Published by The Washington Times on 11/1/23. Story by Valerie Richardson.

President Biden rarely misses an opportunity to blast “MAGA Republican extremists,” but the pro-Hamas displays at U.S. universities are undercutting the administration’s framing of antisemitism as a right-wing problem.

Mr. Biden forcefully condemned Hamas shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians and vowed to stand by Israel, but the administration has tiptoed around the post-attack surge of protests against Israel and antisemitic screeds on campuses and other left-wing hotbeds.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided describing the campus protesters as “extremists” at Monday’s press briefing. Instead, she denounced “any form of hate, including antisemitism, including hate against the Muslim community.”

She pivoted to the administration’s benchmark for antisemitism: the 2017 White supremacist rally at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

“[W]hen the president decided to run for president is what he saw in Charlottesville in 2017 when we — he saw neo-Nazis marching down the streets of Charlottesville with vile, antisemitic — just hatred,” she told reporters.

Ms. Jean-Pierre has been criticized for skirting the leftist-antisemitism issue, but her responses follow the administration’s playbook laid out in May in its U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which began with a condemnation of the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville.

The report said nothing about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, the annual Israeli Apartheid Week events at U.S. universities or Students for Justice in Palestine, the anti-Israel group that promoted its post-Oct. 7 rallies with an image of a paraglider, a reference to the terrorists who slaughtered Israeli civilians.

The Zionist Organization of America ripped the report. It said “the Biden Strategy fails to explicitly identify or deal with any source of antisemitism by name other than white supremacy,” including the Black Lives Matter movement and radical Islam.

The difference is that nobody with any juice is defending the neo-Nazis, but Democrats have largely shrugged off or given a pass to the rising anti-Israel sentiment on the intersectional left.

“I’ve been saying for as long as I’ve been on the radio that while there are real and disgusting anti-Semites on the right, they are considered ‘fringe’ by almost all conservatives and Republicans,” Ross Kaminsky, a Jewish libertarian talk-show host on KOA Radio in Denver, posted on social media. “The true home of ‘acceptable’ antisemitism in America, where the true evil hides, festers and spreads, is on the left.”

He cited “Marxist anti-Semitic professors who are guests of honor at all the best cocktail parties in Manhattan and Berkeley and Boulder.”

In the wake of the horrific Oct. 7 attack, however, Democrats appear to be losing their left-eye blindness when it comes to extremism.

After the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York City chapter advertised a rally in support of the Palestinians’ “right to resist,” Democrats led by Rep. Ritchie Torres called it “despicable.” The organization later clarified that it condemns “all hatred and the killing of all civilians.”

Mr. Torres wasn’t impressed. “If you have trouble clearly condemning Hamas for butchering babies, there’s something profoundly wrong with you. Period,” he posted on social media.

Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said the nation is witnessing “historic levels of antisemitism on both the left and the right” but the rise on the left is only now widely recognized.

“Within the Jewish community, I’m seeing in recent months, and especially in recent weeks, an acknowledgment that we have a very serious problem with left-wing antisemitism,” Mr. Marcus said. “Even strongly progressive Jewish advocates who have been reluctant to address this problem in the past are speaking out about it.

“My hope is that the Biden administration will follow suit,” he said.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told a Senate panel Tuesday that 60% of all religiously based hate crime incidents target Jewish people, even though they make up just 2.4% of the U.S. population.

The Anti-Defamation League released a report last week showing a 388% surge in harassment, vandalism and assault in the two weeks after the Oct. 7 attack. They included incidents of distributing antisemitic propaganda by the Goyim Defense League, a White supremacist group.

The bulk of the incidents, however, were tagged “Anti-Israel Rallies” or “Anti-Israel Rallies w. Support for Terrorism,” referring primarily to pro-Palestinian events.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, a former Obama White House official, stunned Israel watchers when he acknowledged Monday that antisemitism had become a problem on the left.

“Look, it’s clear that the hardened anti-Zionists from the far left are the photo inverse of the White supremacists from the far right,” Mr. Greenblatt told CNN. “And I mean, there is no argument anymore than anti-Zionism is antisemitism. I mean, that is as plain as day. And to think that extremism only comes from one side of the spectrum is a joke.”

Max Abrahms, who teaches international security at Northeastern University, was surprised by Mr. Greenblatt’s statement.

“More than any other organization, the ADL has been responsible for pushing the false view that the biggest danger to Jews comes from the far-right rather than the far-left-jihadist alliance,” Mr. Abrahms posted on social media. “To see ADL now assume the role of educator in this topic is just unbelievable.”

On Monday, the White House outlined a series of actions in response to the antisemitism surge, including deploying second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who recently met with Jewish community leaders.

The administration also plans to accelerate the handling of complaints about antisemitism under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. That is a bone of contention with Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, who said the Biden administration has been stalling.

“We’ve filed more Title VI cases on behalf of Jews suffering vicious antisemitic discrimination than any other organizations, and most of the cases are just sitting there,” Mr. Klein said. “His administration is not moving forward on them. They’re ignoring them.”

He said the administration needs to stop reflexively conflating Islamophobia and antisemitism, condemn Hamas-friendly groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine by name and call out the “Squad,” the far-left House Democrats accused of pushing antisemitism, which they deny.

Mr. Biden, he said, “should be making a major speech on antisemitism, and he should not be combining this with Islamophobia,” Mr. Klein said. “Islamophobia is a very minor problem compared with antisemitism. The overwhelming majority of hate issues are against Jews, not against Muslims.”

