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Full Hearing Recording – Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus’s Opening Statement Begins at 1:03:07

Ken Marcus Testimony 061324 FINALDownload

Published 6/8/24 by the Washington Examiner; story by Peter Cordi

The Department of Education has opened over 100 civil rights investigations into universities and school districts since tensions boiled over on campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. California had the most investigations into its schools of any state.

Of the 103 Title VI investigations relating to tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, the vast majority involve antisemitic conduct. There have also been lawsuits alleging anti-Palestinian bias at some schools.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, there was a 400% uptick in antisemitic incidents in the wake of the onset of the war while 2023 saw a record number of such incidents. Anti-Muslim incidents have also increased.

There have been 28 states with similar investigations since Oct. 7, and California and New York are head and shoulders above the others, with 21 and 15 opened, respectively. Pennsylvania had eight, Illinois had seven, and Massachusetts and New Jersey had six each.

Ohio, Georgia, Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, and Maryland each had three investigations. Kansas, Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, North Carolina, and Indiana had two. Nevada, Montana, Virginia, Missouri, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Vermont, Hawaii, and Texas each had one.

Examples of conduct prompting civil rights investigations

Since Oct. 7, the number of incidents of antisemitism on campuses has increased. There have been several reports of Jewish students being physically assaulted or blocked from entering a public area, and numerous cases of antisemitic slurs being hurled at students.

Kenneth Marcus, founder and head of the Brandeis Center, pointed out to the Washington Examiner one especially notable instance in Ohio State University’s campus community where a student was asked, “Are you a Jew?” When the student acknowledged that he and his friends were Jewish, two men allegedly “punched one of the Jewish students and threw him into the street.”

Yael Lerman, director of StandWithUs legal department, identified three trends aside from antisemitic speech being seen on campus since Oct. 7 in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Besides physical violence or threats and barrier of entry, Lerman said “retaliation or false claims” have been the subjects of multiple university disciplinary proceedings in which Jewish or Zionist students have allegedly been falsely accused of misconduct.

She additionally noted that the kind of conduct seen at high schools generally differs from what is seen on college campus, with more “classic antisemitism” such as slurs and tropes reported at high schools, but the “anti-Zionist strand” is seen more in higher education.

While the vast majority of conduct resulting in civil rights lawsuits and subsequent investigations has involved acts of antisemitic speech or violence, there have also been several lawsuits, especially following the breaking up of anti-Israel encampments, alleging anti-Muslim or anti-Palestinian bias.

An April lawsuit against Columbia University alleged that Arab students, particularly those wearing keffiyehs and hijabs, were targets of harassment including being called terrorists and receiving death threats. The lawsuit also claimed “discriminatory treatment” of Palestinian students “protesting peacefully” because the school allowed the police to break up the anti-Israel encampment.

The City University of New York School of Law was also sued in April over the alleged removal of student fliers “supporting Palestinian lives and liberation,” increased surveillance and police presence at the school in response to anti-Israel “activism,” and the “last-minute” cancellation of a campus event about Gaza.

Legal advocacy groups such as the Brandeis Center, the ADL, Palestine Legal, and the Center for Constitutional Rights typically handle cases such as these, but individuals have also filed complaints on their own or someone else’s behalf.

Lerman called it “unprecedented” to see pro bono cases being eagerly taken on in this capacity and pointed to Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP as one major firm involved in high-profile Title VI lawsuits.

Civil rights investigations most likely to generate accountability

Lerman explained that the complaints filed by “broader” advocacy groups “generally speaking … will be more likely to have the evidence and witness necessary for [the Office for Civil Rights] to make a finding,” as opposed to investigations based on “quick complaints drawn up by concerned community members.”

She noted that the ones specifically filed by StandWithUs, including at Middlebury College in particular, are “all equally egregious because we don’t file Title VI complaints unless we think they’re worthy of full investigation.”

Marcus, who was appointed as assistant secretary of education for civil rights during the Trump administration, echoed a similar sentiment and called on the Office for Civil Rights to “take action on every one of our complaints” because “they all describe untenable situations that shouldn’t be permitted at federally funded institutions.”

“I’m concerned that until we actually see universities starting to lose their federal funding, we’re not going to actually see significant change in how these schools address antisemitism,” Lerman said. “We need to start seeing some of the schools lose their federal funding in order for real change to start happening.”

The latest in California

Of the 14 related Title VI civil rights investigations opened up by the Department of Education in the month of May, six were in California. No other state had more than one.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has acknowledged the rise in antisemitism and anti-Muslim discrimination in the wake of Oct. 7 through a number of actions, including publishing a plan to combat antisemitism in the Golden State, highlighting efforts to address anti-Muslim bias, and calling on the state’s education leaders to take additional steps to protect students.

Newsom has also authorized the expansion of funds to bolster security at religious institutions, traveled to Israel to meet with Israeli leaders and victims of the Oct. 7 attack, and convened with both Jewish and Arab leaders in his own state.

“Antisemitism, Islamophobia, hatred and bigotry in all forms have no place at the CSU,” Amy Bently-Smith, director of strategic communications and public affairs at California State University said in a statement. “Any act of hatred or discrimination creates a hostile environment that can interfere with a student’s right to access, benefit from, and feel safe in their education programs or an employee’s right to access, benefit from, and feel safe in the workplace. Hostile environment harassment and discrimination is prohibited by the law and CSU policy.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the California Department of Education, the California Justice Department, and the University of California for comment.

Did the Brandeis Center just have its most extraordinary month ever? It certainly looks that way. We announced we are suing Harvard University for leaving “cruel anti-Semitic bullying, harassment, and discrimination unaddressed for years.” We also announced an anti-Semitism lawsuit against Origins High School in New York City. We filed new Title VI complaints with the U.S. Dept. of Education (ED) Office for Civil Rights against four more institutions – the University of Massachusetts Amherst and three California schools: Pomona College, Occidental College , and the University of California, Santa Barbara. In a significant victory, a K-12 school in North Carolina agreed to settle an ED anti-Semitism complaint filed by LDB. And we expanded our previously-filed complaints against the Berkeley Unified School District and the University of California, Berkeley. In this jam-packed edition of the Brandeis Brief, we break all that activity down for you.

