On Thursday, November 8, Kent Yalowitz will speak to the University of Chicago Law School LDB Chapter on the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act, prompted by his work on the Sokolow v. PLO lawsuit. Kent Yalowitz has represented a wide variety of clients in high-stakes litigation. Most recently, he led the trial team that secured a $655 million jury verdict against the Palestinian Authority and the PLO in favor of eleven American families injured in terrorist attacks. This was the largest personal injury jury verdict ever in the Southern District of New York and was recently ranked 2nd nationwide by the National Law Journal in its special report on 2015 “Top 100 Verdicts” based on award size. Mr. Yalowitz has deep experience in contractual and business disputes, civil and criminal tax controversies, labor and employment disputes, bankruptcy, securities fund, product liability, antitrust, and corporate governance matters. In addition to trial and appellate work, he assists clients with internal and governmental investigation. Before entering private practice, Mr. Yalowitz served as a law clerk for Judge Edmund L. Palmieri of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Download Press Release Washington, D.C., Nov. 2: The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, in conjunction with Hasbara Fellowships, today launched the innovative JIGSAW Initiative, an unprecedented pilot program to train law students to combat and prevent resurgent anti-Semitism. “As the tragic and horrific events in Pittsburgh made abundantly clear, anti-Semitism is escalating at a frightening rate in the U.S.,” stated Alyza D. Lewin, Brandeis Center President and General Counsel. “We must reverse this rising tide of anti-Semitism and ethnic racism, and there is no substitute for legal action. By properly training a select team of law students to work with undergraduates and utilize specific legal tools and strategy, we can begin to take the offensive in this battle.” According to the FBI’s latest reporting, in the United States there were more incidents of anti-Semitism than all other religious hate crimes combined. The ADL reports anti-Semitic incidents rose 57% across the nation last year, and 89% on college campuses alone. Fifty-four percent of Jewish college students experienced anti-Semitism in 2014, according to a Trinity College-Brandeis Center nationwide survey, and only a year later, a Brandeis University study found that figure had spiked to nearly 75%. Studies demonstrate the threat is increasing. Hate and extremist groups are on the rise nationally, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. White supremacists are targeting college campuses like never before, reported the ADL. AMCHA Initiative found that incidents driven by Israel-related anti-Semitism were significantly more likely to contribute to a hostile campus for Jewish students than the classic/white supremacist form. And this past week, a gunmen murdered 11 individuals attending Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. JIGSAW stands for Justice Initiative Guiding Student Activists Worldwide and its motto is “Achieving Justice Piece by Piece.” Under JIGSAW, Brandeis Center lawyers will train a specialized corps of law students to utilize legal tools and expertise to combat both classic/white supremacist and anti-Israel anti-Semitism. The law students will focus on combatting anti-Semitic incidents on campus by using university policies, and state and federal law. After they graduate, former JIGSAW Fellows will have the knowledge and personal expertise to address incidents nationwide. JIGSAW Fellows will engage in both joint training with the Hasbara Fellows as well as a separate legal-based curriculum specifically developed by Brandeis Center attorneys. Topics to be covered include how to recognize both classic and anti-Israel anti-Semitism; utilize internal student government policies to combat anti-Semitism; understand university bias and discrimination complaint procedures; understand Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how to file complaints for violations of Title VI with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights; understand and utilize protections provided by the First Amendment; be conversant in the state penal codes that apply to event disruptions and other criminal activity including assault and vandalism; and understand international law principles as they relate to Israel and BDS. As part of the program, JIGSAW Fellows will participate in a trip to Israel, along with Hasbara Fellowships, where they will visit significant sites and meet Israeli government officials, Palestinian representatives, academics, journalists, and representatives from humanitarian organizations. The Brandeis Center has been working with legal experts to develop the JIGSAW Initiative curriculum for months and will begin accepting applications today. More details about the program, including opportunities for pro bono credit, and a link to the application can be found here. “In the pilot year, we plan to train 12 law students, and then to grow the program substantially each year, increasing to up to 50 the second year and 100 students after that,” stated Lewin. “Our goal is to select students who are dispersed geographically across the country, so that each law student can cover a geographic region, and to eventually expand the program to other countries, such as Canada and the U.K. We hope to arm a new generation of individuals with firsthand experience and an understanding of the federal, state and international law necessary to combat anti-Semitism so that they may assist college students now and remain engaged, effective advocates long after they graduate.” ### About The Louis D. Brandeis Center: The Louis D. Brandeis Center, Inc., or LDB, is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. The Brandeis Center conducts research, education, and advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses. It is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice.
