Published by CBS Colorado on 12/3/23; Story by Michael Abeyta

While the Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference for Israel wrapped up on Sunday, a local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace held a march that shut down part of Speer Boulevard in Denver.

“Our Jewish values tell us that all life is sacred,” said Siena Mann with Jewish Voice for Peace. “That we should fight for peace.”

All week, pro-Palestinian protestors picketed the conference, which was held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Several people at the conference say they felt threatened.

“They called out saying, ‘Yuval David we’re watching you. We know where you live. Die jew die,'” said Yuval David, a Jewish activist.

From Left to Right: Yuval David, Zoe Mardiks, Jake Stone, Virag Gulyas, and Alyza Lewin
 From Left to Right: Yuval David, Zoe Mardiks, Jake Stone, Virag Gulyas, and Alyza Lewin

“The fact that they were here protesting peacefully was very questionable,” said Virag Gulyas, the head of the JNF speakers bureau.

The conference attendees shared a photo of a protestor with a sign reading “Palestinian liberation by any means necessary” as evidence.

“They are looking to erase and eradicate the one and only Jewish homeland the right to self-determination in any borders,” said Alyza Lewin, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

Organizers for the protests say that the person in the photo is not affiliated with the Colorado Palestinians, Jewish Voice for Peace or the Party for Socialism and Liberation; the organizers of the action against the JNF.

They say their message is being purposefully misconstrued by Israel’s supporters who attended the conference.

“We’ve never been calling for the destruction of Israel by any means possible,” said Reema Wahdan with the Colorado Palestinian Coalition. “We are asking for the freedom of Palestinians by any means possible which means allowing us to have basic human rights.”

They say they were harassed and attacked just like the conferencegoers were. They shared a photo of a conferencegoer wearing a threatening shirt he was displaying to them while they protested Sunday.

Stefan Oberman, a JNF spokesperson, said the man pictured on the left was “absolutely not an attendee” of the conference and the man on the right with a conference lanyard “was a participant though holds no role within our organization.” The man on the right told JNF the other man unzipped his hoodie just as protesters took a photo, according to Oberman.

After an emotional week, they just want safety for all people and denounce hate.

“That is not what we want in this issue. We want peace,” said Zoe Mardiks, a CU Boulder student who attended the conference.

“We’ve been always on the side of peace, and you can see our coalition of members who have been united on that front of peaceful messaging for Palestinians and Israelis,” said Wahdan.

Published by Jewish Insider on 11/28/23; Story by Haley Cohen

UC Berkeley professor: ‘There’s a group of students who feel free to say the nastiest slurs as long as they substitute Zionist for Jew’

Citing claims of a “longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism” on the University of California, Berkeley’s campus, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a complaint on behalf of Jewish students on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that the campus is a “hotbed of anti-Jewish hostility and harassment,” Jewish Insider has learned.

The lawsuit, which names the University of California (UC) Regents, UC President Michael Drake, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and other officials as defendants, claims that since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, antisemitism has been exacerbated at the school — citing several on-campus incidents of intimidation, harassment and physical violence against Jewish students.

UC Berkeley Jewish students wrote in the complaint that the school does so little to protect Jewish students, it feels as if the school is condoning antisemitism. They added that officials at the university display a “general disregard” for Jewish students.

“The concerns of Jewish students are not being taken seriously and incidents that are affecting Jewish students are not being treated the same as incidents that would affect another targeted minority on campus,” Hannah Schlacter, an MBA student at the school, told JI.

The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by JI, details a pro-Palestinian rally following Oct. 7 in which a Jewish undergraduate who was draped in an Israeli flag was attacked by two protesters who struck him in the head with a metal water bottle.

It further cites that Jewish students and Jewish faculty are receiving hate mail calling for their gassing and murder, and claims that many Jewish students report feeling afraid to go to class. Pro-Palestinian protesters, the suit continues, disrupted a prayer gathering by Jewish students and blocked the main entrance to campus, and a faculty member went on an 18-minute anti-Israel rant in front of roughly 1,000 freshmen in his lecture class.

“Frankly, I’m not sure why a Jewish student would come to [Berkeley] law school,” UCB professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, who teaches an undergraduate class on antisemitism in the law, told JI. “There’s a group of students who feel free to say the nastiest slurs as long as they substitute Zionist for Jew and they repeatedly do that while the administration refuses to take steps to condemn it, to conduct training, to take measures they would take if it was discrimination against other minorities, and it’s disappointing,” he said, calling the lawsuit a “last resort.”

UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky acknowledged rising antisemitism at the school in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. “I am a 70-year-old Jewish man, but never in my life have I seen or felt the antisemitism of the last few weeks.” He noted that, “[t]wo weeks ago, at a town hall, a student told me that what would make her feel safe in the law school would be to ‘get rid of the Zionists.’” He added he had “heard several times that I have been called ‘part of a Zionist conspiracy,’ which echoes antisemitic tropes that have been expressed for centuries.”