LDB Sues Harvard for ‘Tolerating Rampant and Pervasive Anti-Semitism’

The Brandeis Center announced it is suing Harvard University for leaving “cruel anti-Semitic bullying, harassment, and discrimination” unaddressed for years, pre- and post-10/7. According to the complaint, “when Harvard is presented with incontrovertible evidence of anti-Semitic conduct, it ignores and tolerates it. Harvard’s permissive posture towards anti-Semitism is the opposite of its aggressive enforcement of the same anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies to protect other minorities.”

As detailed in the complaint, Harvard students and faculty have called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism. Student protestors have occupied and vandalized buildings, interrupted classes and exams, and made the campus unbearable for Jewish and Israeli classmates. Jewish students are bullied and spat on, intimidated, and threatened, and subject to verbal and physical harassment. For their part, professors have explicitly supported anti-Jewish and anti-Israel terrorism and spread anti-Semitic propaganda in their classes.

“For years, Harvard’s leaders have allowed the school to become a breeding ground for hateful anti-Jewish and radical anti-Israel views,” stated LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “An outside investigator warned of the problem more than a year ago, Harvard Kennedy School’s Dean acknowledged it, and yet crickets. When are university leaders going to learn that in order to prevent your school from becoming a cesspool of anti-Semitism action is required? Schools must hold students and faculty accountable. They must follow through with public consequences when Jews are harassed and discriminated against just as they would for any other minority group, in keeping with settled law.”

LDB Lawsuit Targets Anti-Semitism in NYC Public School

The Louis D. Brandeis Center and law firm Walden Macht & Haran filed a lawsuit against Origins High School, the City of New York, the New York City Department of Education, and senior city and school officials on behalf of a public-school teacher and a campus administrator who have been harassed for months. Defendants did nothing to address the problem. Instead, they fired the Jewish teacher and the administrator who stood up for her.

The suit describes acts of anti-Semitism and hate speech against Jewish people generally, and teacher Danielle Kaminsky specifically, including students marching through the campus chanting “Fuck the Jews,” aggrandizing Adolf Hitler (and referring to him as the G.O.A.T. or “greatest of all time”), drawing swastikas on a Jewish student’s property, and exclaiming to a Jewish teacher that they “want to kill all jews.” The complaint also details how school officials, especially the Interim Acting Principal, sought to shield bigoted students from disciplinary action, even when a student brought explosives to school after engaging in other anti-Semitic acts. The complaint alleges that DOE’s complicity caused the anti-Semitism to fester, and that some of the bigoted cabal of students have started attacking and assaulting LGBTQ+ members of the school community.

“It seems to have been a complete abdication of responsibility, and then an attempted cover up,” stated LDB Senior Counsel Mark Goldfeder. LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus added: “Above all else, safety must be a school’s #1 priority. Yet, New York City and Origins officials not only ignored violent, targeted threats, they attempted a complete cover-up. They shielded dangerous perpetrators, punished whistleblowers, and left Jewish teachers and students utterly vulnerable.”

LDB Files Title VI Complaints Against Four More Higher Education Institutions

In the past month, the Brandeis Center has filed Title VI civil rights complaints to the U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) asking the Office to investigate anti-Semitism at four institutions of higher education – the University of Massachusetts Amherst and three California colleges: Pomona, Occidental, and UC Santa Barbara.

“Following the law, holding perpetrators accountable, and issuing consequences is not rocket science. It’s beyond shameful that we have to call in the Department of Education to get a school to address a violent anti-Semitic assault and ensure other students aren’t similarly attacked,” stated LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus in reference to the UMass complaint.

“Jewish students at Pomona and Occidental are hiding in their dorms and avoiding their own campus rather than risk verbal and physical attacks. These colleges know full well this is happening,” Marcus stated. “But instead of enforcing the law and their own policies, they are caving to the anti-Semitic mob and letting them bully, harass, and intimidate Jewish students. Anti-Semitism left unaddressed will not go away. It will only snowball and escalate until the problem is faced head on as the law requires.”

“At UCSB, what has been allowed to happen to Tessa [Veksler, UCSB Student Government President] over many months – shaming, harassing, and shunning a student to try to make her disavow a part of her Judaism – is shameful and illegal,” stated Marcus. “Sadly, this is not the first time we are seeing this mob behavior against a Jewish student elected by their student body to serve. It is incumbent upon UC Santa Barbara and all universities to say enough is enough.”

North Carolina K-12 School Settles U.S. Ed. Dept. OCR Complaint Filed by LDB

A North Carolina public charter school agreed to settle a U.S. Department of Education investigation into severe, persistent, and pervasive anti-Semitic bullying that went unaddressed in one of its charter schools for two full academic years. The settlement requires the school to take concrete steps to address the systemic anti-Semitism it allowed to fester in its community – e.g., publicizing a statement that it does not tolerate “acts of harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, or national origin including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (e.g. antisemitism),” and conducting annual trainings of school staff and administrators on anti-discrimination law under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics.

According to the settlement, a non-Jewish eighth-grade boy faced daily abuse after he wore the Israeli Olympic jersey of his favorite Major League Baseball player. From that moment on, he was treated with vicious, severe and relentless harassment and bullying by a group of nine classmates. The bullying occurred daily for two years. He was also threatened and physically assaulted. Officials at the middle school were fully aware of the problem yet they refused to take steps to protect the boy.

“I think this case is a reminder that the problem of anti-Semitism, whether it’s in K-12 schools or on college campuses, should not be shoved under the rug,” said Brandeis Center Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober. “It needs to be addressed head-on by educators, administrators and the Department of Education.”

U.S. Dept. of Ed. Opens Investigation Into Anti-Semitism at Berkeley K-12 Schools

The U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights opened a formal investigation in May into a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center and Anti-Defamation League alleging that the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has failed to address non-stop “severe and persistent” bullying and harassment of Jewish students in classrooms, hallways, school yards, and on walkouts since October 7, 2023.

