The U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into campus anti-Semitism at Chapman University in response to a Brandeis Center complaint. LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus testified again before a high-profile Congressional committee about surging campus anti-Semitism. The City University of New York entered into a resolution agreement with OCR to resolve nine discrimination complaints – including the Brandeis Center’s case against Brooklyn College.

LDB Complaint Leads to Another Federal Anti-Semitism Investigation: Chapman University

OCR opened an investigation into an LDB-filed complaint alleging that Chapman University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to take action against anti-Semitic harassment and exclusion of Jewish students. Chapman Students for Justice in Palestine (CSJP) excluded a Jewish student from the group because of his shared Jewish ancestry. A member of CSJP made death threats against another Jewish student. The University failed to address the anti-Semitic conduct.

LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus observed that Chapman’s leadership, like that of administrations in many other universities across the country, is “refusing to do what’s needed to address these civil rights violations.” “It is imperative that federal officials enforce the law,” stated Marcus. “It is about time that the federal government is finally investigating Students for Justice in Palestine’s discriminatory activities.”

Kenneth L. Marcus Testifies Before U.S. House Ways & Means Committee about ‘Perfect Storm’ Threatening the Safety of Jewish Students

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcuswas among a select group of experts invited to testify before the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee hearing “Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership.”

In his opening statement, Marcus declared: “Over the last 20 years, I have been fighting anti-Semitism on college campuses, but never seen anything like what we have experienced since October 7. Over the time since…this Committee held its last hearing…we are seeing a kind of perfect storm of student violent extremism, professorial politicalization, undisclosed foreign funding, and often feckless and weak administration.”

Ahead of his powerful testimony, Marcus appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to preview the campus anti-Semitism issues necessitating the hearing: “What I want to tell Congress today is that what we are facing today is a crisis,” asserted Marcus. “This is a…wake-up call – not just for the Jewish community, but for all Americans – that what we’re seeing is the fundamental change in our higher education culture. This is going to affect us all, and we’re all going to need to deal with it.”

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Full Hearing Recording – Cued to Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus’s Opening Statement

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Kenneth Marcus on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ Ahead of House Ways & Means Hearing on Campus Antisemitism

CUNY Resolution Agreement Impacts LDB’s Brooklyn College Case; Alyza D. Lewin: ‘The Devil Will Be in the Details’

The City University of New York (CUNY) entered into a resolution agreement with OCR to resolve nine discrimination complaints – including the Brandeis Center’s case against Brooklyn College. Other CUNY schools impacted in the agreement include Baruch College, CUNY Law School, Hunter College, and Queens College.

In 2020, Jewish students in Brooklyn College’s Graduate Program for Mental Health Counseling complained of “severe and persistent harassment” by their professors and peers based on their Jewish ethnic identity – bullied as “white and privileged” (notwithstanding their actual skin color) and “contributing to systemic oppression of people of color.” Faculty and administrators bullied Jews who complained, telling them: “Get your whiteness in check,” and “Keep your head down.”

“The CUNY agreement is a step in the right direction as it recognizes that CUNY failed to adequately address the problem and sets up federal monitoring and oversight,” stated LDB President Alyza D. Lewin. “It is a far cry, however, from an ‘all clear’ for CUNY. The devil will be in the details. We are eager to see what specific steps CUNY will take to actively address the anti-Semitism that has run rampant on their campuses for far too long.”

Continuing Coverage of OCR Resolution Agreement with North Carolina K-12 School Based on LDB-Filed Complaint

The resolution agreement between the federal government and a North Carolina public school continues generating media coverage. According to the settlement, the Community School of Davidson permitted a non-Jewish student to be bullied viciously for two years by peers who perceived him as Jewish.

The settlement requires the school to take concrete steps to address the systemic anti-Semitism it allowed to fester in its community – including publicizing a statement that it does not tolerate “acts of harassment based on a student’s actual or perceived race, color, or national origin including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics (e.g. antisemitism),” and conducting annual trainings of school staff and administrators on anti-discrimination law under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics.

“The really cruel impact that anti-Semitism can have – especially on children…has not been adequately addressed,” noted LDB Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober. The student “was subjected to degrading and vile anti-Semitic comments, sometimes daily and multiple times a day. The school [was] not recognizing the depth of the problem and the systemic nature of the problem.”