FBI hate crime statistics for 2021, released in March, found that anti-Jewish incidents represented 51.4% of religiously motivated hate episodes and anti-Islamic incidents accounted for 9.6%.

Mr. Marcus said the president deserves credit for his strong denunciation of Hamas, but he would like to see more condemnation from those on the left of the U.S. political spectrum.

“I agree that President Joe Biden has shown strength when it comes to the response to Hamas,” he said, “and would just like to see consistency from within the Democratic Party and throughout the administration on that point.”

Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin joins other esteemed guests on The Edwin Black Show Nov 2. at 3pm ET via Zoom. To join, just click this link.

Kristallnacht 2.0: Part III

Jewish people across the world have long wondered when and where the next Kishinev, Kristallnacht, or Farhud would occur. The answer (as we correctly speculated during our June 2023 Farhud Remembrance show) was Israel. It happened on October 7, 2023, as Israelis were wrapping up their Sukkot celebrations. Some 2,000 Hamas fighters attacked, killing and raping innocent civilians, kidnapping grandmothers and children, and live-streaming their barbarous acts. Violent pro-Palestinian—and outright pro-Hamas—demonstrations have erupted everywhere, from campuses to streets. Jews across America are beginning to ask the unthinkable question and ponder the unthinkable prospect: can it happen again—this time in America?

Holocaust education leader Yossie Hollander, eminent civil rights attorney Nathan Lewin, and crusading Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin join Edwin for part three of the discussion that nobody ever wanted to have, with special reports by Alan Dershowitz and Juda Engelmayer.

Published by the Society of Human Resource Management on 10/30/23; Story by Matt Gonzales.

The Oct. 7 attacks on Israel were personal to Walter Isenberg.

Isenberg, co-founder and CEO of Sage Hospitality Group in Washington, D.C., recalled how his mother survived the Holocaust after the Nazis killed his grandparents. When learning about Hamas’ attacks, he found out one of the people kidnapped by the militant group was a Holocaust survivor.

“I’m thankful my mother is not alive to witness what’s happening in our world today,” Isenberg wrote in a memo to Sage employees that was shared with SHRM Online. “Hatred towards the Jewish people is nothing new. Sadly, history repeats itself, and antisemitic acts are on the rise around the world.”

Isenberg wanted to reach out to employees, he said, “who are Israeli or Palestinian, and likely have family and friends who are being impacted by these horrific events. … Whether these events have directly or indirectly impacted you and your families we pray for the safety of loved ones, and pray for peace.”

As the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, many executives are releasing statements, offering guidance to their employees and, in some instances, providing support to the region itself. As of the end of October, more than 150 corporations have released statements condemning the initial attack by Hamas.

Executives at Goldman Sachs, Google and Meta were among dozens of employers that condemned the Hamas attacks and expressed solidarity with the Israeli people in public statements and social media posts. Disney donated $2 million in humanitarian relief to help Israel.

Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said in a LinkedIn post that the Pfizer Foundation has launched a donation campaign to support several key organizations that are working to provide emergency assistance in Israel. The company plans to match all employee donations made through the campaign.

“The Pfizer Foundation is also in active discussions with our partner NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] on the ground to determine if additional financial support is required,” Bourla wrote. “And we continue to work with our global network of humanitarian and logistics partners to assess the need for medicines and vaccines and are ready to provide support where needed.”

Many Employees Upset with Their Company’s Response

While companies across the U.S. have expressed support for Israel, many employees have begun to pressure their employers to make similar statements in support of Palestine.

In an open letter, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has pledged $8 million in grants to nonprofits that are providing relief to civilians affected in Israel and Gaza. But hundreds of Google employees felt the letter was pro-Israel, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Further, Starbucks sued its union, Starbucks Workers United, after the group posted “Solidarity with Palestine” on social media two days after the Hamas attack. The post was deleted within 40 minutes, according to ABC News, with the company saying it resulted in more than 1,000 complaints, acts of vandalism and angry confrontations in its stores.

Some organizations have explicitly sympathized with, expressed support for and offered donations to help Palestinian people impacted by the conflict—although many of them, including food service companies Talabat, Careem and McDonald’s Malaysia, are based in predominantly Muslim countries.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated that U.S. employers’ lack of support for Palestinian civilians can be psychologically damaging to employees from the region.

“While many companies have sought to create spaces of belonging for Israeli employees through the release of statements,” the organization explained, “their Palestinian ones, who are also significantly affected by the conflict, are frequently left without a sense of support at their place of work.”

How Should HR React?

Maya Berry, executive director at the Arab American Institute in Washington, D.C., explained that employees and customers will hold accountable companies that take a stance on social events.

For example, to express concern or condemn the violence of Hamas’ terror attacks against Israeli civilians without doing the same for the Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli bombings could harm the organization’s reputation, Berry said.

“Weighing in on matters of ‘terrorism’ and ‘war crimes’ is something I trust coffee makers or shoe makers or car makers should generally avoid,” she said. “And to be clear, I would love the companies I support to advocate for justice and human rights because I place a high value on those. I just don’t think the way I see things is shared by all, and if a corporation leans into an issue, they better do so in a principled way, or they will cause harm—and lose business.”

Companies must also realize that many Jewish and Palestinian employees are undergoing an “extraordinarily difficult time” emotionally, according to Kenneth Marcus, the founder and leader of the Louis D. Brandeis Center in Washington, D.C., an institution dedicated to advancing the rights of Jewish people.

“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.” ERGs have been shown to create a sense of belonging among workers with shared experiences. About 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies support ERGs in the workplace.

