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Kenneth L. Marcus

Kenneth L. Marcus

Kenneth L. Marcus is Founder and Chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, and author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism (Oxford University Press: 2015) and Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press: 2010).  On the occasion of his recent transition from public service, the Jewish News Syndicate commented that, “In two short years, Marcus did as much, if not more, to fight anti-Semitism on college campuses as anyone in government has ever done.”

Marcus founded the Brandeis Center in 2011 to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism in American higher education.  At that time, the Jewish Daily Forward described him as one of “the new faces of Jewish power,” predicting that “if Marcus has any say in it, we may witness a new era of Jewish advocacy.”

During his public service career, Marcus has also served as Staff Director at the United States Commission on Civil Rights and was delegated the authority of Assistant U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.  Shortly before his departure from the Civil Rights Commission, the Wall Street Journal observed that “the Commission has rarely been better managed,” and that it “deserves a medal for good governance.” Marcus previously held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College School of Public Affairs.

Before entering public service, Mr. Marcus was a litigation partner in two major law firms, where he conducted complex commercial and constitutional litigation. He has published widely in academic journals as well as in more popular venues such as Newsweek, USA Today, Politico, The Hill, The Jerusalem Post, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, and The Christian Science Monitor.  Mr. Marcus is a graduate of Williams College, magna cum laude, and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

All stories by: Kenneth L. Marcus

The Ottawa Protocol

This month saw a major advance in international efforts to combat anti-Semitism on university campuses. On November 10, the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA) issued an international declaration which will be known as “The Ottawa Protocol on Combating Antisemitism.”…

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Ancient Hatred at a Campus Near You

The discovery of parcel bombs mailed from Yemen that targeted Chicago-area synagogues reminds us that North America is not immune to the resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world. Internationally, the level of anti-Semitic incidents has been surging for much of…

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Kenneth L. Marcus: Free Speech As Sword and Shield

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1103088703610&s=13594&e=001Te4MADY3Dpl0CwKyTvspBEHRhXSCoal7BG7HfldSMRcUqcjkeDIo5qj7EsM_vlMxjnLe88oYjYdxxanXjFYOo8TWXUJqaRnvui4ZUx_PWwU1nMA3MsKg1naODZCDPcDmizeDAhTZyp_py5NX5QuuWJePnG-Ab_Zj This month, pro-Israel speakers have been seriously heckled, disrupted or canceled at Oxford, Cambridge, UCLA, Irvine and York. On February 1, at York University counter-protesters slapped two Jewish students, one on the face and one in the arm, as…

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Kenneth L. Marcus: Submission to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism Contemporary Anti-Semitism in North American Higher Education

http://www.jewishresearch.org/quad/CPCCA_Marcus.html The resurgence of anti-Semitism in North American institutions of higher education has, sad to say, been extensively documented in recent years[2] , as have the related phenomena in other parts of the world.[3] In this submission, I would like…

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