November 4, 2018 Jewish Press The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, in conjunction with Hasbara Fellowships, on Friday launched the innovative JIGSAW Initiative, an unprecedented pilot program to train law students to combat and prevent resurgent anti-Semitism. “As the tragic and horrific events in Pittsburgh made abundantly clear, anti-Semitism is escalating at a frightening rate in the U.S.,” stated Alyza D. Lewin, Brandeis Center President and General Counsel. “We must reverse this rising tide of anti-Semitism and ethnic racism, and there is no substitute for legal action. By properly training a select team of law students to work with undergraduates and utilize specific legal tools and strategy, we can begin to take the offensive in this battle.” According to the FBI’s latest reporting, in the United States there were more incidents of anti-Semitism than all other religious hate crimes combined. The ADL reports anti-Semitic incidents rose 57% across the nation last year, and 89% on college campuses alone. Fifty-four percent of Jewish college students experienced anti-Semitism in 2014, according to a Trinity College-Brandeis Center nationwide survey, and only a year later, a Brandeis University study found that figure had spiked to nearly 75%. Studies demonstrate the threat is increasing. Hate and extremist groups are on the rise nationally, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. White supremacists are targeting college campuses like never before, reported the ADL. AMCHA Initiative found that incidents driven by Israel-related anti-Semitism were significantly more likely to contribute to a hostile campus for Jewish students than the classic/white supremacist form. And this past week, a gunmen murdered 11 individuals attending Shabbat services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. JIGSAW stands for Justice Initiative Guiding Student Activists Worldwide and its motto is “Achieving Justice Piece by Piece.” Under JIGSAW, Brandeis Center lawyers will train a specialized corps of law students to utilize legal tools and expertise to combat both classic/white supremacist and anti-Israel anti-Semitism. The law students will focus on combatting anti-Semitic incidents on campus by using university policies, and state and federal law. After they graduate, former JIGSAW Fellows will have the knowledge and personal expertise to address incidents nationwide. JIGSAW Fellows will engage in both joint training with the Hasbara Fellows as well as a separate legal-based curriculum specifically developed by Brandeis Center attorneys. Topics to be covered include how to recognize both classic and anti-Israel anti-Semitism; utilize internal student government policies to combat anti-Semitism; understand university bias and discrimination complaint procedures; understand Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how to file complaints for violations of Title VI with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights; understand and utilize protections provided by the First Amendment; be conversant in the state penal codes that apply to event disruptions and other criminal activity including assault and vandalism; and understand international law principles as they relate to Israel and BDS. As part of the program, JIGSAW Fellows will participate in a trip to Israel, along with Hasbara Fellowships, where they will visit significant sites and meet Israeli government officials, Palestinian representatives, academics, journalists, and representatives from humanitarian organizations. The Brandeis Center has been working with legal experts to develop the JIGSAW Initiative curriculum for months and will begin accepting applications today. More details about the program, including opportunities for pro bono credit, and a link to the application can be found here. “In the pilot year, we plan to train 12 law students, and then to grow the program substantially each year, increasing to up to 50 the second year and 100 students after that.” stated Lewin. “Our goal is to select students who are dispersed geographically across the country, so that each law student can cover a geographic region, and to eventually expand the program to other countries, such as Canada and the U.K. We hope to arm a new generation of individuals with firsthand experience and an understanding of the federal, state and international law necessary to combat anti-Semitism so that they may assist college students now and remain engaged, effective advocates long after they graduate.” Original Article
November 2, 2018 JNS News In the aftermath of the Oct. 27 shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh, a new initiative was launched on Friday for law students to fight anti-Semitism. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, alongside Hasbara Fellowships, created the JIGSAW Initiative, “an unprecedented pilot program to train law students to combat and prevent resurgent anti-Semitism,” according to a statement from LDB. JIGSAW stands for Justice Initiative Guiding Student Activists Worldwide. As part of the program, Brandeis Center attorneys will train a specialized group of law students to “utilize legal tools and expertise to combat both classic/white supremacist and anti-Israel anti-Semitism. The law students will focus on combating anti-Semitic incidents on campus by using university policies, and state and federal law,” according to LDB. “As the tragic and horrific events in Pittsburgh made abundantly clear, anti-Semitism is escalating at a frightening rate in the U.S.,” said Alyza Lewin, Brandeis Center president and general counsel. “We must reverse this rising tide of anti-Semitism and ethnic racism, and there is no substitute for legal action,” she added. “By properly training a select team of law students to work with undergraduates and utilize specific legal tools and strategy, we can begin to take the offensive in this battle.” Jews are the leading target of hate crimes among religious groups annually in the United States, according to the FBI. Original Article