Berry added that HR should ensure the psychological safety of all employees by providing a safe space to listen to their concerns, reminding them of the company’s focus on inclusion for all employees and reiterating to the workforce their anti-harassment policy.

“The conversation about these issues may seem like it is happening in the abstract, but it is really personal,” she said. “All of this is, after all, about real people.”

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus will moderate a webinar from The Federalist Society titled “College Admissions After SFFA.” Click here to register, and read more about the panelists and discussion topics below.

On Thursday, June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s admissions programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Two months later, The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education issued a joint guidance document addressing the decision.

Court observers have put forth different analyses concerning how far-reaching this decision may be. Will corporate diversity programs be stopped? What about government initiatives? The jury is still out, but one thing will certainly change – college admissions.

How will college admissions offices across the country change their policies? What should high school students know about the changing landscape? What methods will be employed in pursuit of racial diversity? Please join us as an expert panel addresses these questions and more in pursuit of understanding college admissions after SFFA.

Featuring:

Art Coleman, Managing Partner and Co-Founder, EducationCounsel

Cory R. Liu, Attorney, Butler Snow LLP

Amanda Shanor, Assistant Professor, Legal Studies & Business Ethics, The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School

William E. Trachman, General Counsel, Mountain States Legal Foundation

[Moderator] Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus, Founder and Chairman, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law

Published October 30, 2023 by Jewish Insider. Story by Haley Cohen.

The university had previously acknowledged the three Israeli students were targeted by anti-Zionist Jewish faculty member

More than four months after Harvard University found that a professor at its John F. Kennedy School of Government discriminated against three Jewish Israeli graduate students, violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on Monday morning sent a legal warning to the university demanding immediate action.

“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. This is just the sort of thing you would expect from a university that is under immense pressure for the waves of antisemitism that its students are facing,” Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. assistant secretary of education for the Bush and Trump administrations, told JI. 

The letter, which was first obtained by Jewish Insider, comes as Harvard’s administration faces criticism from lawmakers and alumni over its mishandling of a surge of antisemitism at the school since Hamas’ deadly rampage in Israel on Oct. 7. In a letter to the university’s general counsel, the Brandeis Center said that the school’s failure to address the discrimination claim has exacerbated antisemitism at the university, pointing to a letter published earlier this month on social media by 31 student organizations claiming Israel is “entirely responsible” for Hamas terrorists’ murder of 1,400 Israelis.

“It isn’t a coincidence that you would see the extraordinary developments at Harvard since Oct. 7 in light of the weak administrative actions prior to that date,” Marcus said, noting that while the primary incident addressed in the case occurred prior to Hamas’ attacks, “Harvard’s inaction paved the way to what we’ve been seeing since then.” 

The Brandeis Center wrote, “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]. 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.”

Marcus told JI that “this is a great example of what happens when university administrators fail to address antisemitic incidents when they should. Things just get worse and worse as we’ve been seeing at Harvard, especially in the days since Oct. 7.” 

The incident involves alleged discrimination and harassment of Jewish Israeli students Amnon Shefler, Gilad Neumann and Matan Yaffe, which took place in professor Marshall Ganz’s “Organizing: People, Power, Change” course last spring. All three students have been called up for Israel Defense Forces reserve duty and were not available for comment.

According to the Brandeis Center, “the students decided to work together on a joint project that would examine ways to ‘to harness and unite a majority of diverse and moderate Israelis to strengthen Israel’s liberal and Jewish democracy.’”

“The students articulated their purpose as ‘organizing a growing majority of Israelis…that act in harmony, building on a shared ethos of Israel as a liberal-Jewish-democracy, being a cultural, economic and security lighthouse.’ Professor Ganz dismissed their project as illegitimate, demanded they change it, and subjected them to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias and discrimination when they refused,” the letter continues.

According to the complaint, Ganz told the students they could not use the term “Jewish democracy” to describe Israel – stating that using the words “Jewish” and “democracy” in regard to the Jewish state was akin to a project promoting white supremacy. When the students decided to stick with their project as designed, Ganz threatened them with academic consequences.

“Professor Ganz admitted he had never told students in any other class that they could not present their work, even when it centered on controversial topics. During the final class, two of Ganz’s teaching fellows taught a lesson on how to recruit support for Palestinians,” the letter said, noting that while the topic itself was not objectionable, “it led to students making hostile claims, inaccurate characterizations and false accusations against Israel and Israelis. Ganz refused to let the Israeli students provide a response or any counter-arguments to the wildly inaccurate data presented.”

The Brandeis Center’s initial complaint to the university was sent in March. In response, Harvard launched a third-party-investigation, which agreed with the Brandeis Center and concluded that “Ganz subjected the students to anti-Israel and antisemitic bias and discrimination on the basis of their identities as Jewish Israelis, silenced the speech of the Jewish Israeli students about a topic he viewed as illegitimate, treated the students differently and denigrated them on the basis of their Israeli national origin and Jewish ethnicity and ancestry, and prioritized others’ concerns over the Israeli students.”

Marcus said that the investigator made “fairly strong recommendations,” adding that he would have made “even stronger recommendations,” but was “happily surprised since investigators paid by colleges and universities seldom are as firm as this.” 

According to the Brandeis Center, the investigator concluded that Ganz’s conduct violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires schools that receive federal funding to respond immediately to discrimination and/or harassment that “negatively affect[s] the ability and willingness of Jewish students to participate fully in the school’s education programs and activities.”

Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf pledged to address the problem, asking for time over the summer to do so, Marcus said, adding that ultimately, his plan was “an apology and unspecified personnel actions,” which Marcus called “deeply disappointing.” 