Schlacter, who testified about antisemitism on campus to the University of California Board of Regents earlier this month, said, “When we look at the policy in place, it appears the policy is not being enforced for issues affecting Jewish students. When it isn’t enforced for our situation but is for other situations, that to me is discrimination.”

“Moreover, policy not being enforced sends a message that when there are hate crimes against Jewish students, that is accepted because it will be swept under the rug,” she continued. “We’ve made efforts to speak to the administration and do not feel like we are taken seriously. There’s a disconnect between the asks students are making [and] the actions the administration is taking.”

After Schlacter and other students met with UC Regents, the board committed $7 million to combating antisemitism and Islamophobia. “Seven million dollars distributed across 10 campuses per year, I’m not sure how far that will go,” she said. “Also, throwing money at the problem is not getting to the root, which is that Jewish students are being treated differently and policies are not being enforced when there’s Jewish students involved.”

Schlacter said she does not want to see the campus anti-Israel group, Bears for Palestine, named for the school’s mascot, shut down, as several other schools have done with chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. “Disbanding those groups is not a long-term solution,” she said. “The long-term solution is looking at culture across the UC system. Why is there hostility and how do we combat that in the culture? What programs and initiatives can we launch to have a more truly inclusive culture?”

Schlacter said she would like to see the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office employees be trained on identifying antisemitism.

UCB Chabad Rabbi Gil Leeds, who is also a UCB alum and has served as the campus Chabad rabbi since 2007, said the antisemitism situation is worse than it’s ever been at the school. “Jewish students assaulted at rallies is a whole new level of hostilities that we haven’t seen,” Leeds said, noting that several students involved with Chabad are from Israel. “Police are scared to get involved because they are worried about greater violence. That shows you what we’re dealing with.”

Leeds said there has been “tremendous fear and trepidation,” particularly last month when National SJP called for a “Day of Resistance” at campuses nationwide. “Our armed guard that day came prepared with tear gas, everything he thought he would need… the company that we contacted would not agree to send us an unarmed guard, that’s the level of intensity.”

The lawsuit states that while antisemitism has increased since Oct. 7, it has long been prevalent on campus. It cites a decision last year by nine law school student organizations to amend their constitutions with a bylaw that bans any pro-Israel speaker. The numbers have now swelled to 23 groups, including academic journals that prohibit Zionists from publishing and pro-bono organizations that prevent Jewish students from receiving hands-on legal experience, training, supervision and mentorship.

The ban denies Jewish law students networking opportunities provided to others; deprives them of earning pro-bono hours for state bar requirements; curtails their avenues for developing and improving legal research, writing, and editing skills; and limits their choices for obtaining academic credits towards graduation, according to the lawsuit, which notes this is all illegal under federal law and university policies.

”The situation at Berkeley has deteriorated to the point that something really needs to be done beyond just raising awareness. We’re facing antisemitism at campuses around the country, but Berkeley is especially bad. Of all places, Berkeley had a number of warnings that they needed to address antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and yet they failed to heed them,” said Kenneth Marcus, the Brandeis Center founder and a Berkeley Law school alum.

While the situation that was highlighted last year focused on the law school, Marcus said “it has certainly spread far beyond that and we have been getting reports throughout the university, including the undergraduate institution.”

According to the complaint, Berkeley’s acquiescence to these discriminatory policies has helped give antisemitism free reign on campus in violation of the law. “This suit targets the longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism at the University of California Berkeley, which, following the October 7 Hamas attacks, has erupted in on-campus displays of hatred, harassment, and physical violence against Jews,” states the complaint. “Court interventIon is now needed to protect students and faculty and to end this anti-Semitc discrimination and harassment, which violates University policy, federal civil rights laws, and the U.S. Constitution.”

Earlier this month, the Brandeis Center, the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel International and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP launched the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), a free legal protection helpline for college students who have experienced antisemitism.

“After Oct. 7 there’s been a lack of moral leadership but when you look more closely, Jewish students [at Berkeley] have been discriminated against for well over a year,” the ADL’s Central Pacific regional director, Marc Levine, told JI. “It wasn’t just demonstration in support of Hamas’ attacks that this began. Student groups already were actively banning Zionists from participating in their activities.”

Levine, a former California State assembly member, called on local politicians to hold the University of California accountable for the “gutless response to antisemitism on campus.”

Published by Politico on 11/28/23; Story by Bianca Quilantan

The 36-page lawsuit argues that UC Berkeley and its law school’s inaction on discrimination against Jewish students has led to a spread of antisemitism.

Jewish groups are suing the University of California system, UC Berkeley and its leaders over what they are calling a “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism.”

The 36-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday by the Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, argues that Berkeley and its law school’s “inaction” on discrimination against Jewish students has led to a spread of antisemitism, and violence and harassment against them. Demonstrations and incidents on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel serve as examples of the discrimination, according to the complaint.

The complaint is among the first high-profile lawsuits against a university in the aftermath of the protests that roiled campuses in response to the conflict in the Middle East.

