LOS ANGELES (Press Release) — StandWith Us has announced its support for Senate confirmation of Kenneth Marcus, an outstanding defender of civil rights for Jews and many other communities, who was recently nominated for assistant secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education.
“Now he is under attack by anti-Israel extremists seeking to derail his nomination, and we can’t let them win,” the organization said in a memorandum to its supporters.
StandWithUs, which advocates for Israel on college campuses, described Marcus as “an incredibly qualified candidate for assistant secretary for civil rights.”
A civil rights lawyer and a former public affairs professor with a degree from University of California, Berkeley, he served in the second Bush Administration as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s deputy assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity. He was the de facto head of the U.S. Department of Education’s civil right office and the staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Currently he serves as president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
“The reason Marcus is being subjected to a smear campaign is his outspoken advocacy against anti-Semitism, including cases of bigotry that involve Israel,” StandWithUs said. “Anti-Israel extremists are worried that if Jewish students get all the protections that they deserve, it will be more difficult to spread hate against Jews and Israelis. They’re right, which is why we must stand up for the civil rights of Jews.”
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Preceding provided by StandWithUs