Written by Wilson Ring for the Associated Press (9/13/22)

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The U.S. Department of Education is investigating allegations of antisemitism at the University of Vermont, including that some Jewish students were excluded from campus clubs and a teaching assistant threatened to reduce the grades of students who support the state of Israel.

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The complaint filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law alleges that UVM has allowed a hostile environment to exist on campus in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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The complaint, which was filed last year but acted upon by the Department of Education last month, says Jewish students have expressed fear about identifying publicly as Jewish, they hide their Jewish identity and some have considered transferring from UVM due to the hostile environment.

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Jewish students are being pressured to disavow their sense of being Jewish if they want to engage on issues like LGBTQ, women’s or immigration rights, or climate change, said Alyza Lewin, the president of the Brandeis Center.

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“It can’t be that today, the only community that’s not welcomed to bring their full identity to the table are the Jews,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And that’s what’s happening now at the University of Vermont, is that they’re saying to everyone, ‘we welcome you to our table with your full identity, except the Jews.’”

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In a statement, UVM spokesman Enrique Corredera said they were aware of the investigation by the Office of Civil Rights and they are looking forward to providing the agency with a full response to the underlying allegations, which were reported to the university in 2021 and investigated by campus officials.

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“UVM seeks to foster a culture of inclusiveness for all students, faculty, and staff, including members of our Jewish community, and does not tolerate acts of bias or discrimination related to religion, race, culture, gender, or sexual orientation on our campus,”′ the statement said.

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The allegations of anti-Semitism at UVM comes after antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reached a record high last year. Earlier this year the The Anti-Defamation League counted 2,717 antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism in 2021, a 34% increase over the previous year and the highest number since the New York City-based group began tracking such incidents in 1979.

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The UVM complaint says that in the spring of 2021 a campus sexual assault group called UVM Empowering Survivors, which had more than 4,000 followers, announced on a social media page that Zionist students were no longer welcome in the group and would be “blocked.”

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Zionists consider Israel the homeland for Jewish people.

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When Jewish students reached out to the group to discuss the matter, they were rebuffed. The group added “we will not (be) engaging in conversation about… Zionism,” the complaint says.

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The complaint also alleges the teaching assistant, whose name was blacked out in the complaint, posted on social media threats to reduce the grades of UVM’s Jewish Zionist students.

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“is it unethical for me, a TA, to not give zionists credit for participation??? i feel like its good and funny,”′ said the grammatically incorrect message from April 5, 2021, that was reproduced in the complaint.

Jack Thurston reporting for NBC Boston (NECN-TV) on 9/13/22

The University of Vermont is under federal investigation, following allegations of antisemitism on campus.

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The probe, confirmed to NECN & NBC10 Boston by a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, is from the department’s civil rights wing. It is responsible for ensuring, under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that everyone is being protected from discrimination at educational institutions which receive federal funding — including UVM.

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Among the concerns outlined in an administrative complaint are reports that a center for Jewish campus life was pelted with small stones and had a sticky substance smeared on the property.

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The document also traces allegations that a teaching assistant, who was not identified, discriminated against Jewish students because of their ancestry and ethnicities — even threatening their grades. Additionally, the filing says a student group that advocates for survivors of sexual violence is accused of blocking Jews from membership, citing the ongoing conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians as the reason for denial of participation.

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[gview file=”https://brandeiscenter.com//home4/klmarcus/public_html/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/10-2-21-UVM-Complaint_Redacted.pdf”]

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“Why this case is so important for us is that we see students being excluded from campus life,” said Julia Jassey, who leads the organization Jewish on Campus.

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Jewish on Campus collaborated with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, on the formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education. The organizations said they want to see UVM take tangible steps to improve Jewish life on campus, including by forming a task force and launching training sessions about harassment and intimidation.

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“If the university is to truly be a safe, welcoming space for all, then the Jewish students also have to be able to come to the table with their full identity,” said Alyza Lewin of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. “And that’s all we need to fix. That’s just what we need to fix.”

In response to a request for comment from NECN & NBC10 Boston, UVM issued the following written statement:

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“The University is aware of the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights investigation and is looking forward to providing the agency with a full response to the underlying allegations, each of which was reported to the university in 2021 and investigated by campus officials. UVM seeks to foster a culture of inclusiveness for all students, faculty, and staff, including members of our Jewish community and does not tolerate acts of bias or discrimination related to religion, race, culture, gender, or sexual orientation on our campus.”

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Avi Zatz, who told NECN & NBC10 Boston he transferred from the University of Vermont to the University of Florida in large part because he didn’t feel UVM administrators were taking anti-semitism on campus seriously, said he hopes the investigation results in the university focusing on enforcing its own non-discrimination policies.