Four months later, the Brandeis Center said that “not only has there been no action to address the anti-Semitism, Harvard is now publicly touting Ganz, who continues to teach there, as a civil rights hero. The latest edition of the Harvard Gazette esteems Ganz’s early civil rights work, leaving out mention of the antisemitic conduct.”

“Harvard, it seems, has no genuine intent to address the anti-Semitism on its campus, choosing instead to publicly celebrate a professor who recently subjected Jewish and Israeli students to bias and discrimination,” the letter sent on Monday states.

In July, amid the White House’s rollout of a national strategy to combat antisemitism, the issue was addressed in the Knesset by American Jewish leaders and Israelis studying in the U.S.

One of the Israeli students who spoke at the hearing was Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, the former deputy military secretary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also served as the IDF international spokesperson and as a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force. Shefler was studying at Harvard while still in the military on leave and mentioned the Ganz case when describing the struggles he and other Israeli students faced in their classes.

The Brandeis Center is demanding that Harvard “fulfill the commitment it made to address Ganz’s discrimination, and eliminate the hostile environment that is snowballing on its campus, as it is required under Title VI.”

It specifically calls on Harvard “to commit to university-wide changes, including requiring all faculty and staff to undergo training on anti-Semitism, including understanding that expressing support for the Jewish homeland is a sincere and deeply felt expression of Jewish ethnic and ancestral identity as well as the Jewish religion. The training also must help faculty and staff recognize when anti-Semitism directed at Jewish ethnicity is a concerted strategy to marginalize Jewish students on campus and make them feel unwelcome.”

Earlier this month, the Wexner Foundation cut ties with Harvard over “the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists [on Oct.7].” More than 250 Israelis have graduated from the long-standing and prestigious Wexner Foundation Fellowship, which includes a period of study at Harvard’s Kennedy School. These alumni have often gone on to hold high-ranking positions in the Israeli civil service and in government, including Knesset members, Israel Defense Forces generals, top state prosecutors and others.

A letter from the foundation to the Harvard Board of Overseers severing ties said that many Israel fellows “feel abandoned” by the university.

Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife, Batia, also announced they are quitting Harvard’s Kennedy executive board in protest over how university leaders have responded to the massacre.

The Brandeis Center stands with the world’s Jewish community, following the horror and grief of Hamas atrocities since October 7. Demand for our services to keep Jewish students safe on college campus and K-12 environments has since escalated significantly. Brandeis Center attorneys have been continuously speaking with a large number of students and professors around the country about potential lawsuits against universities that have tolerated a hostile environment for Jewish students. Springing into action immediately, we worked with nine other Jewish American organizations to draft and send a letter to more than 500 North American university presidents the week after the Hamas massacres, reminding schools of their legal obligation to keep Jewish students safe. We contributed Hamas-related content to the upcoming Shine a Light toolkit for the Chanukah season. We held an emergency webinar on how Jewish students can hold their school administrators accountable to keep them safe. We spoke to the Society for Human Resource Management to help HR managers provide Jewish employees proactive support – and the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee about a potential hearing they could hold. We rereleased our fact sheet: “International Humanitarian Law in Asymmetric Warfare.” And we spoke to our JIGSAW legal fellows, law student chapters, and legal clerks to help them address the issue on their campuses.

The Brandeis Center stands proudly with Israel and the Jewish community everywhere.

Joint Letter to North American University Presidents

In response to the national group Students for Justice in Palestine calling for a “national day of resistance” across campuses the week after Hamas atrocities started, as well as student groups publishing statements siding with Hamas terrorists and anti-Semitic violence already erupting on campuses, the Brandeis Center assembled a coalition of Jewish American organizations to send a joint letter to North American university and college presidents.

The Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents, Hillel International, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Israel on Campus Coalition, Jewish Federations of North America, Jewish on Campus and Zionist Organization of America joined our effort. Our coalition reminded university presidents of their moral and leadership responsibility to condemn Hamas’ violence against Jews and their legal obligations to protect Jewish and Israeli students. The San Francisco Chronicle linked to our letter in a story published October 11.

LDB-ADL Joint Letter to North American University Presidents

The Brandeis Center and ADL sent a joint letter to the presidents of nearly 200 colleges and universities in response to the increase of anti-Semitic incidents on campus in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians.

The LDB-ADL letter states that Students for Justice in Palestine “provides vocal and potentially material support to Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” and demands that schools investigate the campus group.

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, who signed the letter with the LDB President Alyza D. Lewin, told Jewish Insider that “we’re seeing a different situation than what we’ve been dealing with on campus. Groups have shunned, marginalized and excluded Jewish individuals. Now student groups are going as far as aligning themselves with a State Department identified terrorist organization that has pledged genocide against the Jewish people.”

Marcus said that there is a “real prospect” legal action will be taken against schools that do not investigate SJP groups. “We’re not just talking about offensive speech. This is the greatest level we’ve seen. When there are student organizations that are explicitly and prominently glorifying the work of a terrorist organization, you wouldn’t think that university presidents need to be reminded of this obligation. But they do,” Marcus continued, adding that the goal of the letter is to “make sure they have no excuse for not doing so.” An abridged form of JI’s story ran in eJewish Philanthropy’s “Your Daily Phil” newsletter on October 27.

Kenneth L. Marcus Joins U.S. Sen. Chip Roy for Heritage Foundation Event on U.S.-Israel Alliance

In a panel discussion broadcast by C-SPAN, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus joined U.S. Senator Chip Roy and former Deputy Special Monitor or Combat Anti-Semitism for the U.S. State Dept. for a conversation on the “Future of the U.S.-Israel Alliance at 75.”

