Man arrested after driving into New York synagogue
Vehicles crashed into the doors of Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn several times.
- The commission’s Feb. 9 hearing included a discussion of anti-Semitism on college campuses and the role of state and local authorities in protecting religious freedom.
President Donald Trump’s Religious Freedom Commission discussed anti-Semitism during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on February 9, the same day the commission was charged with violating a federal law that requires anti-Semitic groups to balance their viewpoints.
The hearing at the Museum of the Bible focused on anti-Semitism on college campuses and the role of state and local authorities in protecting religious freedom.
Members of the audience were briefly removed from the audience during a statement by Commissioner Carrie Prejean, who rejected the idea that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism. She also sparred with Seth Dillon, a witness defending Candace Owens and CEO of Babylon Bee, rejecting his suggestion that Owens had made anti-Semitic remarks.
Other witnesses include Liat Cohen Rees, founder of the Jewish Christian Union, who said anti-Semitic incidents were occurring “all over the country,” and Moshe Glick, who was pardoned in January on charges stemming from pro-Palestinian protests that turned violent at a New Jersey synagogue in 2024. Glick was accused of hitting a protester in the head with a flashlight, according to the New York Times.
At the hearing, Glick said the country’s “extraordinary success” was due to its embrace of Judeo-Christian values, and that societies could prosper or decline depending on the support and protection of Jews.
The hearing also referenced the Free Clinic Admissions Act, which federal prosecutors used to indict journalists who covered an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church in January.
The law prohibits conduct that “intentionally harms, intimidates, or obstructs” anyone seeking or seeking services at a reproductive health facility or place of worship. However, it specifies that the law should not be used to “prohibit any expressive conduct, including peaceful picketing and other peaceful demonstrations,” which are protected by the First Amendment.
President Trump’s White House claims that past administrations have weaponized the law against religious Americans.
Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney who heads the Justice Department’s anti-Semitism task force, said this is largely a local issue given the federal government’s “invaluable” protections for religious freedom.
He added that anti-Semitism should not be seen as a “Jewish problem.”
“This is a question of right and wrong, and it’s wrong to have anti-Semitism in this country,” he said.
Anti-Semitism was also discussed at the Committee on Religious Freedom in Public Education’s September 8 hearing. The hearing included President Trump’s announcement on February 5 regarding the Department of Education’s future guidance on the right to pray in public schools.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, the number of anti-Semitic incidents nationwide has skyrocketed in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
President Trump established a commission in 2025 tasked with advising the government on religious freedom issues. The commissioners’ terms, and the commission itself, will end on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of American independence, unless extended by President Trump.
The executive order establishing the commission states that Americans “need to be reminded of our nation’s great experiment in religious freedom to protect it from new threats.”
A Feb. 9 lawsuit filed by groups including the Interfaith Alliance and Hindu Human Rights Group accused the commission of lacking religious and ideological diversity and of violating federal law that requires such groups to have a “fair balance of viewpoints represented.”
The committee includes Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but no Muslims or members of other minority religious groups. According to the complaint, member states “broadly support the view that the United States is a ‘Judeo-Christian’ nation and that there are limited, if any, limits on instilling religious values in government.”
Breanna Frank is USA TODAY’s First Amendment reporter. please contact her bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded by the Freedom Forum in collaboration with our journalism funding partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
