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Washington, D.C.: Last Friday, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) wrote to California Senator Jeff Stone, commending him for his work on Senate Concurrent Resolution #35 (SCR-35), a bill urging “each University of California campus to adopt a resolution condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and racism, and would condemn any act of anti-Semitism augmenting education programs at all publicly funded schools in the State of California.”

Senator Jeff Stone, California’s 28th District

The Bill has passed out of committee and will move to the Senate floor perhaps as early as this Thursday. The Bill is first being analyzed by the Senate Floor Analyses office, and the analysis they publish will include a list of those who support the bill and those who are opposed to it. It originally encountered significant opposition from anti-Israel groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and the National Lawyers Guild when it was brought before the Senate Education Committee, so support for this Bill is pressing. LDB joined the groups supporting the Bill, and sent the below letter to Senator Stone, also stressing the importance of defining anti-Semitism using the State Department’s definition, which “provides an important and authoritative discussion of the ways in which anti-Israel animus often crosses the line into anti-Semitism.”
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Dear Senator Stone,

I am writing on behalf of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB), a national non-profit, non-partisan civil rights organization that works to combat anti-Semitism on college and university campuses through research, education, and legal advocacy. We applaud your work on SCR-35, concerning anti-Semitism.

As demonstrated in a joint report we recently released with Trinity College, over 50% of Jewish American college students experienced anti-Semitism on campus in the 2013-2014 academic year. As a civil rights organization, we continually hear complaints from Jewish students who have faced harassment and hostile environments. Many of these complaints come from students at California public institutions, especially campuses of the University of California.

As you know, there has been an alarming rise in anti-Semitic incidents on UC campuses, which have included swastikas drawn on a Jewish fraternity house at UC Davis and the inappropriate questioning of a candidate for student judiciary board about her Jewishness and Jewish affiliations at UCLA. Indeed, over the last few years many Jewish students at the University of California have reported being harassed, physically and verbally assaulted, threatened, vilified, and discriminated against. Jewish students’ property and the property of Jewish student organizations have been defaced, damaged, or destroyed, while Jewish student events have been disrupted and shut down.

Fortunately, several student leaders on UC campuses have recognized the problem and found meaningful ways to address it. In response to the increase in anti-Jewish bigotry, resolutions which strongly condemn anti-Semitism were unanimously approved at UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles and UC Santa Barbara. These are important resolutions, which have been thoughtfully written and widely embraced. These students should be commended for their wisdom and courage. We can learn from them.

Importantly, in identifying anti-Semitic activity, each of these resolutions invokes the U.S. State Department’s definition, which recognizes the varieties of anti-Semitic expression that Jewish students are actually experiencing on their campuses. The State Department’s definition provides an important and authoritative discussion of the ways in which anti-Israel animus often crosses the line into anti-Semitism. It should be used, carefully and wisely, as a tool for understanding this important problem.

As a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, I am saddened by incidents that have lately marred the exceptional work being done at the University of California. Nevertheless, I am gladdened to see that you are working to address this serious problem and wish you every success. Please let me know if the Louis D. Brandeis Center can be a resource to you in your continuing efforts.

Sincerely,

Kenneth L. Marcus
President & General Counsel
The Louis D. Brandeis Center
for Human Rights Under Law