One day before OCR opened the investigation, LDB and ADL expanded their jointly-filed complaint, sounding the alarm that the already-hostile environment for Jewish students is taking a frightening turn for the worse. For example, after the original complaint was filed, a student faced retaliation by peers and anti-Semitic graffiti appeared in a Berkeley High School bathroom and at the bus stop used by many Berkeley High School students to get to and from school.

And the day after OCR announced its investigation, BUSD’s Superintendent testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, denying that her school district had an unaddressed anti-Semitism problem. LDB and ADL’s expanded complaint provided a basis for the Committee’s questions. “They’re breeding the next generation of anti-Semites,” stated LDB Senior Counsel Robin N. Pick, who is overseeing Brandeis’s complaint, about BUSD’s administrators. “In some ways, it’s worse, because these are children as young as five or six years old. They’re captive audiences in these classrooms. They see their teachers as authority figures. They’re extremely impressionable. They don’t have the level of freedom as students do in college.” As a result, Pick warns, what’s happening in Berkeley classrooms amounts to “indoctrination.”

LDB and JAFE Expand Lawsuit Complaint Against UC Berkeley

The Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education (JAFE) – one of the three membership organizations it established to help students, faculty, and parents join its cases as anonymous plaintiffs – expanded their lawsuit complaint against UC Berkeley, adding additional anti-Semitism allegations to the suit.

“As we’ve continued to talk to students – graduate students, law students, undergraduates – we decided to amend our complaint to add new allegations regarding the campus atmosphere, which we believe is a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students,” stated LDB Vice Chair and Berkeley Law alumna L. Rachel Lerman. “What we’re seeking is injunctive relief mainly – we want a court to tell the school, ‘follow the law, enforce your rules.’ And we have found that sometimes this is very effective, sometimes we can reach a settlement agreement with the university or sometimes it has to play itself out in court.”

LDB Declares AAA a Potential Game-Changer for Jewish Students

The House approved the long-awaited Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses. The fate of the bill awaits a decision by the Senate to bring the bill to a floor debate.

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus commended the House decision: 

“This is the game-changing response that we’ve been waiting for. It finally establishes as a matter of law that Jewish students are protected under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Until now, this has been only a matter of informal guidance and an executive order. It also provides for the consistent, transparent use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and ensures that it will be applied consistent with the First Amendment.

“The legislation also gives the force of law to the Trump Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism. The Biden administration has said that they’re following this Order, but now it is formalized. Moreover, the Biden administration has long promised to codify the IHRA definition via regulation, but they have repeatedly missed their self-imposed deadlines.

“From a federal perspective, this legislation won’t change current practice so much as it will reinforce it. From a university perspective, however, there are few U.S. universities that are consistently applying the IHRA definition in appropriate cases. This legislation should put a stop to that.”

Kenneth Marcus Explains Recent U.S. Ed. Dept. OCR Anti-Semitism Guidance in Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle of Higher Education article emphasizes the Brandeis Center’s insights on recent OCR guidance on discrimination – including anti-Semitism – based on real or perceived shared ancestry characteristics.

“This letter is a signal to colleges that OCR is very much open for business. It shows that it is actively pursuing antisemitism and other ethnoreligious cases,” declared LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. The Chronicle of Higher Education reaches an extremely influential higher education audience.

To Marcus, OCR’s citation of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, along with another that references a Q&A on President Trump’s Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism, “clarif[ies] that this administration remains committed to President Trump’s executive order.” Taken together, they show that the IHRA Definition “is not something institutions can choose to adopt,” Marcus said, but a principle “that is woven into the regulatory fabric of the agency.” Marcus has been pushing Congress to pass the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which would codify the IHRA Definition.

LDB and Others Prevent Showing of Anti-Semitic Film at Washington, D.C. High School

The Brandeis Center, American Jewish Committee and JCRC of Greater Washington jointly-filed an amicus brief in federal court case, supporting a Washington, D.C. high school’s decision to ban the screening of an anti-Semitic documentary.

One day later, the student group that had sued to compel the school to screen the film “The Occupation of the American Mind” narrated by Roger Waters withdrew its request for a preliminary injunction that, if granted, would have allowed it to show the film.

“High schools should not be sanctioning movies, teacher lesson plans, or any ‘educational’ activities that present a one-sided, biased perspective, often laced with anti-Semitic tropes about Israel and Jews. That is not education,” stated LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “Schools have every right to exclude anti-Israel propaganda.”

NYT Interviews Rachel Lerman on Lack of Consequences for Anti-Semitic Faculty and Administrators

In a recent analysis of the lack of firings of educators accused of anti-Semitism, the New York Times sought insights from Brandeis Center Vice Chair L. Rachel Lerman.

LDB and ADL’s jointly-filed Title VI federal complaint filed against Berkely Unified School District (BUSD) argues that the district has “refused” to discipline teachers, including some who framed the Hamas attack as “resistance” or called Israel an “apartheid state” in their classrooms. The U.S. Dept. of Education recently opened an investigation into BUSD based on LDB’s complaint.

Lerman stated that many Jewish families feel that if another group were to face similar targeting in schools, “We would see results. It’s not about silencing speech. It’s about what’s appropriate in the classroom under the school’s own rules and California’s own laws.”

LDB Hosts Capitol Hill Briefing Highlighting the Spread of Anti-Semitism in K-12 Schools

The Brandeis Center hosted a Capitol Hill briefing titled “Fighting Antisemitism in K-12 School” in early May. The panel discussion was moderated by Brandeis Center Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober and featured Director of Legal Investigation Marci Lerner Miller and Senior Counsel Mark Goldfeder.

“Some of the anti-Semitism we are seeing in elementary and secondary schools involves traditional and classic manifestations, while some of it resembles what we are seeing in higher education, with middle and high schoolers emulating their older siblings to target Jews on the basis of their shared ancestry connected to Israel,” Katz-Prober explained. “And some aspects of the problem are different – coming from teacher unions or school-generated problems with curriculum.”

Read the full blog post, authored by LDB Director of Policy Education Emma Enig, who also produced the Congressional Briefing.

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Alyza Lewin to Feature in Touro University Webinar (June 19)

Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin is among the featured panelists in a webinar titled “Antisemitism on College Campuses and Beyond.” The event is open to the public.
 
