Reporting Antisemitism to Federal Agencies, Law Enforcement, and Social Media Guidance : Report an Antisemitic Incident : Resources : Jewish Community Relations Bureau|AJC

Reporting Antisemitism to Federal Agencies, Law Enforcement, and Social Media Guidance by American Jewish Committee

American Jewish Committee (AJC) created a guide to advise potential victims of bias-motivated discrimination or hate on how to file complaints and/or report hate crimes through official channels. Click here to view the full guide.

JCRB|AJC is here to assist you when reporting incidents of antisemitism to federal agencies, law enforcement, or employers. In addition to taking any of the suggested steps below, please fill out our incident report so that we can keep a record of the incident and provide support as needed.

Department of Education

Reporting

ED’s Office for Civil Rights has a homepage detailing how to File a Discrimination Complaint within the department, also available in PDF form.

File a complaint by fax or written mail to your nearest OCR enforcement office or by email to ocr@ed.gov. File a complaint online using OCR’s electronic complaint form.
Regardless of forum, complaints should include:
- The complainant’s name, address and, if possible (although not required), a telephone number where the complainant may be reached during business hours;
- Information about the person(s) or class of persons injured by the alleged discriminatory act(s) (names of the injured person(s) are not required);
- The name and location of the institution that committed the alleged discriminatory act(s); and
- A description of the alleged discriminatory act(s) in sufficient detail to enable OCR to understand what occurred, when it occurred, and the basis for the alleged discrimination (race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age)
Submit in a timely manner: A complaint must be filed within 180 calendar days of the date of the alleged incident. In some cases, OCR can extend filing time for good cause shown under certain circumstances.

ED Resources

ED OCR’s Dear Colleague letter reminding schools of their Title VI obligations
ED OCR Fact Sheet: Protecting Students from Discrimination Based on Shared Ancestry or Ethnic Characteristics
Questions and Answers on Executive Order 13899 (Combating Antisemitism) and OCR’s Enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Department of Justice

Reporting

The Department of Justice has two forums for reporting anti-Jewish incidents: hate crime incidents and non-hate crime incidents.

Hate crime incidents:

Bias-motivated hate crimes should first be reported to your local police station.
Once reported to local law enforcement, hate crimes can be reported online to the FBI here, by phone at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or to your local FBI field office.
The FBI may reach out to you for more information as they investigate the crime.

Non-crime hate incidents:

Any incident can be reported to DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
File a report of a civil rights violation here.
Once a report is filed, outcomes can include DOJ:
- Following up for more information
- Starting a mediation or investigation
- Directing you to another organization for further help, or
- Informing you that they cannot help

DOJ Resources

Other Federal Agencies

In addition to the Departments of Education and Justice, other federal agencies provide a forum to file incidents of discrimination, including:

Local Law Enforcement

How to report antisemitism to the police:

If you experience or witness an antisemitic attack or incident, call 911—even if it's not an emergency.
The 911 dispatcher will alert an officer on duty, who will come to you to document the bias-motivated incident or crime. A hate incident is bias-motivated but falls below the threshold of a crime, such as an insult or the dissemination of hateful content in public places.
If reporting a crime, an officer will collect your personal information such as name, date of birth, and contact information.
Your contact information will be given to a hate crime detective or Jewish officer liaison, who will be in touch with you directly.

If you see or experience antisemitism, consider reaching out to the Secure Community Network (SCN) for assistance. SCN is the official safety and security organization of the Jewish community in North America and runs a Duty Desk that provides timely, credible threat and incident information to both law enforcement and community partners. The SCN Duty Desk is available 24/7/365 via dutydesk@securecommunitynetwork.org or by calling 844-SCN-DESK. If you need further assistance, please also be in touch with your local law enforcement agency or FBI field office.

Social Media Companies

We can all play a role in reducing online hate. Don’t be silent when you see an instance of antisemitism or other forms of hatred on social media. Report it to the platform directly.

Tap options symbol (dots, arrow, carrot) on the post, profile, or comment.
Tap Report.
Select the reason (hateful conduct, hate speech, inappropriate) as listed on the platform.

PLATFORM SPECIFIC GUIDANCE:

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