Jewish groups are suing over policies enacted by at least 23 Berkeley Law student groups that exclude students from joining or bar guest speakers from presenting if they do not agree to disavow Israel or if they identify as Zionists. They argue that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism and say that the policies violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, the First Amendment right to freedom of religion, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and more.

“Conditioning a Jew’s ability to participate in a student group on his or her renunciation of a core component of Jewish identity is no less pernicious than demanding the renunciation of some other core element of a student’s identity — whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual identity,” the lawsuit said. “No such imposition is required — or would be remotely tolerated — of other students.”

The groups are accusing Berkeley and the UC system of inaction against the policies that “betray” Jewish students and faculty. They argue that the student group policies violate a university policy that prohibits registered student groups, including law school groups, from imposing membership restrictions based on race, color, national origin and religion.

The Jewish groups want the court to intervene and require the university and university system to enforce their policies and prohibit discrimination against Jewish students, faculty and invited speakers. They say that Berkeley has suggested that the student group policies discriminate on the basis of viewpoint and not race, ethnicity or religion, but campus leaders have also acknowledged that the policies can be “deeply upsetting to some Jewish members.”

“By abdicating responsibility and failing to act as required by UC rules and U.S. law, the university has enabled the normalization of anti-Jewish hatred on campus,” the lawsuit said. “Jewish students feel compelled to hide their identities.”

Additionally, the groups say that the university has failed to address antisemitic incidents on campus following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. They said students’ celebrations of the Hamas attacks resulted in violence against Jewish students. A Jewish student draped in an Israeli flag was attacked by protesters who hit him in the head with a metal water bottle, according to the complaint, and some Jews have received “hate e-mails calling for their gassing and murder.” Jewish students have also said they are afraid to attend class because of the protests.

“Students stated that the school does so little to protect Jewish students, it feels as if the school were condoning anti-Semitism,” the complaint said. “They added that officials at the university display a ‘general disregard’ for Jewish students. … They have little confidence that UC will protect them from anti-Semitic mobs.”

Contact: Nicole Rosen 202-309-5724

Once a Beacon of Civil Rights, Berkeley Now Home to Physical Intimidation and Violence Against Jews and 23 Orgs that Ban “Zionists”

Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2023:  The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is suing the University of California (UC) Regents, UC President Michael Drake, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, and other officials, for the “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism” on Berkeley’s campus that has resulted in a current hotbed of anti-Jewish hostility and harassment. The complaint was filed today in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Since Oct. 7 anti-Semitism has run rampant at the school, according to the Brandeis Center. Reported for the very first time in this complaint are numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and physical violence against Jewish students.

For example, during one of the numerous rallies held at UC Berkeley celebrating Hamas, a Jewish undergraduate draped in an Israeli flag was set upon by two protesters who struck him in the head with a metal water bottle. Jewish students and faculty are receiving hate mail calling for their gassing and murder.  Many Jewish students report feeling afraid to go to class.

Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a prayer gathering by Jewish students. Pro-Palestinian rallies blocked the main entrance to campus.   And a UC Berkeley faculty member went on an anti-Israel rant for 18 minutes, with roughly 1,000 freshman as his captive audience.

Students participating in the pro-Hamas rallies have spouted hatred and threats against Jews, harassed Jewish students, demanded the dismantling of Israel, honored Hamas “martyrs” who were killed while butchering Jewish civilians, and chanted phrases such as “intifada, intifada,” condoning violence against Jews, and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” calls for the elimination of Israel and the eradication of the 7 million Jews that live there.

UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky acknowledges the rampant anti-Semitism at his school, writing recently, “I am a 70-year-old Jewish man, but never in my life have I seen or felt the antisemitism of the last few weeks.” He noted that, “[t]wo weeks ago, at a town hall, a student told me that what would make her feel safe in the law school would be to ‘get rid of the Zionists.’” He added he had “heard several times that I have been called ‘part of a Zionist conspiracy,’ which echoes antisemitic tropes that have been expressed for centuries.”

UC Berkely Jewish students shared in the complaint that the school does so little to protect Jewish students, it feels as if the school is condoning anti-Semitism. They added that officials at the university display a “general disregard” for Jewish students. Indeed, many Jewish students have reported feeling afraid to go to class during the pro-Hamas rallies because they have little confidence UC will protect them from anti-Semitic mobs.

“The anti-Semitism Berkeley’s Jewish students find themselves embroiled in today did not start on Oct. 7,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for the Bush and Trump administrations, current founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, and a graduate of UC Berkeley’s law school.  “It is a direct result of Berkeley’s leadership repeatedly turning a blind eye to unfettered Jew-hatred.  The school is quick to address other types of hatred, but why not anti-Semitism?  Berkeley, once a beacon of free speech, civil rights, and equal treatment of persons regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and sexual preference, is heading down a very different and dangerous path from the one I proudly attended as a Jewish law student.”