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Cenise Katz-Prober Explains K-12 Resolution Agreement with U.S. Ed. Dept. (Queen City News, NC)

LDB Congratulates Brooklyn Parents for Persuading NYC Schools Chancellor to Remove Community Ed Council Chair

The Brandeis Center congratulates the Brooklyn parents who persuaded NYC Schools Chancellor David C. Banks to remove a local community education council chair over anti-Semitic messages and events. LDB Director of Corporate Initiatives and Senior Counsel Rory Lancman provided critical support and assistance.

Last November, concerned Brooklyn parents sought LDB’s help communicating to Chancellor Banks and the office of Family and Community Engagement the urgent need for action – a Community Education Council President (CEC) had begun using her position to promote anti-Semitic messages and events, including student walkouts and removal of pro-Israel parents from CEC meetings. Chancellor Banks took the unprecedented step of removing the CEC 14 president in June 2024.

The Brandeis Center is grateful for the opportunity to play a role in advancing the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promoting justice for all. Congratulations to the dedicated parents and their students who benefit from a less discriminatory education environment.

Marci Lerner Miller Explains How K-12 Anti-Semitism Leads to Anti-Semitism on Higher Ed Campuses

In an Algemeiner story on the Portland Association of Teachers indoctrinating children with anti-Zionist propaganda, Brandeis Center Director of Legal Investigations Marci Lerner Miller explained the foundational impact K-12 anti-Semitism has on creating the climate of Jew-hate now sweeping America’s college campuses:

“Many students arrive at their first day of college already having been taught to hate Israel and Jews,” stated Miller. “Addressing K-12 anti-Semitism helps us get to the root of the problem in many cases. The Office for Civil Rights has taken an interest in investigating it, and Congress recently called the superintendent of the [LDB K-12 case] Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) to testify about what is happening there.”

The Algemeiner article notes that the Brandeis Center has “taken the lead in fighting anti-Semitism at the K-12 level.” In addition to discussing the Brandeis Center’s BUSD case, the article also covers the recent resolution agreement in the Brandeis Center’s Davidson case.

Kenneth L. Marcus Discusses Campus Anti-Semitism in New Podcast Interview

Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus sat with former Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO and the founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, David Bernstein, for an extended interview on free speech, diversity, and anti-Semitism on campus.

Marcus shares specific examples of harassment from LDB cases against UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Brooklyn College, the inadequacies of incremental reforms, and the legal actions the Brandeis Center is pursuing to protect Jewish civil and human rights. They discuss the tension between free speech and equal protection, the impact of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, and the broader ideological trends fueling campus hostility.

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Sapir Journal Includes Alyza D. Lewin Essay in New ‘Toolkit for Concerned Parents’

To assist parents concerned about the anti-Semitism they see at school and provide direction on how best to address it, Bret Stephens’ quarterly journal, Sapir, issued a curated collection of articles from the Sapir archives as a toolkit for parents. Featured in the collection is LDB President Alyza D. Lewin’s widely-read 2023 essay “Anti-Zionist Harassment Is Against the Law, Too.”

Sapir reminds readers that Lewin’s essay outlines “the rigorous application of laws already on the books to protect people from harassment and discrimination.”

Denise Katz-Prober Interviewed on ‘Too Jewish’ Podcast about Campus Anti-Semitism

Brandeis Center Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober sat with Rabbi Sam Cohon, host of the radio program and podcast “Too Jewish.”

In the extended interview, Katz-Prober discusses the firestorm of campus anti-Semitism, including specifics from LDB cases, such as the recent resolution agreement between the Davidson school and OCR, based on an LDB-filed complaint.

Brandeis Center Appoints Senior Legal Fellow Jody Forchheimer

The Brandeis Center announced the appointment of Jody Forchheimer as the organization’s newest Senior Legal Fellow.

Ms. Forchheimer brings over four decades of experience in leading significant litigation and regulatory investigations following her graduation from Harvard Law School. She was an equity partner at Bingham (now Morgan Lewis), head of litigation and regulatory investigations at Fidelity, and of counsel at O’Melveny & Myers. She directed teams to complete victories in the 1st, 3rd, 8th and D.C. circuit courts of appeals, the Massachusetts and New York state appellate courts, and numerous lower courts and arbitration forums.

“I am honored to join the Brandeis Center during such a pivotal moment,” stated Ms. Forchheimer. “In my role as Senior Legal Fellow, I am eager to leverage my legal acumen and passion for justice to support Jewish students across the nation who face discrimination.”