November 2, 2018 CBN News GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY, Virginia – In the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue mass murder, Americans have realized anti-Semitism is definitely on the rise. Some people hear about this bigotry here in America and they tend to blame people on the Right. But often it’s coming from the Left and many times these days it’s right on college campuses. Alyza Lewin is president of the Brandeis Center, which fights this hatred of and discrimination against the Jewish people. She told CBN News, “The truth is that anti-Semitism has been on the rise across the board. The Anti-Defamation League talks about how there’s been an uptick; I think it’s a 57 percent increase. But on the university campuses, just in the last year alone, it’s up 80 percent.” For example, UCLA is taking heat for hosting the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) annual conference this month. As philanthropist Adam Milstein pointed out in a tweet on his account @AdamMilstein, this comes though SJP members use words like “Let’s stuff some Jews in the oven” – “Kill all the Jews” – “Don’t hesitate to slash their throats – “Zionist scum of the earth” – and “The world would be soooo much better without Jews.” ‘Zionist Baby-Killers’ Lewin spoke of Jewish students afraid to wear shirts showing Hebrew. “Because when they wear Hebrew t-shirts, they feel that it makes them a target,” she said. George Mason University constitutional law Prof. David Bernstein writes about anti-Semitism. He confirmed what Lewin mentioned, saying, “I’ve heard of a lot of stories of students who are wearing Jewish religious symbols like a Star of David necklace or a Hebrew t-shirt being accosted by other students, calling them ‘Zionist baby-killers’ and that sort of thing.” Some of the on-campus prejudice against the Jews comes from Middle Eastern Muslim students now studying in America. “Anti-Semitism is common and unobjectionable in the Middle East,” Bernstein stated. “Rates of anti-Semitism in Syria, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt are 80 percent plus.” And Jews on campus get judged for their identification with and their defense of the Jewish homeland Israel. Many Jews Feel Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism “On the Left-wing side, the anti-Semitism tends to be masked as anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism,” Lewin pointed out. “The difficulty there is many people don’t understand how that is anti-Semitism. She went on, “They don’t realize this yearning for Zion, this desire to return to Zion, this special feeling about Zion, about Israel, is an integral part of Jewish identity. There’s a deep spiritual, religious connection to Israel that pre-dates the creation of the modern state of Israel.” Bernstein added, “If you demonize Israel, if you think Israel is so awful it should be the one country singled out for sanctions and boycotts and all that, then you say to yourself, ‘well, who’s defending this evil country?’ And, not surprisingly, the people who are most active in defending Israel on many campuses are Jews. So there must be something wrong with the Jews.” Some Jews Judged for being Too White And on many Left-leaning campuses, people routinely get categorized and judged by their color or class, especially whites these days. Bernstein spoke as if he were one of those judges, saying, “How we think of you depends on whether we think you have ‘white privilege’ or how far away you are from white privilege. And for whatever reason, somewhat arbitrarily, the Left has decided Jews are white and Arabs, who share a good part of the same DNA, are not.” Lewin finds it almost laughable that such people judge that the Jews – who after all faced the Holocaust – can’t understand what prejudice and suffering minorities face. She said, “Because you have no idea what oppression feels like, which is the greatest irony, right? They say ‘you’re white. And if you support Israel, you are the oppressor.'” Bernstein does worry about anti-Semitism rising among far-Right fringe groups, but more so about its rise on the Left. “The problem with the Left is that the fringe isn’t as fringe-y,” he suggested. “You won’t see any Republican politicians hanging out with David Duke. But you will see Democrats hanging out with Louis Farrakhan.” That’s the Nation of Islam leader who recently suggested Jews are like termites. Some folks dream that social sicknesses like racism and anti-Semitism may just fade away as civilization progresses. But if it’s bubbling up on college campuses and among the young, it’s a dream that may not become reality for a long, long time. Original Story
November 1, 2018 Jewish Journal Pro-Israel groups StandWithUs, The Lawfare Project and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, penned a letter to University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel and the university’s board of regents, urging the administration to crack down on academic boycotts of Israel among faculty members. The letter, which has been obtained by the Journal, began by acknowledging the university’s condemnation of anti-Israel boycotts and disciplining Professor John Cheney-Lippold for refusing to write a letter of recommendation for a student to study abroad in Israel. However, the groups were discouraged that the university will not commit to a thorough investigation of such academic boycotts. “It seems highly likely that other students have been affected by the political positions espoused––and adopted–– by these individuals in a way that would be discriminatory under your now-enumerated policy,” the letter states. Other tactics used in academic boycotts of Israel include rejecting academic events that are in anyway affiliated with Israel, programs at Israeli institutions and speeches given by Israeli officials. “We are concerned that faculty may advance the academic boycott at their students’ expense without