This article, published 10/11/23 by the San Francisco Chronicle, links to the letter the Brandeis Center and nine other Jewish American organizations sent to more than 500 university presidents, in the wake of Hamas atrocities. University leaders, faculty and students are navigating a new level of tension at Stanford, UC Berkeley and other universities across the country as some student groups respond to the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians by saying it was justified or inevitable in light of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. On Thursday, as the National Students for Justice in Palestine group holds a “National Day of Resistance” on many campuses, a coalition of Jewish and civil-rights groups sent a letter to 500 university presidents urging them to speak out “promptly, forcefully and clearly” against any hate speech, among other protective measures. Stanford administrators said Wednesday they are investigating reports that a lecturer “addressed the Middle East conflict in a manner that called out individual students in class based on their backgrounds and identities,” and that that person has been removed from teaching duties while the university looks into the situation. Students told the Chronicle that the lecturer had asked Jewish students to identify themselves in two classes, declared them to be colonizers, and minimized the impact of the Holocaust. Dozens of Stanford faculty members, including three Nobel laureates, sent a letter to the university’s leaders Wednesday condemning what they called Stanford’s tepid response to the crisis and to pro-invasion sentiments expressed on campus. The letter to interim President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez criticized Stanford for referring to the killing of at least 1,200 Israelis and the taking of more than 100 hostages as the “Middle East conflict.” The letter said Stanford did not remove “extremely offensive banners” on campus calling for the abolition of Israel, and stood by as Jewish students were singled out online after the violence by Hamas. “This situation calls for a clear condemnation of terrorism and a strong stance in support of basic human rights and dignity,” said the letter signed by faculty across many disciplines and by Nobel prize winners Michael Levitt, who won for chemistry, and Paul Milgrom and Alvin Roth, who won for economics. Hours later, Saller and Martinez responded. “We hear the deeply felt concerns, fears, and grief that have been expressed by students, faculty, and staff,” they wrote in an “Update for the Campus Community.” “As a moral matter, we condemn all terrorism and mass atrocities. This includes the deliberate attack on civilians this weekend by Hamas,” they wrote, noting that they had heard from Jewish students and employees concerned about rising antisemitism, and from Palestinian students who received threats by phone and email. Referring to posters and chalked phrases — which included “Israel is dead,” and “Long live the Intifada” — Saller and Martinez said that even though many people find them offensive, such speech is allowed “except when it crosses the line into certain illegal categories such as threats or harassment.” An opinion piece published Tuesday in the Stanford Daily by Students for Justice in Palestine decried Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, but did not mention the weekend slaughter of Israeli civilians. The Stanford professors’ letter followed criticism of Harvard’s leaders for not denouncing a statement by students who declared “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” In all, 31 student groups signed the anti-Israel statement released on Saturday. “The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards acts of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” wrote Larry Summers, former Harvard president and former U.S. treasury secretary, on X, formerly known as Twitter. At UC Berkeley, the student group Bears for Palestine responded to the Hamas attack with an Instagram post expressing “unwavering support of the resistance in Gaza” and referring to the fighters as martyrs. Late Wednesday, Chancellor Carol Christ sent a letter to the UC Berkeley community saying she was “heartbroken by the terrible violence and suffering in Israel and Gaza.” “The brutal attack by Hamas on Israel, the killing of so many innocent people — including children and the elderly — and the taking of hostages, fill me with grief and dismay,” Christ said, while Israel’s subsequent blockade and bombing of Gaza “is causing the loss of yet more innocent lives.” Retaliatory airstrikes by Israel’s military have killed at least 1,127 people and injured more than 5,300, most of them noncombatants, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing Gazan health officials. Christ called on the campus community to “act with compassion and respect for one another.” On Monday, two days after the attack, Stanford officials posted a statement offering “support and resources for students as crises unfold worldwide” that included links to support groups for Jewish and Muslim students. A question-and-answer section of the statement asked: “Will the university take a position on the Israel-Palestine or Armenia-Azerbaijan crises?” The answer was no, because “Stanford as an institution does not take positions on geopolitical issues and news events.”