The most prominent example of pre-Oct. 7 willful blindness Marcus is referring to, and a primary focus of this lawsuit, is a decision last year by nine law student organizations to amend their constitutions with a bylaw that bans all Zionist speakers.  The numbers have now swelled to 23 groups, including academic journals that prohibit Zionists from publishing and pro-bono organizations that prevent Jewish students from receiving hands-on legal experience, training, supervision and mentorship. The Zionist ban denies Jewish law students networking opportunities provided to others; deprives them of earning pro-bono hours for state bar requirements; curtails their avenues for developing and improving legal research, writing, and editing skills; and limits their choices for obtaining academic credits towards graduation.  This is all illegal under federal law and university policies.

It has become commonplace for persons seeking to disguise their anti-Semitism to use the word “Zionists” to mean Jews. The Biden National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism notes that, “[w]hen Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism.”  The White House explains that protection of Jews as a religious, national and ethnic group includes protection from anti-Israel bias and discrimination.  Anti-Zionism is different from criticism of Israel or opposition to the policies of the Israeli government.  Anti-Zionism rejects the very right of Israel to exist and denies Jews the fundamental right to self-determination. A Pew survey found that 80% of Jews view Israel as integral to their Jewish identity. Dean Chemerinsky himself has acknowledged the ban excludes “90 percent or more” of Jewish students at Berkeley law.

While UC Berkeley leaders have repeatedly acknowledged the Zionist ban is blatant anti-Semitism, they have done nothing to address it.  This has allowed anti-Jewish bigotry to normalize and escalate.

The UC leaders have, instead, excused the discrimination as “viewpoint discrimination,” protected, they claim, by the First Amendment.  The lawsuit makes abundantly clear, however, that UC Berkeley leaders’ choice to ignore discriminatory behavior violates federal law and university policies.  According to the Brandeis Center, the discriminatory ban does not exclude individuals based on viewpoint because it has nothing to do with anything a given speaker might say or author might write.  Instead it excludes Zionist speakers because of who they are.

“Making Jews renounce that core component of their identity to participate in a student organization is no different than asking members of the LGBTQ community to remain ‘in the closet’ as the cost of membership—a cost that is not imposed on other students who are free to participate fully in those organizations without disavowing or hiding their identities,” stated Rachel Lerman, vice chair and general counsel at the Brandeis Center and also a graduate of UC Berkeley Law School.

According to the complaint, Berkeley’s acquiescence to these discriminatory policies has helped give anti-Semitism free reign on campus in violation of the law.  “This suit targets the longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism at the University of California Berkeley, which, following the October 7 Hamas attacks, has erupted in on-campus displays of hatred, harassment, and physical violence against Jews,” states the complaint.  “Court intervention is now needed to protect students and faculty and to end this anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment, which violates University policy, federal civil rights laws, and the U.S. Constitution.”

Earlier this month, the Brandeis Center, along with the ADL, Hillel International, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and other leading law firms and Jewish organizations, launched the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), a free legal protection helpline for college students who have experienced antisemitism. Over the past month, the Brandeis Center has filed two Title VI complaints with the U.S. Department of Education against the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Wellesley College, and sent a strong legal warning to Harvard University regarding its failure to take action against a professor that Harvard itself admitted had discriminated against Jewish Israeli students.  Two weeks ago the Department of Education announced it was formally investigating Brandeis’ UPenn and Wellesley complaints.

The Department of Education recently reached an unprecedented agreement with the University of Vermont to address growing antisemitism on its campus in response to a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center on behalf of UVM Jewish students, and, in addition to UPenn and Wellesley, the Department of Education is investigating another four pending Brandeis Center complaints at SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California (USC), Brooklyn College, and the University of Illinois.

To view this press release as a PDF, click here.

This is the default image

Time: Thu Nov 30, 2023, 12:15 pm – 2:00 pm

Location: 1170 Eck Hall, McCartan Courtroom

On November 30, Notre Dame Law School Professors Avishalom Tor and Stephanie Barclay will host the event, “The Rising Tide of Antisemitism on American Campuses and Beyond” at the McCartan Courtroom in Eck Hall of Law.

The panel discussion includes a keynote address delivered by Professor Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature Emerita at Harvard University.

The panelists include:

Ken Marcus, Esq., Chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law


Most Reverend Robert J. McClory, Bishop of the Diocese of Gary


Professor Jeffrey Veidlinger, Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan

The event will begin with an introduction from Professor Avishalom Tor, Professor of Law and Director of the Notre Dame Program on Law and Market Behavior (ND LAMB) at Notre Dame Law School.

The opening remarks will be delivered by Dean G. Marcus Cole, Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Professor Stephanie Barclay, Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School and Faculty Director of the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Initiative.

We hope that you will join us on November 30 for this timely discussion.

Submit a question for Kenneth L. Marcus via the Google Form on the event’s page at Notre Dame’s The Law School’s website.