any accountability or oversight,” the letter states. “For example, a student may spend countless hours under faculty supervision researching and drafting a scholarly paper with a goal of publication, only to have the faculty member refuse to review the final product because the student chooses to publish the article in a journal based at or in collaboration with an Israeli university.” The letter noted that there was recently a town hall on campus that was sponsored by university academic departments and promoted the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. “In light of this report, we are deeply concerned that these faculty may take further steps in support of BDS that discriminate against and disadvantage pro-Israel and Jewish students,” the letter stated. “Without a broad institutional commitment to combating the effects of BDS activism by professors and academics at the University of Michigan, students will be left with little recourse.” The letter concluded, “It is imperative that your administration clarify its current policy to reflect zero-tolerance for faculty discrimination and efforts to limit student educational opportunities––whether the conduct is inspired or advanced by BDS or by any other discriminatory movement or government. In particular, it is vital that university policy spell out the potential ramifications for faculty who interfere with a student’s academic privileges and/or opportunities based on that faculty member’s personal political views–– and not based on the student’s academic merit.” Original Article
On October 30th, the LDB chapter at Northeastern University School of Law will host Amanda Berman and Chloe Valdary for an event titled “Progressivism, Identity, and the Law: A Round-Table Discussion with Chloe Valdary and Amanda Berman.” Berman is the Director of Legal Affairs at The Lawfare Project. In addition to her role as an attorney, she liaises with the American and international Jewish community on behalf of the Lawfare Project and maintains relationships with LP supporters, donors and clients. Valdary currently serves as Director of Partnerships and Outreach for Jerusalem U and as a Shillman Fellow. She has previously served as a Robert L. Bartley Fellow and Tikvah Fellow at the Wall Street Journal. Additionally, she has been featured on outlets like PragerU, CAMERA on Campus, The Times of Israel, and The Wallstreet Journal.
On October 29th, the LDB chapter at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law will host Professor Amos N. Guiora; and on October 30th, the LDB Chapter at Chicago-Kent College of Law will host Prof. Guiora, to discuss issues and arguments from his internationally acclaimed book The Crime of Complicity. He is a Professor of Law at the University of Utah SJ Quinney College of Law and is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Israel Defense Forces. As the son of two Holocaust survivors, he became interested in the historical consequences of bystanders, and brings the issue into current perspective. His accomplishments include being asked to discuss his recent book The Crime of Complicity at Wannsee Villa, the very site where the German government ratified the plan for the Final Solution. He has also been invited by the German military to train commanders on issues relevant to “orality in armed conflict,” perhaps most ironic given his family’s history. He has recently been published in the Washington Post discussing the German government’s role in combating its country’s new wave of anti-Semitism.
Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the Squirrel Hill Jewish community and the families of the victims of the horrific anti-Semitic shooting that took place yesterday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This violent act of hate represents the actualization of one of the community’s greatest fears, undermining the sense of security of American Jews at prayer in the synagogue. May the pain and the horror serve to unite us and strengthen our resolve to combat anti-Semitism and ethnic racism in all its forms. We must redouble our efforts to combat this scourge that runs counter to the values of freedom, tolerance, respect and human dignity upon which our great country was established. We remember the victims: Joyce Feinberg, 75 Richard Gottfried, 65 Rose Mallinger, 97 Jerry Rabinowitz, 66 Cecil Rosenthal, 59 (brother) David Rosenthal, 54 (brother) Bernice Simon, 84 (wife) Sylvan Simon, 86 (husband) Daniel Stein, 71 Melvin Wax, 88 Irving Younger, 69 May their memory be a blessing. ### About The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law: The Louis D. Brandeis Center, Inc., or LDB, is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. The Brandeis Center conducts research, education, and advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses. It is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice. Support: The Louis D. Brandeis Center carries out its work through generous contributions from community members who are concerned about the well-being of Jewish students and the Jewish community. Contributions to the Brandeis Center are tax-deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and can be made securely online or through personal or foundation checks.
On October 24th, the LDB chapter at UCLA School of Law will host Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer to Rabbi Gross-Schaefer is a Professor of Marketing and Business Law at the College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University. He previously taught at Western States School of Law, Boston University and USC. He is a past president of the Pacific Southwest Academy of Legal Studies, representative to National Conference of the Pacific Southwest Region of Reform Rabbis, and a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He is also a member of the California State Bar Association and the California Society of Public Accountants and has earned more than a dozen teaching awards and published over 150 articles.