The event also features United States District Judge Hon. Roy K. Altman. The presentation’s moderators are Touro University President Dr. Alan Kadish and Touro University Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institute Samuel J. Levine.
 
Register here. The Touro Talks 2024 Distinguished Lecture Series, virtual lectures is co-sponsored by Robert and Arlene Rosenberg and the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center.

Kenneth L. Marcus Discusses Anti-Semitism Awareness Act on NBC News

Kenneth L. Marcus Discusses the Anti-Awareness Act in an Instagram Reel Posted by NBC News.

The Brandeis Center is Hiring

The Brandeis Center is hiring for the full-time positions of Litigation Counsel (New York), Staff Attorney (New York; Washington, D.C.; or remote), and Director of Development ( Washington, D.C.; New York; or remote). Duties, qualifications, and compensation are listed in the Opportunities section of our website.

If you meet the qualifications and are passionate about our mission to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all, we want to hear from you. Interested candidates should send resumes and cover letters by electronic mail to info@brandeiscenter.com. For the attorney roles, we suggest also including a writing sample and list of references.

Published 6/6/24 by The Algemeiner; Story by Dion Pierre

The teacher’s union of an Oregon school district is drawing scrutiny for promoting the teaching of anti-Zionist propaganda to children as young as five, according to numerous reports.

Last month, as first reported by The Oregonian, the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) posted an anti-Zionist lesson plan on its website, titled “Know Your Rights! Teaching & Organizing for Palestine Within Portland Public Schools.” Among other things, the document describes Israel as “separatist” and “nationalist” and links opposition to its existence to the entirety of the progressive policy agenda, from the environment to LBGTQ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.

One section, “Organizing with Students,” also counsels teachers on how to meet up with their students outside of school.

The document even contains a definition of antisemitism written by a far-left group which rules out the possibility that anti-Zionism can be a form of antisemitism and asserts that hatred of Jews is exclusively a Christian European form of racism. It also fails to mention forms of Islamic antisemitism that are anti-Zionist and influenced by German Nazism, which was a secular phenomenon.

“Originating in European Christianity, antisemitism is the form of ideological oppression that targets Jews,” it says. “In Europe and the United States, it has functioned to protect the prevailing economic system and the almost exclusively Christian class by diverting blame for hardship onto Jews.”

The Oregonian also reported that the union posted lesson plans, some of which have since been removed from its website, claiming that Israel is a “settler colonial” state. The materials target children as young as five with themes such as “Woke Kindergarten” and “Lil Comrade Convos.” Others — such as “No Freedom Without Reproductive Freedom for Palestinian Women” and “Renewable Energy in Occupied Palestine” — aim to appeal to high school students.

“After hearing concerns from members around the content of some of these lessons … we’re taking it all off our website,” Angela Bonilla, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said in announcing the decision, according to the Oregonian. “The concerns of them being one-sided is enough for me to say we have to pause and review … I’m hearing things about these materials I would not have let through.”

Bonilla has not, however, removed “Know Your Rights” from the website. She told the Oregonian that the document was “vetted.”

The Portland Association of Teachers, the paper added, also courted controversy for meeting with a radical anti-Zionist group which distributed pamphlets praising Hamas and implored teachers to promote anti-Zionism in the classroom by displaying flags and wearing t-shirts imprinted with the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The popular slogan among anti-Israel activists has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Local Jewish organizations have criticized the union for promoting political advocacy in the classroom and fostering antisemitism.

“PAT has their narrow agenda,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland said in a statement addressing the issue. “This is an effort by the teachers’ union to promote what many feel is a biased and historically revisionist curriculum.”

Antisemitism in K-12 schools is an issue that is drawing increasing attention from Jewish civil rights groups.

“The problem is coming to light as many people realize that K-12 indoctrination is oftentimes the basis for the antisemitism we see on college campuses,” Marci Lerner Miller, attorney for the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told The Algemeiner earlier this week. “Many students arrive at their first day of college already having been taught to hate Israel and Jews. Addressing K-12 antisemitism helps us get to the root of the problem in many cases. The Office for Civil Rights has taken an interest in investigating it, and Congress recently called the superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District to testify about what is happening there.”

The Brandeis Center has taken the lead in fighting antisemitism at the K-12 level. This month, it prevailed in its latest civil rights case brought forth on behalf of a North Carolina Middle schooler who was bullied for being “perceived” as Jewish. In February, it filed a civil rights complaint alleging that the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) in California has caused severe psychological trauma to Jewish students as young as eight years old and fostered a hostile learning environment.

At several schools throughout BUSD, students were recruited to assist anti-Zionist teachers in cheering Hamas’ atrocities as “liberation,” according to the complaint. They were called on to join “walk outs” and rewarded with excused absences in return for their participation, a violation of district policy forbidding excused absences for all but the most important reasons.

The complaint described how these demonstrations became salvos of antisemitic rhetoric. During one organized at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, students shouted “KKK,” “Kill Israel,” “Kill the Jews,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In another incident, a second-grade teacher who threatened a parent instructed her students to write “Stop bombing babies” on sticky notes.

“The Jewish community was slower than we should have been to grasp the threat posed by antisemitism in higher education. Now we’re in danger of repeating the same problem in elementary and secondary education,” Brandeis Center chairman Kenneth Marcus told The Algemeiner. “It is horrifying to acknowledge, but the fact is that the situation in many high schools is starting to replicate some of our most worrisome campuses. Elementary schools are not safe either. One ramification is that college campuses may get even worse, as entering freshmen arrive after having already been indoctrinated while in elementary and secondary schools.”

Published in The Algemeiner on 6/4/24; Story by Dion Pierre

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law has prevailed in its latest civil rights case brought forth on behalf of a North Carolina middle schooler who was bullied for being “perceived” as Jewish.

Last week, the nonprofit civil rights group announced that the Community School of Davidson, a charter school located in North Carolina, agreed to settle a complaint alleging that administrators failed to address a series of heinous antisemitic incidents in which the non-Jewish student, whose name is redacted from the public record, was called a “dirty Jew,” told that “the oven is that way,” and battered with other denigrating comments too vulgar for publication. The abuse, according to the complaint, began after the child wore an Israeli sports jersey.