Chairman Marcus explained to the Heritage Foundation event audience that about the significant and growing impact of the “Marcus Doctrine” policy he helped establish in 2004 while serving as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. The Biden administration declared last month that eight additional U.S. executive branch agencies will use the Marcus Doctrine to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of ethnic or ancestral discrimination.

In Politico, Kenneth L. Marcus Pushed Biden Administration to Issue Long-Delayed anti-Semitism Regulations

In a Politico story published October 12, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus renewed pressure on the Biden administration to finally issue new regulations on campus anti-Semitism.

“This highlights the need for the Biden administration to make good on its long delayed promised regulations,” said Chairman Marcus, who twice led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. “This has been promised over and over again and delayed throughout the administration.”

Marcus told Politico that LDB has already seen significant increases in anti-Semitic remarks on social media since Hamas began committing atrocities, and it expects requests from students to increase. He urged university leaders to get ahead of potential harassment.

LDB Re-Releases its Fact Sheet on International Humanitarian Law

Following the eruption of inconceivable Hamas atrocities – violating almost every key tenet of international humanitarian law – the Brandeis Center reissued its fact sheet “International Humanitarian Law in Asymmetric Warfare.”

Recognizing that in order to understand the Hamas-Israel war, it is crucial that audiences have precise and accurate information about the rules of war and who is violating it. LDB’s fact sheet gives specific factual details sourced from publicly available information demonstrating the Israeli Defense Forces’ consistent and determined compliance with IHL guidelines and the clear violations perpetrated by Hamas. The fact sheet covers the most widely accepted principles of: “distinction,” “necessity,” “proportionality,” and “humanity.”

Readers may also find it helpful to share our two-part Instagram explainer of this fact sheet on social media.

Kenneth L. Marcus Helps HR Professionals Provide Proactive Jewish Worker Support

In the Society for Human Resource Management, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcusprovided needed advice to HR professionals, helping them provide proactive support to Jewish employees in the wake of Hamas violence.

Marcus told SHRM that many Jewish and Israeli workers are traumatized by the recent events in Israel, and their emotions could be exacerbated by anti-Semitism. He noticed a spike in anti-Jewish rhetoric on social media since Hamas began its attacks and expects to see a rise in many other sectors, including the workplace, as the war progresses.

He recommended ways for employers to be proactive in supporting Jewish employees, including: establishing an employee resource group for Jewish employees, sending messages of support to any employees impacted by the attacks, including employees who may have lost family or friends in Israel, being aware that some Israeli American employees may be called to service if they are members of Israel’s military reserves – and staying cognizant of the prospect that workplaces may experience an uptick in harassment and bias incidents against Jewish employees.

Brandeis Center Holds Emergency Webinar: ‘The Hamas Atrocities and the American Campus’

Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin, Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober and National Jewish Advocacy Center Director Mark Goldfeder addressed an emergency situation for Jewish students across American college campuses in a webinar held October 12: “The Hamas Atrocities and the American Campus.”

Jewish students are watching student groups at Harvard, NYU and other schools publish statements supporting Hamas terrorists, and have already begun suffering physical attacks on campuses, such as Columbia University. College administrators are legally obligated to take actions that will keep Jewish students safe, and the Brandeis Center’s webinar is a valuable resource for concerned students and parents to hold schools accountable.

Higher-education news source The College Fix ran a story about LDB’s webinar, excerpting quotes from both President Lewin and Director Katz-Prober, as well as linking to the LDB’s joint letter to university presidents.

Webinar: The Hamas Atrocities and the American Campus (10/12/23)

Kenneth L. Marcus Lambastes Harvard Student Groups in Campus Reform

After more than 30 Harvard student groups issued a joint statement asserting that Israel is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” following Hamas’s horrific massacres, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcusresponded forcefully in the higher education news source Campus Reform.

“It is reprehensible, to say the least, that so many Harvard student organizations are taking the wrong side on this massacre,” declared Marcus.“ When so many people are being slaughtered, raped, and their corpses desecrated, it shouldn’t be difficult to decide whether you are on the side of the murderers or the victims. And yet all of these Harvard students are rushing to join the wrong side—the side of the perpetrators. These wrong-headed student voices are more pronounced in light of the administration’s failure to speak out quickly and firmly against the atrocities, just as they spoke out when Russia invaded Ukraine,” Marcus added.

Marcus criticized the administration’s prioritization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) prioritization, claiming that it has “allowed such bigotry to grow unchecked. It is also a sign of something rotten in Harvard’s admissions program, that they have admitted these people.”

Brandeis Center Publishes New Fact Sheets on Understanding Hate Crimes and Erasive Anti-Semitism

Responding to the growth of anti-Jewish hate crimes in America, the Brandeis Center published two important new resources: fact sheets “Understanding Hate Crimes” and “Erasive Anti-Semitism.”

“Understanding Hate Crimes” outlines what a hate crime is; who is most commonly targeted for hate crimes in America; why prohibiting hate crimes is important; and the distinction between punishing hate crimes and punishing hate speech or hateful thoughts. “The Brandeis Center is committed to educating and empowering those who experience anti-Semitism by teaching them about their legal rights. Fact sheets like this one help educate and inform the public about the type of support the Brandeis Center provides,” stated Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin.

“Erasive Anti-Semitism” explains what erasive anti-Semitism is and provides real-life examples from college campuses, corporate environments, and in legal settings. “Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, we’ve seen anti-Semites engaging in twisted conspiracy theories, trying to explain away the atrocities committed against Jews,” said Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “This is despite all of the verified photographic and video evidence, as well as testimonials from survivors and witnesses. Anti-Semites refuse to acknowledge Jews as being victims.”