The Brandeis Brief: December 2023

This month, the U.S. Education Department announced it opened civil rights investigations at the University of Pennsylvania and Wellesley College in response to anti-Semitism complaints filed by the Brandeis Center and Jewish On Campus. Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus testified three times before Congress about the recent rise in campus anti-Semitism. And responding to the eruption of anti-Semitism on campus after the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, the Brandeis Center, along with leading Jewish organizations and law firms launched a free legal protection helpline providing pro bono legal services to Jewish students, faculty and staff.

Education Department will Investigate Anti-Semitism Complaints filed by the Brandeis Center against the University of Pennsylvania and Wellesley

The Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened investigations into anti-Semitism at the University of Pennsylvania and Wellesley College. OCR announced the two investigations one week after the Brandeis Center filed Title VI complaints against both schools.

The Brandeis Center and Jewish on Campus jointly filed the anti-Semitism complaint against Wellesley college, where the university’s residential staff excluded Jewish students from a residential hall by sending an email to students stating “there is no space for Zionists” in the Wellesley community.

The University of Pennsylvania’s failure to adequately address repeated instances of anti-Semitism on its campus before October 7, has resulted in more anti-Semitism after the Hamas attacks and made the campus a magnet for anti-Semites in the local community.

“These colleges and universities have failed to keep Jewish students safe and are in clear violation of well-established federal civil rights law,” stated Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “We’re encouraged to see the investigations into UPenn and Wellesley move forward, and we thank Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon and her team at OCR for their prompt attention to this matter. “This might be a sign that OCR just gets it,” Marcus added. “They’re moving so quickly that it seems like they’re actually trying to send a message, whether to the Jewish community or to higher education, or to both. OCR seldom moves this quickly and to open this many cases as a batch really does send a signal.”

“I want students to know that if they encounter any other anti-Semitic incidents or if they feel frightened that they should contact [the Brandeis Center], because we can always send in [updates] to the complaint,” LDB staff attorney and Penn alumna Deena Margolies told Penn’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Kenneth L. Marcus is absolutely right,” wrote ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “There’s been a lot of talk about rooting out anti-Semitism on campuses, and it’s time to hold these colleges accountable.”

Kenneth L. Marcus Testifies before Congress About Rise in Campus anti-Semitism

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus testified before Congress about surging campus anti-Semitism on three occasions in the last two weeks.

On November 8, Chairman Marcus spoke before the House Judiciary Committee hearing “Free Speech on College Campuses,” which examined how schools should respond to hostile speech on campus. It also explored the rise in anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiment, and violence toward students supporting Israel.

One day later, Chairman Marcus testified before a Senate roundtable discussion, examining the rising rates of anti-Semitic harassment and violence on college campuses, led by U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The roundtable also reviewed the Biden administration’s legal responsibility to protect Jewish students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – a policy known as the “Marcus Doctrine.”

And on November 14, Chairman Marcus testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development in a hearing titled “Confronting the Scourge of Antisemitism on Campus.” The hearing examined the increase of anti-Semitism on college campuses in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel.

“When the problem is exceptional and unprecedented, the solutions need to be unprecedented and exceptional,” Marcus told the latter committee, emphasizing the need for the Biden administration to be more proactive in opening new investigations before complaints are even filed.

Sacramento Bee Cites Alyza D. Lewin’s Work about the Targeting of Jewish Identity on Campus

In a recent op-ed about anti-Jewish hostility on campus, the Sacramento Bee cited President Alyza D. Lewin’s column in Sapir Magazine about the failures of college administrators to protect Jewish students:

“Most university administrators do not appreciate that Judaism is an ethno-religion, a belief system inextricably connected to cultural heritage, traditions, history and land,” Lewin wrote. “The connection between Jews and the Land of Israel permeates the Jewish calendar, Jewish life-cycle events, Jewish law, Jewish prayer and Jewish history.”

The author highlighted Lewin’s helpful analogy illustrating the double standards applied to Jewish students: Would campus administrators “permit student clubs to demand that Catholics disavow the Vatican or that Muslims shed their connection to Mecca in order to be accepted. Or would the administrators recognize that such a demand is discriminatory, biased and immoral?”

Kenneth L. Marcus Criticizes OCR For its Tame Response to Campus Anti-Semitism Surge

After a call with other Jewish American community organization leaders and top U.S. Dept. of Education officials, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus criticized the lack of urgency and action by officials to meet the unprecedented surge of campus anti-Semitism following the Hamas October 7 Massacre.

“They did not give us a plan to deal with an unprecedented surge in anti-Semitic activity,” declared Chairman Marcus. Instead, Marcus said, the Education Department leaders on the call touted insufficient steps already taken by the Biden administration and expressed concern about the problem without offering many new approaches.

“It’s notable when two such high officials of the Education Department are present,” Marcus continued. “But beyond that, I would say that the meeting was most notable for the absence of a significant plan for addressing this extraordinary problem.”

Regarding a “Dear Colleague” letter OCR sent, reminding universities to address anti-Semitism, Marcus said: “They should get credit for sending a letter, but they could have sent something much stronger. I was also hoping that the administration would communicate publicly more of the concern that they are sharing privately.”