Welcome and Blog Posts by LDB’s Summer Law Clerks and Interns

The Brandeis Center is delighted to welcome another fantastic group of summer law clerks and undergraduate interns to our team. Law clerks will assist LDB attorneys with legal casework, and interns will work with LDB’s Director of Communications on communications and policy projects.

Summer 2024 intern Jonah Feuerstein (Cornell Univ., ’27) authored a blog post introducing himself and his fellow LDB summer clerks and interns Sarah Simon (Columbia Law, ’26), Jonathan Silverman (Southern California Gould School of Law, ’26), Eli Goldstein (American Univ., ’27), and Nicole Hirschkorn (Emory Univ., ’27).

Eli Goldstein authored a blog post on LDB Chairman Marcus’s recent testimony before the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee hearing: “Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership.”

And Nicole Hirschkorn was lead author on the press release announcing the hiring of Jody Forchheimer.

Students interested in internship, clerkship, and fellowship opportunities are encouraged to apply here.

The Brandeis Center is Hiring

The Brandeis Center is hiring for multiple full-time positions:

Duties, qualifications, and compensation are listed in the Opportunities section of our website.

If you meet the qualifications and are passionate about our mission to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all, we want to hear from you. Interested candidates should send resumes and cover letters by electronic mail to info@brandeiscenter.com. For the attorney roles, we suggest also including a writing sample and list of references.

Jewish students say they were subjected to violent threats and ‘anti-Semitic incidents’ by members of Students for Justice in Palestine

Published 6/17/24 by Washington Free Beacon by Adam Kredo

The federal government has opened a formal investigation into allegations that Chapman University, a California-based private school, permitted “unchecked anti-Semitism on campus” that included death threats to Jewish students such as “F*** yeah I want you and all Zionist trash bags dead.”

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law confirmed the Education Department’s investigation to the Washington Free Beacon early Monday. The center petitioned the federal government to launch a probe on behalf of several Jewish students who say they were subjected to violent threats and “anti-Semitic incidents” by members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the campus group behind pro-Hamas protests on college campuses across the country. Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 terror attacks are suing SJP and its parent group, American Muslims for Palestine, for allegedly serving “as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas.”

After Hamas’s attack on Israel, members of Chapman’s SJP branch allegedly tried to remove “a Jewish student from the group because of his shared Jewish ancestry” and made “heinous death threats against a different Jewish student,” according to a press release and Education Department complaint reviewed by the Free Beacon.

Chapman is the latest school to face a federal investigation over allegations that its leadership permitted Jew-hatred to simmer unchecked on campus as anti-Semitic protesters rallied against Israel and its war against Hamas. Anti-Semitism is soaring across America as Israel’s war continues, with U.S. college campuses serving as ground zero for Jew-hatred. The Education Department is investigating a number of schools for failing to adequately protect Jewish students and police Jew-hatred on campus.

In one case outlined in the complaint, a Jewish student “was subjected to a death threat as well as other unlawful harassment on the basis of her Jewish identity” by members of Chapman’s SJP chapter. The female student was “threatened … because she is a Zionist.”

In social media postings documented in the complaint, an SJP student wrote, “Death to all Israelis who follow Zionism.”

When a Jewish student responded to the post, asking if this SJP member wanted her dead, the original poster replied: “F*** yeah I want you and all Zionist trash bags dead the f*** kinda question is that?”

University administrators were informed of the incident but “failed to take effective steps to ensure [the student’s] safety on campus, allowing the perpetrator to live on and move freely about the campus.”

Several other Jewish students named in the complaint say they were “unlawfully excluded” from Chapman’s SJP chapter “on the basis of Jewish shared ancestral and ethnic identity.”

SJP “subjects Jewish students and those it believes may be Jewish to a litmus test,” the complaint alleges: “It denies access to club membership and events if the student does not deny his or her support for the Jewish State of Israel, which is an integral component of Jewish identity for many Jewish students.”

The group does not apply the standard “to students it does not perceive to be Jewish,” such as those “who have surnames that do not ‘sound Jewish.'”

When one of the students named in the complaint attempted to attend an SJP event on campus, he was denied access. “A university administrator, who was present and aware of the discriminatory exclusion, affirmed” the organization’s decision “to deny [the student’s] admission,” the complaint alleges.

The Brandeis Center says Chapman University violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which affords protection to minority populations, including Jews.

“These incidents,” the complaint alleges, “demonstrate that Chapman is failing to protect Jewish students and is denying them equal access to educational opportunities on the basis of their actual or perceived shared ancestry and ethnicity.”