“This is a very important settlement. It reflects the severity of antisemitism we’re now seeing not only on college campuses but also in K-12 schools,” Brandeis Center chairman and former US assistant education secretary Kenneth Marcus said in a statement. “This case also shows the various ways in which non-Jews as well as Jews can be harmed by antisemitic attitudes. The law recognizes that discrimination against those ‘perceived’ to be Jewish must be addressed because it is still bigotry, and it can quickly and dangerously multiply and seep into an entire community.”

Marcus continued, “We commend the courage of this family including a child for coming forward.”

The student, an eight-grader, was threatened and physically assaulted, according to the complaint, which noted that officials at the middle school were aware of the problem but did not take steps to address the daily bullying.

As part of the settlement with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the Community School of Davidson has agreed, among other things, to issue a statement proclaiming a zero tolerance policy for racist abuse, institute anti-discrimination training for teachers and staff, and “develop or revise” its approach to responding to racial bigotry.

“It would be hard to overstate the impact this has had on my child,” the student’s mother said in a statement. “It is critical that educators not only understand the seriousness and danger of letting antisemitism flourish in their schools, but also that they are capable of taking proper action to effectively confront it and protect our children.”

This case isn’t the first the Brandeis Center has pursued on behalf of K-12 students. In February, it filed a complaint alleging that the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) in California has caused severe psychological trauma to Jewish students as young as eight years old and fostered a hostile learning environment.

The problem exploded after Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, the suit charged. Since then, BUSD teachers have allegedly used their classrooms to promote antisemitic tropes about Israel, weaponizing disciplines such as art and history to convince unsuspecting minors that Israel is a “settler-colonial” apartheid state committing a genocide of Palestinians. While this took place, high-level BUSD officials allegedly ignored complaints about discrimination and tacitly approved hateful conduct even as it spread throughout the student body.

At Berkeley High School, for example, a history teacher allegedly forced students to explain why Israel is an apartheid state and screened an anti-Zionist documentary. The teacher sharply squelched dissent, telling a Jewish student who raised concerns about the content of her lessons that only anti-Zionist narratives matter in her classroom and that any other which argues that Israel isn’t an apartheid state is “laughable.” Elsewhere in the school, an art teacher, whose name is redacted from the complaint for matters of privacy, displayed anti-Israel artworks in his classroom, one of which showed a fist punching through a Star of David.

At several schools throughout BUSD, students were recruited to assist anti-Zionists teachers in cheering Hamas’ atrocities as “liberation.” They were called on to join “walk outs” and rewarded with excused absences in return for their participation, another violation of district policy forbidding excused absences for all but the most important reasons. These demonstrations became salvos of antisemitic rhetoric. During one organized at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, students shouted “KKK,” “Kill Israel,” “Kill the Jews,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In another incident, the second-grade teacher who threatened a parent instructed her students to write “Stop bombing babies” on sticky notes.

The behavior of BUSD teachers and the benefits they offered in exchange for engaging in antisemitic behavior sent a strong signal to students that hating Jews is normal, socially acceptable behavior, the complaint explained. Acting on such approval, they proceeded to bully Jewish students with impunity. “You have a big nose because you are a stupid Jew,” a Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School student allegedly told their Jewish classmate. Another called a Jewish student a “midget Jew,” and throughout the district it became a trend to ask Jewish students if they have a “number,” an allusion to tattoos given to Jewish concentration camp prisoners during the Holocaust.

“The Jewish community was slower than we should have been to grasp the threat posed by antisemitism in higher education. Now we’re in danger of repeating the same problem in elementary and secondary education,” Marcus told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “It is horrifying to acknowledge, but the fact is that the situation in many high schools is starting to replicate some of our most worrisome campuses. Elementary schools are not safe either. One ramification is that college campuses may get even worse, as entering freshmen arrive after having already been indoctrinated while in elementary and secondary schools.”

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Anti-Semitic bullying reported at Davidson charter school leads to policy changes

DAVIDSON, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS; June 5, 2024) — A Davidson charter school has agreed to make changes around harassment and training after a complaint was filed that detailed a student enduring anti-Semitic bullying from classmates.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a complaint on behalf of the Community School of Davidson student and his family in August of 2023. It says the seventh-grader faced the remarks for two school years. 

The complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and centered around harassment that occurred between August 2021 through May 2023. 

It also stated that CSD’s teachers and even administrators knew about the harassment.

In documents obtained by Queen City News, the complaint alleged that the student, who is non-Jewish, was bullied by classmates after he wore an Israeli Olympic jersey of his favorite Major League Baseball player. 

The complaint described “vicious anti-Semitic” comments directed at the middle schooler that also occurred during a class lecture about the Holocaust. 

The child was said to have been “distressed and isolated by the daily abuse and degradation he endured.” 

In March of 2023, he notified his mother who reported it to the school administration.   

It was later reported in findings by the Office for Civil Rights that CSD asked “the teacher to increase their supervision of the students involved and conducted interviews with the students identified.” 

However, “there is no evidence that after substantiating that harassing conduct occurred in March 2023, the School took steps to address the harassment with the Student to mitigate its effects.” 

CSD released a statement to Queen City News regarding the complaint:

“The Community School of Davidson (“CSD”) was built on the founding principles of community and inclusion. Our mission is to provide an optimal environment for learning in which teachers and parents work together to create an inclusive environment for all students. We abide by all federal and state anti-discrimination laws and will continue to do so. All complaints received by CSD are investigated in accordance with CSD’s policies and procedures, as well as federal and state laws and regulations. 

“With regard to the complaint filed with OCR, CSD voluntarily entered into a resolution agreement with OCR. OCR made no findings of any wrongdoing on the part of CSD. Instead, CSD agreed to bolster trainings, policies, and routine school activities to ensure the necessary safeguards are implemented to protect all students and staff from discrimination, harassment, and bullying or any perception of the same.“

However, in its analysis of how the school handled its investigation into the complaint the Office of Civil Rights did name instances of “failure.” 