LDB-led Jewish Group Coalition Suit Against CA School District Gains Awareness

A lawsuit filed by the Brandeis Center, ADL, AJC, and Potomac Law Group, with the help of StandWithUs, acting as consultant, against the Board of the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), on behalf of the Brandeis Center and its membership arm, So-CUE (Southern Californians for Unbiased Education), continues gaining awareness in California.

The lawsuit alleges that the Board violated California’s open meetings law and asks the Court to void the actions taken by the Board, including its approval of anti-Semitic ethnic studies curricula.

“Part of the problem is whether Jewish students in class are harassed, which would be important, and we also don’t want children of other ethnicities being taught that Jews are bad,” stated Brandeis Center General Counsel L. Rachel Lerman. “That’s not good for the community,” she added.

Alyza D. Lewin Helps Canada Update its Anti-Semitism Messaging to Include Jewish Identity

Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewinspoke to attendees of the “Using the Legal System to Combat Antisemitism” panel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), part of the Canadian Jewish Federations last week.

Lewin said that clear and coordinated public messaging is needed from the Jewish community now to combat the tide of rising anti-Semitism – including vocabulary to articulate that legal actions to fight anti-Semitism are independent of anyone’s political views, but instead necessary for Jews “being targeted, harassed, discriminated against and killed on the basis of identity, as Jews.”

LDB President Lewin said many people do not understand that Jews are targeted “because we’re a people” nor understand what makes Jews a people. “Today Jews are being targeted on the basis of our shared ancestry and our ancestral connection to Israel. There are now those who are insisting that Jews do not have a shared ancestry and ethnicity and that certainly we do not have a shared ancestral connection to the land of Israel.” We need to push back against this effort to erase and deny our identity as a people and to erase and deny our ancestral connection to Israel,” Lewin urged.

Philanthropy Roundtable Includes Brandeis Center in List of Organizations Fighting Anti-Semitism

Following the horrific Hamas violence against Israel, Philanthropy Roundtable published a list of organizations combating anti-Semitism around the globe.
 The Brandeis Center is grateful and humbled to have been included in this important resource.

Deseret News Speaks to Kenneth L. Marcus for Feature Story on Campus Anti-Semitism
 

In an in-depth feature examining the state of anti-Semitism across American college campuses, national weekly publication Deseret News spoke to Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus.
 
“The unavoidable fact is that there is something monstrous in U.S. college campuses and on U.S. streets,” Marcus stated. “The hatred of Israel that we’re seeing in the anti-Zionist movement is simply a continuation of the age-old hatred of the Jewish people under the guise of political discourse.”
 The article discussed Marcus’s viral op-ed from last year “Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones,” following several student groups at UC, Berkeley amending bylaws to prohibit invitations to speakers supporting Zionism.

Washington, D.C. (October 30, 2023): In response to a complaint from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, made public for the first time today, Harvard University found that a professor at its Kennedy School discriminated against three Jewish Israeli graduate students in violation of Harvard and Kennedy School policies and federal civil rights guidance under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After more than four months, however, not only has Harvard failed to address the anti-Semitism, the school is now publicly touting the professor as a civil rights hero. The Brandeis Center today sent a strongly-wordedlegal warning to the University’s general counsel, demanding the school take the prompt action it is required under the 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.”

Part of the “silence” the Brandeis Center is referring to involves the discrimination and harassment of three Jewish Israeli students, Amnon Shefler, Gilad Neumann, and Matan Yaffe, which took place in Professor Marshall Ganz’s “Organizing: People, Power, Change,” course over this past spring.  The students decided to work together on a joint project that would examine ways to “to harness and unite a majority of diverse and moderate Israelis to strengthen Israel’s liberal and Jewish democracy” at a time of division and social strife within their country. The students articulated their purpose as “organizing a growing majority of Israelis…that act in harmony, building on a shared ethos of Israel as a liberal-Jewish-democracy, being a cultural, economic and security lighthouse.” 

Professor Ganz dismissed their project as illegitimate, demanded they change it, and subjected them to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias and discrimination when they refused. Specifically, Ganz told the students they could not use the term “Jewish democracy” as a descriptor for Israel.  Ganz demanded they eliminate “Jewish” and “democracy” from their project’s stated purpose, stating that an organizing project to promote Jewish democracy was akin to a project promoting white supremacy. 

When the students decided to stick with their project as designed, Ganz threatened them with consequences.  Professor Ganz admitted he had never told students in any other class that they could not present their work, even when it centered on controversial topics. During the final class, two of Ganz’s teaching fellows taught a lesson on how to recruit support for Palestinians. While the topic itself was not objectionable, it led to students making hostile claims, inaccurate characterizations and false accusations against Israel and Israelis. Ganz refused to let the Israeli students provide a response or any counter arguments to the wildly inaccurate data presented.  

After the Brandeis Center sent a complaint to the university, this past March, Harvard launched a third-party-investigation, which agreed with the Brandeis Center and concluded Ganz subjected the students to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias and discrimination on the basis of their identities as Jewish Israelis, silenced the speech of the Jewish Israeli students about a topic he viewed as illegitimate, treated the students differently and denigrated them on the basis of their Israeli national origin and Jewish ethnicity and ancestry, and prioritized others’ concerns over the Israeli students. The investigator also concluded that Ganz’s conduct interfered with and limited the students’ ability to participate in and benefit from Harvard Kennedy School’s educational program, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires schools that receive federal funding to respond immediately to discrimination and/or harassment that “negatively affect[s] the ability and willingness of Jewish students to participate fully in the school’s education programs and activities.” A university “must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment, and prevent the harassment from recurring.”

While Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf promptly accepted the investigator’s findings as final and committed to addressing the harassment and discrimination, stating “[w]e need to ensure that the School fulfills these commitments and that the violations of policies that occurred this spring are addressed fully and do not recur,” four months later, not only has there been no action to address the anti-Semitism, Harvard is now publicly touting Ganz, who continues to teach there, as a civil rights hero.  The latest edition of the Harvard Gazette vaunts Ganz’s early civil rights work, making no mention of his recent dishonorable conduct.

“The professor is no civil rights champion when it comes to minorities he personally finds distasteful, namely, Jewish Israelis. He is in fact a civil rights violator, who undisputedly trampled the rights of members of his class without hesitation or apology, denigrating the Students’ identity and preventing them from participating fully in his class,” wrote the Brandeis Center.  “Harvard, it seems, has no genuine intent to address the anti-Semitism on its campus, choosing instead to publicly celebrate a professor who recently subjected Jewish and Israeli students to bias and discrimination.”

The Brandeis Center demands Harvard fulfill the commitment it made to address Ganz’s discrimination, and eliminate the hostile environment that is snowballing on its campus, as it is required under Title VI.  Specifically the Brandeis Center calls on Harvard to commit to university-wide changes, including requiring all faculty and staff to  undergo training on anti-Semitism, including  understanding that expressing support for the Jewish homeland is a sincere and deeply felt expression of Jewish ethnic and ancestral identity as well as the Jewish religion.  The training also must help faculty and staff recognize when anti-Semitism directed at Jewish ethnicity is a concerted strategy to marginalize Jewish students on campus and make them feel unwelcome.  The Brandeis Center also demands Harvard publicly acknowledge and renounce Ganz’s discrimination and harassment of Israeli Jews and take steps to ensure he and all professors treat Israeli and Jewish students with the same level of respect accorded others.

“Harvard leadership has allowed its campus to run amuck with anti-Semitism for far too long.  This outrageous, irresponsible and illegal failure of Harvard’s administration to address even undisputed anti-Semitism has paved the way for the problems they are now facing,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for the Bush and Trump Administrations.  “It is high time the university provides the leadership it is required under the law.”

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

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus will present at the Heritage Foundation’s October 23, 2023 (1:00-4:00 p.m., EDT) event: “Future of the U.S.-Israel Alliance at 75.”

  • To register in-person, click here
  • To register for virtual attendance, click here

The horrific Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7th have placed our scheduled event on the U.S.-Israel alliance into a wholly new and more urgent context. The geostrategic importance of this relationship remains the same, but the need to discuss both antisemitism, which is obviously a grim problem not only in the Middle East but also here at home, and the security partnership between our two countries, particularly in terms of the savage and growing threat to us both from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to chart a new path into the next quarter century is now an imperative.

A reception will follow the program from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. ET.

Published 10/18/23 by Law360 Canada; Story by Cristin Schmitz

Galvanized by growing bigotry, hate and violence directed at Jews here and abroad, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is ramping up its legal fight against antisemitism, including honing its public messaging and inviting lawyers to volunteer with a CIJA legal task force that works to conceptualize, co-ordinate and carry out strategic litigation in defence of Jewish people.

CIJA is currently building its roster of legal volunteers to help with matters of importance to Canada’s Jewish community, whose 400,000 members make up just one per cent of the population, but who last year experienced 14 per cent of reported hate crime incidents — making Jews the most targeted religious community in the country (67 per cent of hate crimes reported in 2022).

“If you want to put your hand in the air and say, ‘I want to volunteer my efforts, and my energy and my smarts and my expertise, please contact the legal task force,” Steven Frankel of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP told Jewish and non-Jewish lawyers attending an Oct. 16 CIJA presentation about using the legal system to fight antisemitism.

“Likewise, if you think there’s a legal step that we should be considering, or a legal proceeding that we should be commencing, all ideas are welcome,” Frankel, a task force member, added.

He also stressed, however, that it is “absolutely critical” that any litigation against antisemitism should be strategic, cohesive and co-ordinated, including avoiding duplicative or overlapping proceedings, and cases that work at cross-purposes.

“I’m imploring everybody to please not take legal steps on your own, without consulting and co-ordinating with the task force,” Frankel said. “Let’s channel that energy, and channel the fact that we’re galvanized, into something productive, and please spread this message … ‘we need to be as unified as possible and focus our efforts.’ ”

The Toronto commercial and class action litigator, who is lead counsel in an Ontario human rights proceeding against a restaurant which posted online “Open now – 8 pm for non-racist shoppers … #freepalestine #zionistsnotwelcome,” said maintaining a sharp focus means being “very selective” about which cases to pursue, and having those cases handled by counsel best suited to take them on.

“It helps no one to take on cases that have no realistic prospect of success or that have no legal merit or that don’t have the right facts,” Frankel said. “We don’t want anybody to burn their credibility in front of a judge … burn our community’s credibility with other people in the profession who right now are minded to help us,” Frankel remarked. “And perhaps most importantly, what we don’t want is to get stung with a bad decision that serves as an unhelpful precedent that we might never be able to get out from under.”