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“I felt that if I stayed and if something were to happen to me, I knew the administration wouldn’t be there for me,” Zatz said in an interview Tuesday.

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Zatz also said that in his view, Jewish students at UVM can “get overlooked sometimes.”

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UVM Hillel, a campus organization that works to support Jewish students in living and learning on campus safely and with pride in their community, issued a written statement following the announcement of the federal investigation. The UVM Hillel statement reads, in part:

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“We know from our colleagues across the country that antisemitism and anti-Israel activity have risen to unprecedented levels with the return to in-person campus activity. We take seriously our responsibility to work with our university partners to ensure incidents of bias are addressed, and that university leaders swiftly identify and publicly condemn antisemitism, bias, and hate in any form. Our campus and our community should be a safe space for all students – including Jewish students. There is no place for hatred at the University of Vermont, and we look forward to continuing working together as a UVM community toward a campus climate that makes all students feel safe and welcome on campus.”

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As for the civil rights probe, the spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said the department does not comment on pending investigations.

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However, a source familiar with how such probes work from her work as an attorney said they can take a long time and are generally focused on whether any corrective actions are warranted.

 

 

Washington, D.C. (September 14, 2022) – The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is pleased to announce the appointment of Ben Alkon as the organization’s newest full-time attorney.

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Mr. Alkon, a 2020 graduate of George Washington University Law School, will work on legal advocacy initiatives, including investigations of anti-Semitic incidents on campus, advising students who face anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination, and preparing legal complaints. Mr. Alkon will also assist with training programs and coordinate with strategic partners in the college space.

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“At a time when the Brandeis Center’s work is yielding an extraordinary series of concurrent, open U.S. government investigations into campus anti-Semitism – from the University of Illinois and Brooklyn College to USC and now the University of Vermont – we are delighted to have another attorney of high caliber join our team,” declared Founder and Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “We are particularly pleased with the experience that he brings in the fields of religious liberty and international law.”

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“Ben is joining our Brandeis Center staff when the demand for our services is at an all-time high. His intelligence, professional experience, and passion for helping others have enhanced our team and enabled us to increase our capacity,” noted Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin. “It’s a delight to have him on board. I’m confident he will be a boon not only to us but also to our clients, interns and law students.”

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“I am excited to join the Brandeis Center at a time when the organization’s work highlighting attacks on Jewish identity have become part of mainstream discussions on anti-Semitism,” Mr. Alkon shared. “I look forward to providing support to Jewish students across the country, who have been wrongfully branded as pariahs by groups that seek to exclude Jews from educational opportunities.”

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Mr. Alkon’s appointment continues the Brandeis Center’s ongoing expansion. In addition to its historic focus on combatting campus anti-Semitism, the Brandeis Center is also leading the legal effort to address emergent forms of anti-Semitism that are spilling out of the campus space into other arenas. As exemplified by the Center’s employment discrimination case against Stanford University and its landmark settlement that prevented Ben & Jerry’s anti-Israel boycott, the civil and human rights organization is also fighting anti-Semitism in the workplace and corporate boardroom.

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The Brandeis Center continues to recruit for additional positions to address increasing anti-Semitism on and off of university campuses. The organization is currently seeking applicants with employment law experience for the role of ‘Director of Corporate Initiatives and Legal Counsel’ and is accepting applications for winter and spring law student clerkships, civil rights fellowships and undergraduate communications and development internships.
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About Ben Alkon:

The Rockville, Maryland native has primarily worked as a family law and domestic relations litigator since graduating from George Washington University Law School in 2020.

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He was president of his undergraduate Hillel chapter at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and later at the firm of Heideman Nudelman & Kalik, P.C., he assisted in the firm’s representation of American victims of international terrorism.
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Ben worked closely with Richard D. Heideman, providing support for his second book, The Bloody Price of Freedom, and on an article published in the Loyal University Law School’s International Law Review’s special edition on the Nuremberg trials.
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He has interned with the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief and worked as a research assistant for the George Washington University Law School’s David R. and Sherry Kirschner Berz Research Professor of Law and Religion, Robert Tuttle.
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About the Brandeis Center:

The Louis D. Brandeis Center is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. The Brandeis Center conducts research, education, and advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses. It is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Contact: Nicole Rosen

202-309-5724

Jewish Sexual Assault Survivors Shut Out of Another University Support Group

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Washington, D.C., September 13, 2022:  The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it has opened a formal investigation into a complaint alleging Jewish students at the University of Vermont (UVM) have been subjected to severe and persistent anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination. Anti-Jewish incidents ranged from the exclusion of Jewish students from a campus sexual assault survivors’ group, online harassment against Jewish students by a Teaching Assistant (TA), and the targeting of the UVM Hillel building. OCR evaluates all complaints it receives, but it only pursues investigations in those it determines warrant a more thorough investigation.