OCR stated it found evidence to show the student was harassed, thereby creating a “hostile environment,” and that “OCR is concerned that the School failed to consistently take prompt and effective steps to redress the environment.

It was also discovered that the school did not properly document its investigation which could have led to the school not properly identifying the hostile environment which led to future abuse. 

Read the full analysis of the findings here.

Before the investigation was complete, OCR and CSD entered into an agreement that included better training for educators to identify instances of hate speech, proper documentation of investigations into these matters, and a future assessment of the climate on campus in the first quarter of 2024-2025. 

Read the settlement here.

The OCR will also follow up with the school to ensure the changes are in place. 

Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin will present in this “Touro Talks 2024 Distinguished Lecture Series” Zoom event co-sponsored by Robert and Arlene Rosenberg and the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center. Read more information about this event here.

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Mother of bullied middle-schooler testified at Congressional briefing this month

Washington, D.C., May 30, 2024:  A North Carolina public charter school agreed to settle a U.S. Department of Education investigation into severe, persistent, and pervasive anti-Semitic bullying that went unaddressed in one of its charter schools for two full academic years. The settlement requires the school to take concrete steps to address the systemic anti-Semitism it allowed to fester in its community.

According to the settlement, the Community School of Davidson has entered into a resolution agreement with the Department of Education to resolve a federal complaint filed by The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of a non-Jewish eighth-grade boy who faced daily abuse after he wore the Israeli Olympic jersey of his favorite Major League Baseball player. From that moment on he was treated with vicious, severe and relentless harassment and bullying by a group of nine classmates for being a Jew.  He was called “dirty Jew,” “filthy Jew,” and “penny picker upper,” and told to “get in the gas chamber,” “go back to your concentration camp,” “go to your oven Jew,” “the oven is that way,” and “go die Jew.” The bullying occurred every single day all over school, even during Holocaust class, for two years. He was also threatened and physically assaulted.

Officials at the middle school were fully aware of the problem yet they refused to take steps to address the daily bullying and physical assaults.

“It would be hard to overstate the impact this has had on my child,” said the boy’s mother, who asked that her name and her son’s name be withheld, during a recent congressional briefing on Capitol Hill about rising anti-Semitism in K-12 schools. “As a parent this has been completely devastating.”

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin, including discrimination against Jews, or those perceived to be Jewish, on the basis of their actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics in educational institutions that receive federal funding. 

In the settlement, the Department of Education confirmed that the evidence substantiated the Brandeis Center’s claim that the child was subjected to a hostile environment based on his perceived Jewish shared ancestry, and that the school knew about it and did not take prompt and effective steps to address it or the broader hostile environment at the school.  The Department of Education went on to admonish the school for failing to properly investigate, failing to take “timely, reasonable, and effective steps to eliminate the hostile environment,” and failing to “put in effective supports for bystanders who may have witnessed the antisemitic comments and experienced the impact of a hostile environment,” and it cautioned that these failures “may have impeded the School from identifying whether a hostile environment existed for other students.”

“This is a very important settlement. It reflects the severity of anti-Semitism we’re now seeing not only on college campuses but also in K-12 schools. This case also shows the various ways in which non-Jews as well as Jews can be harmed by anti-Semitic attitudes. The law recognizes that discrimination against those ‘perceived’ to be Jewish must be addressed because it is still bigotry, and it can quickly and dangerously multiply and seep into an entire community.  We commend the courage of this family including a child for coming forward,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, chair of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education. 

The agreement requires the school to take the following immediate steps:

  • Publish and publicize a statement that it does not tolerate “acts of harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, or national origin including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (e.g. antisemitism)”;
  • Review and revise its policies and procedures for non-discrimination and reporting to ensure it specifies prohibited harassment based on “actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics,” including providing examples of harassment based on shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics;
  • Develop or revise procedures for documenting complaints of harassment and actions taken in response by the school;
  • Annual trainings of school staff and administrators on anti-discrimination law under Title VI, including actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics;
  • Conduct annual trainings of staff involved in processing, investigating, and resolving complaints of discrimination and harassment, including “racial sensitivity training, including on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics”;
  • Develop a student informational program for students to address discrimination including on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics;
  • Conduct audits for the last two school years to determine if any incidents constituted discrimination including harassment on basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnicity, and if they find harassment occurred, the school must take steps to remedy the harassment towards affected students;
  • Conduct an audit at the end of the 2024-25 school year to assess compliance with the school’s anti-discrimination policies and procedures; and
  • Conduct a climate assessment during 2024-25 school year and ensure parents and students have access to a counselor to discuss incidents and concerns.

The Department of Education indicated that it will monitor the Community School of Davidson until it determines it is in compliance with the terms of the settlement and the law. 

“The fact that the school would ignore this is reprehensible,” stated Marcus.  “Unfortunately, though, far too many K-12 school districts and universities are taking the easy way out and allowing schools to become hostile environments for Jews, and by default anyone perceived to be Jewish. We urge the Department of Education to resolve other pending cases expeditiously so we can begin to turn the tide on this dangerous wave of anti-Semitism.”

The boy’s mother added, “It is critical that educators not only understand the seriousness and danger of letting anti-Semitism flourish in their schools, but also that they are capable of taking proper action to effectively confront it and protect our children.” The Brandeis Center also filed a federal complaint against Berkeley Unified School District and is suing the New York Department of Education for unaddressed anti-Semitism in K-12 schools.  And the Department of Education is currently investigating Brandeis Center complaints for unaddressed anti-Semitism on numerous college campuses, including Wellesley, SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California, Brooklyn College, and the University of Illinois.  The organization also recently filed complaints against American University, UC Santa Barbara, Occidental College, Pomona College, UMass-Amherst, and Ohio State University.

Contact: Nicole Rosen 202-309-5724

Complaint accuses Harvard of being “deliberately indifferent” and adopting double standard when it comes to Jew-hatred

Washington, D.C., May 22, 2024:  The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is suing Harvard University for leaving “cruel anti-Semitic bullying, harassment, and discrimination” unaddressed for years, pre- and post-10/7.  According to the complaint, “when Harvard is presented with incontrovertible evidence of anti-Semitic conduct, it ignores and tolerates it. Harvard’s permissive posture towards anti-Semitism is the opposite of its aggressive enforcement of the same anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies to protect other minorities.”