The Brandeis Center and Leading Jewish Organizations Launch Free Legal Protection Helpline for Campus Anti-Semitism

In response to the surge of anti-Semitic incidents on campus following the October 7 Hamas attacks, the Brandeis Center, ADL, Hillel International and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP launched a helpline providing pro bono legal services for students and faculty experiencing anti-Semitism on campus.

Students, family, faculty or staff members who experience anti-Semitic harassment, intimidation, discrimination, vandalism or violence can contact the helpline, which is staffed by a team of volunteer attorneys who will conduct in-depth interviews and information gathering, assess potential cases, and provide pro bono legal representation to victims who want to take legal action.

Contact the helpline (CALL) by texting “CALLhelp” to the number 51555 or online at legal-protection.org.

“The frightening incidents we’re seeing on campus today did not start on Oct. 7. They are a direct result of far too many universities failing in their legal responsibility to promptly, publicly and forcefully address the anti-Semitism that has been simmering on their campus for years,” stated Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin. “This explosion of Jew-hatred was foreseeable and preventable. It’s high time for universities to enforce the law and protect their Jewish students.”

LDB Sends Legal Warning to Harvard, Demanding Immediate Action

In response to action by the Brandeis Center last March, Harvard University found that a professor at its Kennedy School discriminated against three Jewish Israeli graduate students in violation of its own policies and federal civil rights guidance under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Since then, Harvard has not only failed to address the anti-Semitism among its faculty, but its leaders even publicly touted the anti-Semitic professor recently as a civil rights hero.

This prompted LDB to send a strongly-worded legal warning to Harvard’s general counsel, demanding the school take the prompt action required under law.

“This failure, on top of other failures of leadership, have set the stage for the worsening climate that we have seen for Jewish Harvard students since [Oct. 7],” wrote the Brandeis Center, referring to numerous events of late, including the support more than 30 Harvard student groups recently expressed for Hamas, rallies attended by students and faculty celebrating Hamas’ barbaric acts, the posting of Hamas paratrooper images to intimidate Jewish students, and the university’s own equating of Hamas terrorists and the IDF. “Harvard’s failure to speak out against anti-Semitism masked as anti-Zionism has only emboldened the student groups who are now celebrating Hamas’ atrocities. The silence needs to end.”

“It’s extraordinary that Harvard on the one hand is willing to acknowledge that clients faced inappropriate discrimination and different treatment and yet is not taking meaningful action to address it,” stated Brandeis Center Chairman and Harvard Kennedy School alum Kenneth L. Marcus.

Kenneth L. Marcus Blitzes Airwaves to Defend Jewish Students and Prompt Govt. Action to Protect Them

During the same period where Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus testified before Congress on the surge of campus anti-Semitism, Marcus also sat for three national television interviews to hammer home the problem and elicit more effective action from the U.S. Dept. of Education – or if needed, Congress itself.

Marcus spoke on Fox News November 11, telling host Mark Levin that the Dept. of Education has the power to initiate investigations of campus anti-Semitism on its own without waiting for complaints to be filed: “That is the whole purpose for why we have an agency called OCR. That’s the agency that I formerly ran. And its sole obligation is to make sure that federal funds are not used to support discriminatory behavior,” Marcus asserted. “It does this on a whole host of other issues. It needs to do it with anti-Semitism.”

“The fact is that for Jewish Americans, the entire world has changed….They’re watching their classmates and in some cases their professors ‘exhilarated’ by mass slaughter of Jews,” Marcus told Elizabeth Vargas on the Newsnation network on November 14. “We have more [Title VI civil rights complaints] that we will be filing in the coming weeks. But the Dept. of Education shouldn’t just wait for our cases. [It] has the power to initiate its own investigations.”

And on November 16, Marcus told Newsmax: “It’s a shame, because DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) programs are intended to protect minorities, and…are in some cases making the situation worse….The fundamental ideology that we see too often in DEI programs is based on assumptions that people are either oppressors or oppressed – and not only is anti-Semitism not part of that story, but when Jews are mentioned, it’s too often based on stereotypes about Jewish power…and actually fueling the hate that is aimed at the Jewish people.”

Surge in Campus anti-Semitism “Was Predictable,” Denise Katz-Prober Tells JewishLink

Addressing the eruption of anti-Semitic threats and violence directed at Jewish students in the wake of the Hamas October 7 Massacre, Brandeis Center Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober told news organization JewishLink: “This certainly did not happen in a vacuum.”

“The Brandeis Center has been warning for years that university administrators were not addressing the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on their campuses, and when you sweep it under the rug this is what happens,” stated Katz-Prober, who also revealed LDB has been deluged with inquiries from parents and faculty from K-12th grade through college since October 7.

“Frankly this was predictable,” Katz-Prober said, adding that university leaders failed to recognize that Jewish students have a shared connection to Israel, and that anti-Israel rhetoric is anti-Semitic, leading to Jewish students feeling unsafe and unsupported on their campuses. “When Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other groups are celebrating and even justifying Hamas’ atrocities when we know Hamas targeted innocent civilians, they are celebrating violence against Jews,” she noted. “And when university administrators do not forcefully condemn this, they are fostering a hostile atmosphere on campus for Israeli and Jewish students and contributing to a very real fear for their safety.”