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The complaint OCR will investigate alleges that UVM has allowed a hostile environment to proliferate on its campus in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  According to the complaint, Jewish students have expressed fear about identifying publicly as Jewish, report hiding their Jewish identity and have considered transferring out of UVM due to the hostile environment toward Jews. Numerous personal stories and testimonials were shared with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish on Campus (JOC), who filed the complaint, by students who asked that their names be withheld to protect their identities.

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According to the complaint, an environment of harassment and intimidation has existed at UVM for years, but it intensified in 2021 when a UVM TA repeatedly instigated hate against Jewish students who express support for Zionism, even threatening to lower their grades, two student groups deliberately excluded Jewish students who expressed support for Zionism from membership, and the Hillel building was pelted for nearly 40 minutes and vandalized.

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For many months throughout 2021, a university TA repeatedly sought to marginalize and ostracize Jewish students who demonstrate pride in their shared Jewish ancestry and ethnicity by expressing support for a Jewish homeland. She threatened to lower the grades of Jewish students for whom Zionism is integral to their Jewish identity and encouraged others to cyberbully and ostracize these Jewish students and vandalize the Israeli flag.

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On April 5, the TA wrote: “is it unethical for me, a TA, to not give zionists credit for participation???i feel like its good and funny, -5 points for going on birthright in 2018, -10 for posting a pic with a tank in the Golan heights, -2 points just cuz I hate ur vibe in general.” On April 15, she tweeted, “i’m trying to be lowkey on social media for ramadan and it’s going okay so far but [name redacted] keeps sending me Instagram posts from UVM Zionist Instagram accounts and I get the indelible surge to cyber bully and religion goes out the window. i never learn.”  On May 11, she tweeted, “serotonin rush of bullying Zionists on the public domain.” In a May 11 post, the TA confirmed that her “next step is to make zionism . . . worthy of public condemnation.” According to her post, participating in a free [Birthright] trip to Israel, recognizing “both sides” of the Arab Israeli conflict, or merely stating that “my family lives in tel aviv” renders an individual “worthy of private and public condemnation.”

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According to the complaint, the TA’s social media posts go beyond expression. With her posts, she has threatened to treat Jewish students in a discriminatory fashion, and has urged others to join her in bullying and ostracizing students based on their Jewish Zionist identity. The complaint also alleges that as a teaching assistant and representative of UVM, she helped foster the hostile environment on campus that made it possible for student organizations to exclude Jews.  Two of these student organizations that banned Zionists were UVM Empowering Survivors and the UVM Revolutionary Socialist Union Book Club.

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In spring of 2021 UVM Empowering Survivors, a key sexual assault support group on campus, with more than 4,000 followers, a figure that represents more than one-third of UVM’s total student enrollment, announced on its Instagram page that Zionist students were no longer welcome in the group and would be “blocked.”  UVM Empowering Survivors wrote, “…if you don’t support Palestinian liberation you don’t support survivors. we follow the same policy with Zionists that we follow with those trolling or harassing others: blocked.”  When Jewish students reached out to the group to discuss the matter, they were rebuffed. The group added “we will not be engaging in conversation about…Zionism” and they made clear that Empowering Survivors is “an anti-Zionist group…”  They followed up by saying that as a support group we must “hold our peers accountable for their pro-Israel or Zionist stances.”

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“UVM Empowering Survivors thereby shut out and excluded from the largest and most impactful support group on campus those Jewish students who take pride in their Jewish ancestral, ethnic heritage and the Jewish people’s ancient connection to the Land of Israel. They blamed these students for the alleged actions of a foreign government over which the students have no control, and concluded that these students must be held ‘accountable,’” wrote the Brandeis Center and JOC in the complaint.

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According to UVM Hillel, during this period more than 150 students contacted Hillel expressing serious concern, some sharing that they felt “they had nowhere else to go.”  Hillel posted at the time, “[t]he onslaught of antisemitism” the students “are experiencing online and among their UVM community is unyielding.”

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Soon, thereafter, a UVM book club, the UVM Revolutionary Socialist Union (RSU), also posted that Jewish Zionists were not welcome. In its inaugural social media post, the RSU noted: “No racism, racial chauvinism, predatory behavior, homophobia, transphobia, Zionism, or bigotry and hate speech of any kind will be tolerated.” The group’s constitution and bylaws similarly require every RSU member to pledge no to Zionism.

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Later that fall, the UVM Hillel building was also targeted. A group of UVM students harassed Hillel residents by pelting students’ windows with small stones and then vandalizing the building with a sticky substance. When one student whose window had been pelted called out asking the perpetrators to stop, one of the students responsible for the rock throwing shouted, “Are you Jewish?”