The waffling this week and last when it came to enforcing consequences for protestors who violated numerous university rules and harassed, threatened and intimidated Jewish students is another example of what is described in this lawsuit.

The complaint was filed today in the U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The legal team includes Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC, as well as Vogel Law Firm PLLC, Libby Hoopes Brooks & Mulvey PC, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, and the Brandeis Center.

According to the complaint, daily since 10/7, Harvard students and faculty have called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism. Student protestors have occupied and vandalized buildings, interrupted classes, and exams, and made the campus unbearable for their Jewish and Israeli classmates. Professors, too, have explicitly supported anti-Jewish and anti-Israel terrorism, and spread anti-Semitic propaganda in their classes.  Jewish students are bullied and spat on, intimidated, and threatened, and subject to verbal and physical harassment. 

Harvard’s student message board provides a window into the toxic environment for Jewish students.  It is filled with vile anti-Semitic slurs, threats and conspiracy theories, including calls for Jews to “cook” and the Harvard Hillel to “burn[ ] in hell,” and an anti-Semitic cartoon resembling Nazi-era propaganda that depicts a hand etched with a Star of David and a dollar sign holding a noose around the necks of what appear to be a black man and an Arab man.  The cartoon was posted not only by student groups but also by faculty.

Jewish students report self-censoring, both in and out of the classroom, and avoid taking certain classes, attending certain events, or traversing certain areas on campus out of fear that they will be physically or verbally abused. Jewish and Israeli students report feeling isolated, unwelcomed, and unable to enjoy the educational rights and benefits to which they are legally entitled.  One of the students mentioned in the complaint describes how she literally hides in her room and avoids public spaces, including her research lab, for fear of being harassed and attacked.

Detailed in the complaint are numerous examples documenting how Harvard, pre- and post-10/7, has deliberately ignored anti-Semitic incidents and threats to Jewish students, while supporting and protecting students and faculty perpetrators, allowing anti-Semitism to grow and flourish. According to the complaint, “Harvard’s message was clear: discrimination, harassment, or violence is acceptable so long as it is directed at Israelis and Jews.”

For example, when right after 10/7 a thousand protestors showed up at Harvard calling for genocide against Jews and began harassing, intimidating, and threatening Jewish students, Harvard’s first action was to form a task force to protect the individuals spewing the vile anti-Semitic hatred. In fact, according to the complaint, Harvard held itself out as a resource for helping perpetrators erase their digital footprint and hide their actions.

Another example involves the physical assault of a Jewish student.  When protestors realized a student was Jewish and/or Israeli, from a blue bracelet he was wearing in solidarity with Israel, a mob swarmed and surrounded him, and began physically accosting him and yelling in his face. The student pleaded with them to stop but, assailants violently grabbed him, pushed him, and he was physically attacked until he was ultimately able to escape the mob.  The assault was captured on video, yet Harvard took no action to redress the physical assault. And even now that the perpetrators have been charged with criminal assault and battery, Harvard has yet to discipline, suspend, or expel the attackers, or remove them from their leadership positions. In fact, it is believed that Harvard staff have assisted some of the perpetrators in their criminal hearing.

A further example involves an incident from a year ago when three Israeli students were intentionally discriminated against and tormented throughout a course that they took at Harvard Kennedy School with Professor Marshall Ganz. After they proposed a project about their Israeli Jewish identity, Arab and Muslim classmates objected, complaining that the idea of a “Jewish democracy” was “offensive.” The professor and teaching fellows agreed. The professor compared the existence of a “Jewish state” to “white supremacy,” and threatened the students with “consequences” if they proceeded with the topic. When the students persisted, Ganz’s misconduct metastasized into repeated taunting and humiliation throughout the course.  Ganz then lowered the students’ grades as a “consequence” for their refusal to change their topic.

After the Brandeis Center sent a complaint to the university, in March 2023, Harvard launched a third-party-investigation, which agreed with the Brandeis Center and concluded Ganz had illegally created “a hostile education environment,” denied the Israeli students “a learning environment free from bias,” and “denigrated” them “on the basis of their Israeli national origin and Jewish ethnicity and ancestry.” Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf accepted the investigator’s findings and committed to addressing the illegal harassment and discrimination. Yet to date Harvard has not announced the incident, publicly apologized for the discrimination, fired or suspended the professor or disciplined the teaching assistants. It has not even provided training to prevent anti-Semitism or anti-Israel bias in the future. Instead, Harvard’s magazine profiled Ganz and touted him as a civil rights hero.

“For years Harvard’s leaders have allowed the school to become a breeding ground for hateful anti-Jewish and radical anti-Israel views,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights.  “An outside investigator warned of the problem more than a year ago, Harvard Kennedy School’s Dean acknowledged it, and yet crickets.  When are university leaders going to learn that in order to prevent your school from becoming a cesspool of anti-Semitism action is required?  Schools must hold students and faculty accountable.  They must follow through with public consequences when Jews are harassed and discriminated against like they would for any other minority group, as required by law.”

According to the Brandeis Center complaint, “Jews are fair game” at Harvard. “Students and faculty can harass and discriminate against Jews, and they can do so openly and with impunity.”  And making matters even worse, “Harvard will go out of its way to protect anti-Semitic protestors and conspiracy-theorists.” It goes on to say that had Jewish students been “members of any other protected class, Harvard would have disciplined the offenders swiftly and vigorously.”

The complaint documents how Harvard aggressively enforces anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies to protect other minorities, and it cites numerous examples over the last few years where the school has been vigilant to oust students or force out professors for taking positions that do not fit with school’s philosophy, vision, and policies.

