Brandeis Brief – February 2023

One week after Chairman Marcus’s op-ed was published, the current head of the Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that the Department would again delay the release of crucial anti-Semitism guidelines.

Some groups who are critical of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism gloated about the delay and created confusion about the Department’s commitment to confronting anti-Semitism. Marcus alone clarified the issue by identifying “a significant breakthrough…in the Biden administration’s first public embrace of IHRA within a domestic context.” The OCR’s Assistant Secretary Catherine E. Lhamon wrote that the Biden administration “affirms OCR’s commitment to complying with Executive Order 13899 on Combating Antisemitism.”

Marcus’s analysis was echoed by the Conference of Presidents and picked up by Politico, Jewish Insider and Jewish Journal, halting misinformation about OCR’s approach to fighting anti-Semitism on campus.

.Alyza D. Lewin Discusses Ben & Jerry’s and Campus Anti-Semitism on Zev Brenner Program

On his program “Talkline,” Zev Brenner interviewed Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin about the organization’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism.

Lewin discussed the December announcement that litigation between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s independent board had been resolved – preserving the Brandeis Center-helmed agreement that prevented an unlawful boycott of Israel.

She also discussed how Jewish students on campus are increasingly feeling pressured to hide or shed the Zionist component of their Jewish identity in order to fully participate in campus life – and how the Brandeis Center provides legal guidance to these students empowering them to combat campus anti-Semitism.

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Click the video to watch President Lewin’s interview.

.Denise Katz-Prober Discusses Title VI at AEN Faculty Conference

At the Academic Engagement Network’s seventh Regional Short Course, Brandeis Center Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober delivered a presentation on the topic of “Jewish Identity and Title VI: Using the Law to Confront Antisemitism on Campus.”

Following her remarks, President Alyza D. Lewin joined Katz-Prober for the Q&A discussion.

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Click the video to watch Denise Katz-Prober’s presentation.

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Brandeis Center’s #ShineALight Efforts Continue with Two Additional Webinars The Brandeis Center’s December webinars, “Religious Accommodations in the Corporate Workplace” and “Jewish Identity: What Employers Need to Know,” highlighted our commitment to the Shine A Light campaign, encouraging Jews and allies to send a message that anti-Semitism, in all its modern forms, won’t be tolerated in our communities. In January, we hosted two additional webinars as part of our commitment to Shine A Light, as well as our corporate initiative: “Anti-Semitism in the Workplace” featured Holly Huffnagle, Jonathan A. Segal and Craig E. Leen in a discussion about the types of anti-Semitism employees face at work and best practices for companies to combat anti-Semitism, as well as anti-discrimination legal protections for employees and pertinent issues for government contractors. “Holocaust Denial and Erasive Anti-Semitism” featured Yfat Barak-Cheney, Ben M. Freeman and the Brandeis Center’s Arthur R. Traldi for an in-depth conversation about Holocaust denial and distortion, erasive anti-Semitism, and related legal issues. . . Click the video to watch our webinar. . Brandeis Center’s Spotlight on Botched FBI Report Continues In December, the Brandeis Center identified a serious error in the FBI’s reporting methodology for its 2021 hate crimes data, leading to a barrage of mediacoverage. The Washington Free Beacon drew attention to the possibility of Congressional oversight, a point that was then picked up by other media outlets. “It is hard to imagine that a failure of this scope would escape the notice of congressional oversight staff,” declared Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “If DOJ and the FBI do not fix this problem…by providing corrected and complete data to the public, we should not be surprised if Congress should get involved.” . Marcus’s ‘Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones’ Op-Ed Makes Year-End List Credited by the New York Times in December for sparking national attention on the issue of anti-Semitism at Berkeley Law School, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus’s op-ed “Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones” was declared one of “the big debates of 2022” by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “Faculty, politicians and activists weighed in on both sides of what has become a central debate on campuses and beyond: When does anti-Zionism become antisemitism, and how do you balance free speech rights against the claims by some students that their personal safety hangs in the balance?”     . Brandeis Center Survey Still Resonates Two Years Later “Anti-Semitism @ College” – the Brandeis Center’s 2021 survey that was the “first poll to survey ‘openly Jewish’ college students – was cited by Colonel Richard Kemp in a new op-ed for the Gatestone Institute, “Jew-Hate at American Universities:” “A 2021 poll from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law shows college students with a strong sense of Jewish identity and connection to Israel have learnt that to avoid antisemitism they must view their religion as something to hide, not celebrate. According to the Brandeis Center: ‘Nearly 70% of the students surveyed personally experienced or were familiar with an anti-Semitic attack in the previous 120 days. More than 65% of these students have felt unsafe on campus due to physical or verbal attacks, with one in 10 reporting they have feared they themselves would be physically attacked. And roughly 50% of students have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity.’” JewishPress.com syndicated the story. . Marcus Paper Cited by National Jewish Advocacy Center in Newsweek Writing in Newsweek about a federal anti-Semitism complaint filed against George Washington University, the director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center cited an academic paper written by Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, “Academic Freedom and Political Indoctrination:” “As former Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Kenneth Marcus has explained, there is a difference between a professor sharing his personal opinion versus presenting that opinion as incontrovertible fact.” . Brandeis Center Hires Civil Rights Legal Fellow Deena Margolies The Brandeis Center continued to grow with the announcement of a new Civil Rights Legal Fellow, Deena Margolies. Margolies joins the Brandeis Center’s Legal Initiatives team and will assist with the organization’s legal advocacy efforts to confront anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses. “Even as Brandeis Center staff enlarges our focus into workplaces and corporate policies, the need to root out anti-Semitism from classrooms and campus groups shows no signs of slowing down,” stated Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin. “Deena’s passion for our work, sensitivity to the needs of our clients, and attention to detail, which she brings to her role at the Brandeis Center, will strengthen our already stellar team. Working with Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober, Senior Counsel Arthur R. Traldi, and Staff Attorney Ben Alkon, Deena’s addition expands our capacity and enables the Brandeis Center to better meet the growing demand for our services.” Margolies previously worked for two FCC Commissioners. She is a graduate of Northwestern School of Law, with a Business Association Concentration from the Kellogg School of Management. Margolies also holds an LLM from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Intellectual Property Law. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. . New Blogs from Brandeis Center Fellows and Interns Brandeis Center JIGSAW Fellow Emma Enig reviewed a new Harvard Law essay in her piece “Analysis Summary of Modern Anti-BDS Laws.” Two other JIGSAW Fellows authored timely blogs about highly-anticipated SCOTUS cases. Joel Taubman’s piece, “Supreme Court Takes Case Addressing Protections for Religion at Work,” covers the case Groff v. DeJoy. Brandeis Center Fall 2022 Intern Josh Feinstein’s new blog addresses a related topic, our December webinar, “Religious Accommodations in the Corporate Workplace.” And JIGSAW Fellow Yossi Abadi’s blog, “Supreme Court Grapples with the Anti-Semitic History of College Admissions,” examines the cases SFFA v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina – including the Brandeis Center’s amicus brief filed on behalf of both cases. Spring 2023 intern Danielle Sobkin wrote a synopsis of our January webinar “Anti-Semitism in the Workplace.”