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The complaint notes that historically and legally, Judaism is understood to be both a faith and an ethnicity. Jews share not only religious traditions, but also a deep historical sense of Jewish peoplehood. The Jewish people’s history, theology, and culture are deeply intertwined with the Land of Israel. Zionism is as integral to Judaism as observing the Jewish Sabbath or maintaining a kosher diet. Of course, not all Jews observe the Sabbath or keep kosher, but those who do clearly are expressing important components of their Jewish identity. Similarly, not all Jews are Zionists. But for many Jews, including many Jewish students at UVM, identifying with and expressing support for the Jewish homeland is also a sincere and deeply felt expression of their Jewish ethnic identity. Harassing, marginalizing, demonizing, and excluding these Jewish students on the basis of the Zionist component of their Jewish identity constitutes anti-Semitic discrimination and is just as unlawful and discriminatory as attacking a Jewish student for observing the Sabbath or keeping kosher. Indeed, UNESCO has cautioned that “Jew” and “Zionist” today are often used interchangeably in an attempt by anti-Semites to cloak their hate.

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“All of these incidents – the exclusion of Jewish Zionist students from UVM student groups, the targeting of the Hillel building, and the TA’s social media posts – have been reported to the UVM administration. In addition, on information and belief, on multiple occasions, UVM students have met with UVM administrators and shared stories with them of how the students have been personally harassed and harmed by the hostile anti-Semitic environment on campus. To date, however, the university has taken no steps to rectify the situation. The University of Vermont is permitting a hostile environment that marginalizes and excludes Jewish students for whom Zionism is integral to their Jewish identity. In doing so, UVM is denying equal access to educational opportunities and services to Jewish students on the basis of their shared ancestry and ethnicity in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” wrote the Brandeis Center and JOC in the complaint.

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Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 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. Title VI protects individuals from exclusionary conduct that denies them the ability to participate in or benefit from university programs and activities, including joining a student club, as well as from harassment that creates a hostile environment. Marginalizing, demonizing and excluding Jewish students on the basis of the Zionist component of their Jewish ethnic and ancestral identity, and discriminating on the basis of national origin identity, violates Title VI.

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Last month, the Brandeis Center and JOC filed a similar complaint with OCR on behalf of two Jewish State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz students who were also kicked out of a sexual assault awareness group and then cyberbullied, harassed and threatened, over their Jewish and Israeli identities. Currently OCR is investigating complaints filed by the Brandeis Center against the University of Illinois, Brooklyn College, and University of Southern California (USC). And the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating a Brandeis Center employment discrimination complaint of anti-Semitism in the DEI program  at Stanford University.

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The Louis D. Brandeis Center is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. The Brandeis Center conducts research, education, and advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses. It is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice.

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

Brandeis Center Founder and Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus will moderate a panel discussion on Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the inaugural Education Law & Policy Conference. The event is a joint production from Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.

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The Education Law & Policy Conference will examine the federal legal and policy issues surrounding American education. The conference will take place on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. and will feature a welcome session, plenary panels, breakout sessions, lunch, and a closing speech followed by a reception.

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Registration is open to the public. Attendees for the in-person event have the option of obtaining CLE credit with their ticket purchase.

 

JIGSAW Fellow and former law clerk Joel Taubman will discuss campus anti-Semitism on a webinar co-sponsored by the Brandeis Center and United Against Antisemitism Nova — September 18 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. Registration is open.

 

His presentation will include instruction on how schools can identify anti-Semitism on campus, as well as some of the tools available to fight it. Schools have a legal obligation to act when Jewish students are denied educational opportunities based on their shared ancestry and ethnic identity. But universities often misunderstand the anti-Semitic discrimination faced by Jewish students. Increasingly, Jewish students are told that they must shed the Zionist part of their Jewish identity in order to join student groups, participate in student government, and feel at home on campus.

 

Joel is a third year student at the George Washington University School of Law. As a former law clerk and current JIGSAW Fellow, Joel continues to fight for individual Jewish students.

Thursday, September 8, at 7:00 p.m. EDT, Brandeis Center Vice Chair and General Counsel L. Rachel Lerman joins a ‘Parents Defending Education Live’ panel discussion on the subject of controversial ethnic studies curricula. The webinar will stream live on PDE’s YouTube channel.

She’ll be joined by Parents Defending Education Public School Advocacy Associate Scarlen Valderaz and Wenyuan Wu, Executive Director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation. This panel exposes the facts about Ethnic Studies that its proponents don’t want you to know. Rachel and Wenyuan share examples of lessons they’ve found in ethnic studies curricula and teacher training modules and give parents advice on what to do if your child is learning Liberated Ethnic Studies this year in school. You won’t want to miss this!