Kenneth L. Marcus Tells SHRM How Companies Can Aid Jewish Employees in this Moment

Speaking to the Society for Human Resource Management, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus provided advice to HR professionals following the recent Hamas atrocities – helping them provide proactive support to Jewish employees who are grieving the tragedy in Israel and may experience anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hostility in the workplace.

Companies must realize that many Jewish and Palestinian employees are undergoing an “extraordinarily difficult time” emotionally, stated Chairman Marcus. “Employers need to understand that such emotions are impossible to keep entirely separated from the workplace,” he noted. Marcus said Jewish employees need employee resource groups (ERGs) now more than ever before, “and I suspect that this is also true for other groups.”

International Lawyer Cites Kenneth L. Marcus Article

A new Times of Israel blog by international lawyer Olivia Flasch, about recent condemnations of Israel that sometimes ignore the facts, quotes Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus’s article Accusation in Mirror:

“Suddenly we have shifted from complaints [of] self-defense, from demanding [our] rights to convinc[ing] the public that we are not depriving others of their rights […] How have we suddenly turned from persecuted into persecutors, from the weak into the strong and tyrannical, from the attacked into the infamous attackers, and from the poor into the rich exploiters? How did these lies become widespread, without us gaining any ground or improving our situation one whit?”

Brandeis Center Blogs

Brandeis Center interns and staff have also responded to the onslaught of anti-Jewish hate in Israel and around the world with prolific activity on the Brandeis Center blog.

Brandeis Center Policy Director Emma Enig recapped the congressional briefing she produced on the rise of American anti-Semitism following October 7. The event was LDB’s second-ever Capitol Hill briefing – and coming up quickly is its third on December 13.

Brandeis Center intern Bryn Schneider contextualized a recent letter from U.S. Reps. Kevin Kiley and Burgess Owens to OCR, demanding more concrete and prompt action to combat campus anti-Semitism – and how it furthers goals and ideas that had been recommended in prior testimony by the Brandeis Center.

And Brandeis Center intern Annabelle Enig authored two new pieces – one about the International Committee of the Red Cross’ refusal to take up the cause of liberating Israeli and international hostages held in Gaza, and another about LDB’s response to the Meta Oversight Board’s invitation for public comment on the issue of Holocaust denial on its platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Washington, D.C. (November 27, 2023) – The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (the Brandeis Center or LDB) today announces its relaunch as a membership organization, as well as the launch of its sister grassroots membership organization, Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education (JAFE). Membership is free. Those who want to join the Brandeis Center and its JAFE membership arm can do so by signing up here.

With the surge in campus anti-Semitism following the October 7 Hamas atrocities, many Jewish and allied students, faculty, and parents are seeking ways to support Jewish students on American universities and colleges. Becoming a member of the Brandeis Center and/or JAFE provides a crucial way to assist the Brandeis Center in holding campus administrators accountable for their legal obligations to keep Jewish students safe.

JAFE shares its mission with LDB – to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and to promote justice for all. In particular, JAFE’s mission is to eliminate anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination in education and to ensure fairness in education for Jewish, Israeli, and all Americans, through lawful means including litigation.

Establishing this non-voting membership organization will allow the Brandeis Center to better represent and assist students and faculty who have experienced anti-Semitic harassment or discrimination – because JAFE can protect their anonymity, should they wish not to be identified publicly. The Brandeis Center and JAFE will serve as plaintiff in lawsuits and other lawful efforts to protect Jews from harassment and discrimination that targets them not only on the basis of religious practice, but also on the basis of their shared ancestry and ethnicity – including the Jews’ deep connection to Israel.

Brandeis Center Policy Director Emma Enig will serve as inaugural director for LDB’s membership arms, including JAFE. Enig joined LDB as a JIGSAW Legal Fellow in 2021 and was announced as policy director in March 2023. She produced the organization’s first Capitol Hill policy briefing, Anti-Semitism in America on College Campuses and in the Workplace in September, hosted by U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

“We are pleased to announce the launch of our membership organization,” proclaimed Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “Many people have asked us what they can do to help us to achieve our mission. Joining the Brandeis Center and JAFE is free, but it sends a message, and it provides an opportunity for people to make themselves heard.”

“By establishing JAFE the Brandeis Center has launched a powerful vehicle to facilitate our representation of Jewish and Israeli American college students, graduate and professional students, K-12 students, parents, alumni, faculty, and other individuals who have personally experienced or been impacted by anti-Semitism in K-12 and higher education,” stated Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin. “We are witnessing a tsunami of anti-Jewish hate flood educational institutions across the US. JAFE will enable us to better inform, coordinate and represent students, parents, faculty and staff who are impacted by this anti-Semitism. If you share our mission to counter anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination in education, join JAFE.”

To join JAFE, click HERE.