Frankel’s presentation took place during the Oct. 16-17 conference in Ottawa “Antisemitism: Face It Fight It”, presented by CIJA and Canada’s Jewish Federations, which was attended by more than 700 people, including the prime minister and other leaders of the federal political parties. Although it was organized months ago, the conference took place as the world reeled from Hamas’s violent attacks in Israel Oct. 7, in which more than 1,400 people were slain, and scores of civilians, including babies, children and old people, were kidnapped and are held hostage in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, a designated terrorist organization by Canada, the U.S., the EU and other countries.

When contemplating litigation against antisemitism, Frankel said the first question he asks himself are what are the best avenues for recourse. “What courts? What decision-makers? What administrative bodies are the right ones that I can bring a complaint before? And how do I bring the complaint?”

Having access to legal expertise in the areas of anti-discrimination and freedom of expression law is key, he said. “It’s important to understand what the relevant legislation does and doesn’t actually do, so that we can be realistic and strategic about the fights we pick, and the fights we don’t pick, and how do we allocate our resources and, most importantly, the scarcest resource of them all, which is our time.”

Frankel pointed out, for example, that the Ontario Human Rights Code bars discrimination in the provision of services where such discrimination is based on prohibited grounds such as race, ancestry, place of origin, ethnic origin, citizenship or creed.

“As a general matter our constitutional right to freedom of expression includes the right to be a bigot,” Frankel remarked. “Being a racist is not, in and of itself, unlawful. So please bear that critical principle in mind.”

Notably whether something is or is not antisemitic is not so much a matter of argument in Canada, where little law exists to explain just what the contours of antisemitism are, he said.

Accordingly, it is essential to provide a decision-maker with “properly admissible” evidence, including from experts, of antisemitism and how it has manifested in particular behaviour or conduct. “Please understand that even though you and I may agree that something is antisemitic — even though the entire Jewish community of Canada or North America or wherever may agree that something is antisemitic — doesn’t necessarily make it so in the eyes of a judge, or an administrative decision-maker, or an arbitrator, or any other form of decision-maker,” he advised.

“If you’re going to do this work, it means lining up the right witnesses, including experts, who can and will make themselves available to participate in legal proceedings, and that includes by devoting a huge amount of time to preparation, because it’s always the preparation that wins cases … and hard work.”

Frankel noted that CIJA can help connect lawyers with experts located in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Israel.

Frankel’s co-presenter Alyza Lewin, a prominent U.S. attorney who is president of the Louis D. Brandeis Centre for Human Rights Under Law, said co-ordinated and clear public messaging from the Jewish community about antisemitism is important, including devising an effective vocabulary to articulate that legal actions to fight antisemitism are not a matter of one’s political view point, but a matter of legal protection for Jews “who are being targeted, harassed, discriminated against and killed on the basis of identity, as Jews.”

That approach will help support legal strategies that separate the political from illegal attacks on Jews as an identity group, she said.

“I think one of the most important principles that we as lawyers need to understand when we think strategically about how to use the law to combat antisemitism is that it becomes essential that in the language we use, and in the approach we take, that we manage to distinguish and separate what is happening, so that people don’t misunderstand,” Lewin advised.

In seeking legal recourse against antisemitism, “we’re not talking about a political debate,” she explained. “This is not about what your perspective is on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In order to apply the law, we have to be talking about, and getting people to understand, that what is happening is the harassment and discrimination of Jews and worse, quite frankly, as we’ve seen in the recent horrors,” she observed. “We have to be making sure that our language, and how we approach it, is removing this from the political and focusing on the targeting of Jews on the basis of their identity as Jews.”

Lewin said many people do not understand that Jews are targeted “because we’re a people” nor understand what makes Jews a people. “Today Jews are being targeted on the basis of our shared ancestry and our ancestral connection to Israel,” she said. “There are now those who are insisting that Jews do not have a shared ancestry and ethnicity and that certainly we do not have a shared ancestral connection to the land of Israel.”

“We need to push back against this effort to erase and deny our identity as a people and to erase and deny our ancestral connection to Israel,” Lewin urged.

A co-ordinated legal strategy against antisemitism is “extremely important,” not only among lawyers, but among organizations, she advised. She noted the Brandeis Centre drafted and co-ordinated a letter signed by leading American Jewish organizations that was sent to top universities in the United States last week, seeking that steps be taken to ensure on campus the safety and security of Jewish and Israeli students, faculty and staff.

(This was against the background, in part, of more than 30 Harvard student groups reportedly signing a letter asserting that Israel was “entirely responsible” for “all unfolding violence” in the continuing Hamas-Israel conflict. Some U.S. business leaders and others responded by cutting ties with the university, and some law firms rescinded job offers to certain students who signed.)

Lewin emphasized that when students say that Zionism is an integral part of their identity as Jews “they’re saying that Jews are a people [and] ‘my history, my heritage, my ancestry is rooted in [Israel]. I may not agree with everything that the current government says, but I believe that this is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, and we have a right to self-determination there,’ ” she explained. “ ‘And if you’re going to deny my right to self-determination, if you’re going to shun me or exclude me from a group or from a club on campus, on the basis of that part of my identity, that is unlawful harassment and discrimination.’ ”

“That’s the language that we all have to be using,” Lewin stressed. “Every one of our organizations has to be using that language. … That’s the kind of co-ordination that we need on the messaging because when you co-ordinate on the messaging, it will help us with the legal arguments that we’re setting up.”

Lewin led the U.S. litigation team that successfully represented Avi Zinger, the Israeli licensee of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, in a lawsuit he filed to prevent Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Israel. Lewin and her father, Nathan Lewin, also represented the Boim family in civil tort litigation which established the right of American victims of terror to obtain damages under American law against organizations that knowingly provide financial support to international terrorist groups.