student recalled an incident from just last week.

“They were yelling at us. They proceeded to yell at the rabbi, his wife, and other Jewish students,” the student said, according to a local CBS affiliate. “About ten minutes after the incident, they followed another Jewish student to class and started to harass her before a test.”

Another student added, “Universities around the country are not shutting this down, and I beg the Department of Education to intervene at a federal level to pressure these institutions to address these hateful protests that turn violent against students.”

Responding to the students’ concerns, Cardona said, “I’m not Jewish, but I’m appalled and horrified about what I’m hearing across the country. I want to tell you directly, we’ve got your back.”

Thursday’s gathering came amid a global surge in antisemitism following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel last month. The onslaught resulted in the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, leading Israel to launch a defensive war against the terror group, which controls neighboring Gaza.

Reports of antisemitic harassment, intimidation, and violence have spiked on college campuses across the US. Earlier this week, video emerged showing a mob of Harvard students, some of them clad in Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, jostling and harassing a Jewish student as he walked across the campus. Among the mob was Ibrahim Bharmal, the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — a publication whose past editors include former US President Barack Obama.

Last week, a melee ensued when Jewish Tulane University sophomore Nathaniel Miler attempted to stop a masked anti-Israel demonstrator riding through in the cargo bed of a pickup truck from burning an Israeli flag. When Tulane University freshman Dylan Mann rushed over to protect Miller, a man jumped out of the truck and assaulted him, breaking his nose, which bled profusely and leaked onto the hands of a female student standing nearby.

At Cornell University, someone threatened on a social media forum to commit acts of murder, rape, and mass shooting against Jewish students and a kosher dining ball on campus. Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old engineering student at Cornell, was arrested on a federal complaint on Tuesday for allegedly making the threats. He faces up to five years in prison and  $250,000 fine.

Tanden said on Thursday that discrimination against Jewish students, as well as singling out the state of Israel for condemnation, is “unacceptable.”

“When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, when Jews are held accountable for the actions of the government of Israel, that is antisemitism,” she continued, adding that addressing campus antisemitism is a “major priority” for the Biden administration.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.