Brandeis Center attorneys are available to speak with students and parents experiencing campus anti-Semitism and are doing so every day. Contact us at info@brandeiscenter.com, texting “CALLhelp” to 51555 or by completing the short intake form at legal-protection.org. View a list of Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VI complaints filed by and lawsuits litigated by the Brandeis Center at: brandeiscenter.com/resources/case-materials/.

View this press release as a PDF here.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center 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.

With the national group Students for Justice in Palestine calling for a “national day of resistance” across campuses on October 12 and student groups at Harvard and NYU publishing statements siding with Hamas terrorists, attend our webinar to hear Brandeis Center legal experts discuss the obligations college administrators have to keep Jewish students safe. Register at: bit.ly/LDB-webinar.

For Immediate Release

November 16, 2023

Contact: Alex Sommer, alex@tuskstrategies.com

Brandeis Center Seeks Detailed Remedies to Address Emboldened Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

Washington, D.C. (November 16, 2023)  – Today, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education announced it would open an investigation into the University of Pennsylvania and Wellesley College for their failure to address pervasive incidents of campus anti-Semitism. The investigation follows two separate Nov. 9 complaints filed by the Brandeis Center seeking immediate and specific action to address increasing discrimination against and harassment of Jews in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, states: “The swift response to our complaints reaffirm how severe the anti-Semitism crisis is on college campuses and sends an important signal to university leaders. We’re encouraged to see the investigations into UPenn and Wellesley move forward and we thank Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon and her team at OCR for their prompt attention to this matter.”

The Nov. 9 complaints against UPenn and Wellesley allege that failure to adequately respond to these unnerving incidents put the universities in violation of OCR guidance, which specifies that Title VI – which prohibits schools that receive federal funding from allowing harassment, bias or discrimination on campus – protects Jews on the basis of their “actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.” The filings include statements from students that explain how they were harassed and/or subjected to discrimination. The Wellesley complaint specifically contains harrowing personal accounts from Jewish students collected by advocacy organization Jewish on Campus.

Julia Jassey, co-founder and CEO of Jewish on Campus, said, “The swiftness of this process is a strong indicator that OCR is committed to the prompt attention needed to address the rise of antisemitism on campuses around the country. If this step is progress, the next step must be accountability. Jewish on Campus is grateful to the brave Wellesley students who came forward to share the hate they experienced, and we stand ready to support our peers across the country, too many of whom are witnessing inaction in the face of antisemitism.”

In addition, in just the past two weeks, Brandeis Center founder and chairman Kenneth L. Marcus has submitted separate live testimonies before the House Judiciary Committee, a Senate roundtable discussion and the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Workforce on the need for the sort of decisive action that the prompt opening of this investigation reflects.

To read a PDF of this press release, click here.

About the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is an independent, unaffiliated, nonprofit corporation established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. LDB engages in research, education, and legal advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses, in the workplace, and elsewhere. It empowers students by training them to understand their legal rights and educates administrators and employers on best practices to combat racism and anti- Semitism. The Brandeis Center 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. More at www.brandeiscenter.com.

About Jewish on Campus 

Jewish on Campus is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded and run by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students. Since its founding in 2020, JOC has collected stories of anti-Semitism from thousands of students around the world and has assisted in creating change on campus.

Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, there have been record levels of anti-Semitism and Jewish hatred on college campuses across the nation. In a November 14 letter to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Representatives Kevin Kiley and Burgess Owens urged the office to take a more proactive approach is combatting anti-Semitism. Owens’ involvement is significant, because he chairs the key House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees American higher education.

During the House Judiciary Committee hearing “Free Speech on College Campuses” on November 8, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus was asked about OCR’s actions, or lack thereof, and offered the following recommendations:

“There’s more that the Department can be doing, and it can do it tomorrow. The Department has sent out links for Jewish students to file complaints It has added language to its compliant forms. That’s fine. But there is no reason why the Department needs to wait for Jewish students to come to them. The Department has the authority to initiate self-directed investigations.

Anytime it opens the newspaper and sees that there is a problem at an institution that received Federal funds, and that’s every single day if they are reading the papers… These are things that can be done quickly that don’t require significant infusions of funds. They can be done with the current resources and that can be done with the authority that the Secretary of Education already has.”

Marcus first pioneered the use of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to combat anti-Semitism in 2004, when he served as the U.S. Dept. of Education OCR Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Since then, ten executive agencies, including the Department of Education, have adopted this framework – now known as the Marcus Doctrine. However, even with Title VI protections recently applied to Jewish students, college administrators lag behind in the promptness and enforcement of actions to keep Jewish students safe.

Threats to Jewish students on college campuses are at an all-time high and need to be addressed with decisive action by OCR. The need for new regulations that explicitly enforce the combination of the Marcus Doctrine and IHRA Definition – as done in 2019’s Executive Order 13899 on Combating Antisemitism – and not weaker instruments, such as Dear Colleague letters or acknowledgement of lesser anti-Semitism definitions, could not be more urgent.

Download