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Kenneth L. Marcus, director of the Anti-Semitism Initiative of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research, has been named director of a new center to combat anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law will use civil rights litigation, legal research and public policy advocacy to combat trends such as one uncovered by IJCR research –– that more than 40 percent of Jewish American students have witnessed or experienced anti-Semitism on campus.

The new Brandeis Center is based in Washington, D.C.

Marcus was previously staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, where he was credited with helping ensure that the U.S. government would fight anti-Semitism by enforcing civil rights laws.