The lawsuit alleges that Harvard has violated numerous of its own policies as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin, including discrimination against Jews on the basis of their actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, in educational institutions that receive federal funding.  Under the law, harassing, marginalizing, demonizing, and excluding Jewish students on the basis of the Zionist component of their Jewish identity is just as unlawful and discriminatory as attacking a Jewish student for observing the Sabbath or keeping kosher. UNESCO has cautioned that “Jew” and “Zionist” are often used interchangeably today in an attempt by anti-Semites to cloak their hate. In fact, according to President Biden’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, released in May 2023, “Jewish students and educators are targeted for derision and exclusion on college campuses, often because of their real or perceived views about the State of Israel.  When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism. And that is unacceptable.” In 2023, Harvard received $676 million in federal funding. The Department of Education and the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee are currently investigating Harvard for anti-Semitism.

Contact: Nicole Rosen 202-309-5724

Washington, D.C., May 16, 2024:  The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law today filed a federal civil rights complaint against the University of Santa Barbara (UCSB) for leaving its own student government president, Tessa Veksler, utterly vulnerable to severe and persistent anti-Semitic bullying, harassment, intimidation, and threats. The harassment escalated to such a degree it forced Veksler to stay off campus during the end of the fall semester and take her exams online.  The Brandeis Center is representing Veksler.

Veksler was elected president of the UCSB Associated Students (AS) in April 2023, making history by becoming the school’s first Sabbath observant student body president.  She is the daughter of Soviet refugees who fled Jewish persecution, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine compelled her to run. According to Veksler, her parents came to the U.S. in search of a society where they could live freely from anti-Semitism. Yet, a generation later, she is facing anti-Semitic hate for serving her university.

According to the complaint, Veksler has been targeted relentlessly on social media and at her student government office by her peers on the basis of an integral component of her Jewish identity, namely, her “Zionism,” which recognizes that Jews are part of a people with an ancestral connection to Israel. Threats such as, “you can run but you can’t hide, Tessa Veksler;” attacks calling her a Zionist dog, racist, and fascist; and repeated accusations that she is unfit to serve in her elected position due to her Jewish identity, have plagued her since October 7. Just last month, in a poster featuring Veksler and other students, a photo of Veksler’s face was violently slashed. The constant harassment has left Veksler fearful for her physical safety on campus, negatively impacted her mental health, adversely affected her academic performance, and undermined her ability to lead student government.

“No individual should ever have to experience what I went through as a Jewish student at UCSB – harassment, intimidation, threats, and character assassination all in the form of pure anti-Semitic hatred,” stated Veksler. “Despite the challenges I have faced, I knew that nothing would stop me from standing up for the Jewish community, maintaining my democratically-elected position, and pursuing justice for myself after being relentlessly targeted on the basis of my Jewish identity.”

The situation began online where Veksler was repeatedly cyberbullied and doxed. And after it was left unchecked by the university for numerous months, the harassment migrated to the campus.  In February, students plastered signs throughout the Multicultural Center, where Veksler’s student government office is located, threatening her and making it clear Veksler is unwelcome on campus and should be excluded. The messages on posters stated: “Zionists are not welcome,” “Zionists not welcome,” “Ziofascists GTFO [get the f**k out],” “Zionists not allowed,” “AS president is racist Zionist,” and “Get these Zionists out of office.”  Some of the posters contained ominous warnings directed at Veksler.

The harassment was further publicized to the entire student body community when photographs were posted on UCSB Multicultural Center’s official Instagram account.  The harassment continued online with demeaning messages and veiled threats that included, “You are disgusting. Zionists are NOT welcome in the MCC [Multicultural Center]. We will not back down and we WILL take action.” One post stated, “Zionist dog is sad she can’t harass the non-white students she presides over :(,” and another remarked, “Everyone, take a moment of your time to feel bad for this genocide-supporting racist piece of shit,” and “f**k your white comfort in stealing a multicultural center.”  Other posts invoked age-old anti-Semitic tropes including the greedy Jew and claims Jews cannot be trusted to hold elected office.

Some of the harassing messages suggested Jews are not a minority group and do not belong at the Multicultural Center at all.

According to the complaint, the university has largely ignored the harassment, threats, and attacks, failing to stop the harassment or adequately address the hostile environment, and the few steps it has taken have been severely insufficient. It has failed to even put out a statement specifically condemning anti-Semitic efforts to bully and intimidate its own Jewish student president.

The Brandeis Center demands UCSB conduct an immediate and full investigation of the discriminatory and harassing behavior against Veksler and take appropriate disciplinary action against perpetrators.  To prevent future incidents like this, they also urge the university to issue a statement clearly and specifically condemning anti-Semitic harassment and efforts to shun and marginalize Jewish students based on the Zionist component of their Jewish identity and commit to conducting anti-Semitism education and training of faculty, students and staff.

“What has been allowed to happen to Tessa over many months – shaming, harassing, and shunning a student until they disavow a part of their Judaism – is shameful and illegal,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights.  “Sadly, this is not the first time we are seeing this mob behavior against a Jewish student elected by their student body to serve.  It is incumbent upon UC Santa Barbara and all universities to say enough is enough.”

Brandeis Center attorneys also represented Rose Ritch when anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination led to her resignation as University of Southern California’s (USC) student government vice president and Max Price, a Tufts student government official similarly threatened with impeachment and disciplinary hearings.  Ritch and Price were both attacked for the Zionist component of their Jewish identity. After the Brandeis Center intervened, Students for Justice in Palestine withdrew their call to impeach Price. The Department of Education is currently investigating USC.

Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, including discrimination against Jews on the basis of their actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, in educational institutions that receive federal funding.  Under the law, harassing, marginalizing, demonizing, and excluding Jewish students based on the Zionist component of their Jewish identity is unlawful.  UNESCO has cautioned that “Jew” and “Zionist” are often used interchangeably today in an attempt by anti-Semites to cloak their hate.  According to President Biden’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, released in May 2023, “Jewish students and educators are targeted for derision and exclusion on college campuses, often because of their real or perceived views about the State of Israel.  When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism. And that is unacceptable.”

Last week the Brandeis Center and ADL filed civil rights complaints against Pomona and Occidental Colleges for severe anti-Semitic bullying, intimidation and physical threats. And the Department of Education opened an investigation into a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center and ADL about “severe and pervasive” anti-Semitism in Berkeley K-12 public schools.

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. More at www.brandeiscenter.com