LDB Signs AMCHA Coalition Letter to Combat Anti-Semitism at UC Santa Cruz

The Brandeis Center joined an AMCHA-led coalition letter on January 18 to the University of California Regents, President, and California Attorney General expressing concerns regarding anti-Zionist activities in the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) department at UC Santa Cruz. The Brandeis Center and the AMCHA Initiative were joined by 118 other education, civil rights, and religious organizations.

The letter references AMCHA’s January 11 report, “Anti-Zionist Advocacy and Activism of the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department at University of California Santa Cruz.” The report details that CRES has dedicated itself to anti-Zionist political advocacy and activism by pledging allegiance to “the struggle for Palestinian liberation” and endorsing an academic boycott of Israel.

Among many other examples of CRES anti-Zionist Advocacy, the department released a statement supporting Hamas’s October 7 massacre, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping some 240 others. The department participated in a “Call for a Global General Strike”  on October 20, refusing to work because of “Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza.” And CRES held a class instruction, “The Genocide in Gaza in our Classrooms: A Teaching Palestine Workshop” on October 24 to persuade students that the term Zionism is racist and genocidal. On January 22, 405 University of California faculty members sent their own letter to the UC Board of Regents, expressing similar concerns about CRES.