Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, confirmed to NBC News that she participated in a meeting at the White House on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Biden administration officials met Monday with top Jewish leaders at the White House<\/a> to discuss the rise in antisemitism, a meeting participant said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, confirmed that she joined a meeting that included the White House coordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall and Deborah Lipstadt, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second gentleman Doug Emhoff also spoke at the meeting, Spitalnick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe administration has been incredibly responsive and engaged,\u201d Spitalnick said in a statement. \u201cAt a time of increasingly normalized antisemitism and hate \u2014 that threatens our communities and our democracy \u2014 it matters that we have a President and an administration who understand the urgency of this threat and are advancing a historic strategy to address it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting, which was first reported<\/a> by CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden on Monday touted his administration’s efforts to implement a national strategy to combat antisemitism that was first announced in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Prosecuting hate, prosecuting hate crimes, addressing antisemitism in schools, increasing security around Jewish centers of life and more,” Biden said of the effort at a Hanukkah reception at the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We\u2019re calling upon all Americans and make clear there is no place for hate in America against Jews, Muslims or anybody else.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. climbed 388%<\/a> in the weeks after the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, compared to the same period last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a group focused on fighting antisemitism and extremism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The attacks killed about 1,200 people in Israel. In the aftermath, more than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The meeting Monday followed an uproar over congressional testimony last week from the presidents of top-tier universities about whether \u201ccalling for the genocide of Jews\u201d would violate their schools’ codes of conduct. University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned Saturday following the backlash<\/a>, which included criticism from the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable that this needs to be said: Calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,\u201d White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement after the testimony.<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden has increased outreach efforts in recent months to both Jewish and Muslim communities, which have faced growing threats amid the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n