ANTISEMITISM AND ANTI-ZIONISM ON CAMPUS: THE SITUATION AND STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS

Alyza D. Lewin is the President of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (“LDB”), a 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 legal advocacy to combat the resurgence of antiSemitism on college and university campuses. It empowers students by training them to understand their legal rights and educates administrators on best practices to combat racism and anti-Semitism on campus. Ms. Lewin is also a co-founder and partner in Lewin & Lewin, LLP where she specializes in litigation, mediation, and government relations.

Ms. Lewin has represented numerous high-profile clients. In 2014, Lewin argued Zivotofsky v. Kerry (the “Jerusalem Passport” case) before the U.S. Supreme Court, a case involving the constitutionality of a law granting any American citizen born in Jerusalem the right to list “Israel” as the place of birth on his/her U.S. passport. In Zivotofsky, the Supreme Court held that the President of the United States has the exclusive authority to recognize foreign sovereigns. The case paved the way for President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. After 18 years, Ms. Lewin brought this pro-bono case to a successful resolution in October 2020, when Secretary of State Pompeo revised the US passport regulations and Ambassador David Friedman presented her client with the very first US passport to list “Israel” as place of birth for a US citizen born in Jerusalem.

Ms. Lewin, together with her father Nathan Lewin, also successfully represented the Boim family in its landmark civil tort litigation which established the right of American victims of terror to obtain damages under American law against organizations that knowingly provide financial support to international terrorist groups. Ms. Lewin began her law career in Israel where she clerked on the Supreme Court for Deputy President Justice Menachem Elon.

Ms. Lewin is the Immediate Past President of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (“AAJLJ”). In January 2020, Ms. Lewin was awarded the AAJLJ’s distinguished Pursuit of Justice Award. Ms. Lewin is married and has four children.

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is cofounder and director of AMCHA Initiative, a non-profit organization that investigates, documents, and combats antisemitism at institutions of higher education in America. Previously she was a faculty member in Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of California from 1996 – 2016. RossmanBenjamin has written articles and reports about academic anti-Zionism and antisemitism and lectured widely on the growing threat to the safety of Jewish students on college campuses. She has presented her research in scholarly talks and academic conferences at several universities, including Indiana University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Harvard University and McGill University. Rossman-Benjamin’s research has been featured in several volumes on antisemitism. In July 2010, she co-organized a two-week scholarly workshop entitled “Contemporary Antisemitism in Higher Education” at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In 2016, she led a coalition of nearly 50 Jewish and education advocacy groups that successfully lobbied the University of California (UC), the nation’s largest and most prestigious public university, to condemn “antisemitism and antisemitic forms of anti-Zionism.” UC is the first U.S. university to adopt this landmark intolerance policy to protect Jewish students. Rossman-Benjamin was awarded the Cohon Foundation award for Benefiting the Jewish People in 2017, honored as one of the Top 100 People Influencing Jewish Life in 2014 by the Algemeiner, named one of 2013’s Bright Pro-Israel Lights on U.S. Campuses by the Jewish Press, received the 2012 Tikkun Olam Award from the Haiti Jewish Refugee Legacy and was nominated for Jewish Hero of the Year by the Jewish Federation of North America in 2011. Articles and opinion pieces from RossmanBenjamin have been published in Newsweek, The Hill, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Daily News, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, Contra Costa Times, Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, and dozens of others.