On March 24, Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin presented a webinar titled “Responses and Solutions to Jew Hatred on Campus” hosted by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF). In her webinar, Lewin discussed the issues presented by modern-day anti-Semitism, then explained the Brandeis Center’s legal approaches to combat anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment on college campuses in the U.S. . According to Lewin, many people do not understand what anti-Semitism looks like today: “If anti-Semitism is society’s oldest hatred, why does it seem so difficult for society to recognize the Jew hatred that our students, our faculty, staff, employees are experiencing, particularly on these university campuses?” The anti-Semitism that most people recognize is anti-Semitism relating to the Holocaust, she pointed out. People understand that swastikas and Nazis are anti-Semitic. Additionally, if someone is targeted specifically because they look Jewish or practice Judaism, most people will recognize that as anti-Semitism. “But much beyond that, many people do not recognize today’s anti-Semitism,” she expressed. . The reason that anti-Semitism may be unrecognizable to many today is because it changes across generations. “It is difficult to recognize because it morphs,” Lewin stated. “It looks a little different in every generation. There is one constant, however, and that one constant is that no matter what the generation, no matter what the era, what anti-Semitism does is it takes whatever that society, whatever that generation, that period views as its worst misfortune as the evil that has to be confronted and it scapegoats the Jew. The Jew becomes the cause of that misfortune.” This process has always been used to ‘other’ the Jew, to push the Jew out, to deny Jews their place in society. In this generation, Lewin expressed, society’s worst offenses are racism, apartheid, and settler colonialism – all of which the Jewish people and Israel have been accused. Traditional anti-Semitism sought to target Jews as individuals, she noted, but the new anti-Semitism seeks to target Jews as a collective, taking aim at the only Jewish state and treating it as the worst offender of society’s evils. . The most common ways the new anti-Semitism manifests itself are through anti-Zionism and opposition to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Anti-Zionists claim that their rhetoric is not anti-Semitic, but as Lewin showed, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. This is because many Jews see Zionism as an integral part of their Jewish identity – as important to them as keeping the Sabbath and a kosher diet. Zionism is not, as many anti-Zionists claim, a political ideology or a synonym for racism. Rather, it is a sense of Jewish peoplehood that Jews across the world share. It is the connected history and shared homeland of the Jewish people. Connection with the land of Israel is part of Jewish identity for many Jews. Over half of the 613 commandments in the Torah refer to the land of Israel and can only be fulfilled in the land of Israel. The Jewish people have been historically pressured to shed their Zionist identity, to turn away from their sense of peoplehood. On this basis, anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism: “People have to understand that when Jews express this part of their Jewish identity, they can’t be excluded on that basis, they can’t be shunned on that basis.” . Anti-Zionism has been a persistent issue on campus, and one that has been difficult to tackle. Campus administrators wrongly see anti-Semitism as a political debate between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, believing they are prohibited from getting involved because of free speech. This non-involvement from campus administrators has blinded them to the anti-Semitism that Jewish students, faculty, and staff face. As Lewin states: “Any student who expresses support for the existence of the Jewish homeland, who believes that Israel has a right to exist as the Jewish homeland, that Jews have the right to exercise the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. . . . As long as they say they support Israel, the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, they are marginalized, they are excluded, they are shunned. We have seen students who have been pushed out of their positions on student government, in clubs – clubs that they created….People have turned on them and cut them off. Why? Because it has become clear that they are Zionists. And as soon as one accepts that label, that they are a Zionist, that they believe and take pride in the Jews’ shared ancestry and ethnicity, they take pride in their belonging to the Jewish people, they are treated as pariahs.” That is not an issue of legitimate debate, but instead an issue of discrimination and harassment. . Jewish students are not the only ones to deal with anti-Semitism on campus. In one instance, the Brandeis Center filed a Title VII complaint against Stanford University. A campus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) group placed Jewish employees in a white affinity group during trainings and told them to keep their whiteness in check, while promoting anti-Semitic stereotypes. These programs have inadvertently promoted anti-Semitism by ignoring Jewish history, Jewish heritage and the complexity of Jewish identity and instead portraying Jews as white supremacists and colonial settlers. Like anti-Semitism emanating from students, this anti-Semitism has also gone unchecked by university administrators. . After outlining some of the issues raised by today’s anti-Semitism, Lewin explained the ways that the Brandeis Center has been fighting back, including educating universities on their legal obligation to protect Jewish students, and utilizing the law to motivate university administrations to act when anti-Semitism occurs on campus. In some cases, such as with the University of Illinois, the Brandeis Center worked directly with the school to issue a joint statement addressing anti-Semitism on campus and ways in which it will be addressed in the future. LDB also uses its JIGSAW Initiative (Justice Initiative Guiding Student Activists Worldwide) to teach law students best practices for addressing campus anti-Semitism. This includes teaching JIGSAW fellows relevant areas of the law and how to support undergraduate students in bringing complaints of anti-Semitism to administrators. . One of the most effective practices for the Brandeis Center is using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to combat campus anti-Semitism. Title VI protects against discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in public and private institutions that receive federal funding. If an institution does not comply, it risks losing its federal funding. For nearly two decades, LDB has advanced the most significant legal protections for American Jews this century. The “Marcus Doctrine,” named for LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, who served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights in two U.S. administrations, established that federal civil rights law protects Jews and members of other faiths when they are targeted due to their ancestry or ethnicity. The Brandeis Center has used this legal doctrine to protect the rights of Jewish students, faculty and staff at numerous institutions, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Southern California, Tufts University and Brooklyn College. Other organizations are now similarly utilizing the Marcus Doctrine. In 2019, President Trump signed an executive order on combatting anti-Semitism which adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition on anti-Semitism. As Lewin discussed LDB’s legal approaches, she declared, “We should be able to use [the Civil Rights] laws and make it clear that they apply to Jews in this situation.” . One of the most important things, according to Lewin, which can be done to combat anti-Semitism is to educate about Jewish history and culture. She mentioned that this promotes better understanding of Judaism and the Jewish people because: “there has to be an identity that we feel we have that’s worth fighting for.” One thing that Lewin stressed would be learned from studying Jewish history and culture is about the origins of social justice. “All of these notions of social justice: “These principles that we’re fighting for, you know where they originate? In our history, in our culture. In the Bible, in our philosophy. That’s where it starts.” . Lewin’s webinar emphasized the impact that the Brandeis Center has in the fight against anti-Semitism. It has pushed campus administrators to have a more critical view of the anti-Semitism that is occurring on campus, and it has empowered students to be proud of their Jewish identity. Lewin encouraged listeners to embrace Jewish identity and stand up for who they are: “The best answer to harassment and discrimination is self-confidence and pride.” . You can watch Lewin’s webinar here. The Brandeis Center is also excerpting the webinar into smaller TikTok posts here. . To contact the Brandeis Center regarding anti-Semitism on campus, email info@brandeiscenter.com.