Kenneth Marcus, the Brandeis Center’s chairman, said that Chapman’s leadership, like administrations in many other universities across the country, is “refusing to do what’s needed to address these civil rights violations.”

“It is imperative that federal officials enforce the law,” Marcus said in a statement. “It is about time that the federal government is finally investigating Students for Justice in Palestine’s discriminatory activities.”

Washington, D.C., June 17, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation into a federal complaint filed by The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law alleging Chapman University failed to take action after anti-Semitic harassment and exclusion of Jewish students in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The case involves anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated by Chapman Students for Justice in Palestine (CSJP) and its members. CSJP is a local chapter of a national anti-Jewish hate group, with the stated goal of “dismantling Zionism on college campuses.” After the October 7th Hamas massacre, actions by CSJP and its members included removing a Jewish student from the group because of his shared Jewish ancestry and making heinous death threats against a different Jewish student.

The complaint specifically details several instances when the University failed to address anti-Semitic conduct by CJSP targeting Jewish students.

First, was the exclusion of a Jewish Chapman student with a Jewish sounding surname when he attempted to join the group in September 2022 to learn about CSJP’s perspective. In October of 2022, he was removed from the listserv and effectively denied admission to the group. He was similarly rebuffed by CSJP when he renewed his attempts to join the group in October 2023 after Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel. CSJP failed to confirm his RSVP to a teach-in event and later denied him entry to the in-person event held on campus. This also happened with several other students who are Jewish or have Jewish-sounding names, who sought to attend the teach-in event, but did not receive the confirmation needed for admission by CSJP and therefore were barred from attending.

The complaint explains that CSJP utilizes a litmus test whereby those believed to be Jewish, often on the basis of nothing other than a Jewish-sounding surname, are denied access to CSJP unless and until CSJP confirms that they do not support Israel. Non-Jewish students, however, are not subjected to this test.

The second incident detailed in the complaint started on November 12, 2023 when a CSJP member sent a death threat to one of the Jewish students who was excluded from CSJP, after she responded to a social media post in which he called for “death to all Israelis who follow Zionism.” The student then asked the CSJP member if he wanted her dead. He responded “f*** yeah I want you and all Zionist trash bags dead the f*** kinda question is that?” The CSJP member then sent her a barrage of harassing messages accusing her of not being a real Jew and alleging that “Zionism is terrorism.”

The complaint details Chapman’s failure to keep the Jewish student safe after she promptly reported the threat incident to Chapman’s Department of Public Safety. After the Department of Public Safety conducted a threat assessment and determined that the CSJP member was not a threat, however, the school permitted him to move back into on-campus housing pending an investigation by Chapman’s Office of Student Conduct. At no point since issuing the death threat has the student been prohibited from campus. The Jewish student had to live and study in fear for her physical safety at Chapman due to the death threat issued on the basis of her Jewish identity by an individual who was routinely on the Chapman campus.

What is more, the same CSJP member continued to post anti-Jewish content on social media. After Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel, he filmed himself on TikTok vandalizing an on-campus memorial to the Israeli victims of the massacre. He also falsely accused another Jewish student of stealing his Palestinian flag and threatened him, going so far as to demand the Jewish student’s address.

Said Kenneth L. Marcus, chair of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education, “Anti-Semitism continues to run rampant on college campuses. Too many universities are refusing to do what’s needed to address these civil rights violations. It is imperative that federal officials enforce the law. It is about time that the federal government is finally investigating Students for Justice in Palestine’s discriminatory activities. We welcome this outcome and look forward to pursuing the case to implement needed remedies to address past violations and stop future wrongs.”

Other SJP chapters at Fordham, Rutgers, Brandeis and George Washington University have been banned or suspended.

Ultimately, The Brandeis Center is seeking several remedies to ensure anti-Semitism is addressed including ensuring a comprehensive investigation into the death threat, ensuring student clubs are equally accessible to all Jewish students, disciplining student groups that engage in discrimination, revising anti-discrimination policies to better address the rights of Jewish students, and issuing a statement denouncing anti-Semitism in all forms and recognizing Zionism is a key component of Jewish identity for many of Chapman’s students.

The Brandeis Center is also pursuing federal lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley. The U.S. Department of Education is currently investigating Brandeis Center complaints of unaddressed anti-Semitism on numerous college campuses, including Wellesley, SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California, Brooklyn College, and the University of Illinois.  The organization also recently filed complaints against American University, UC Santa Barbara, Occidental College, Pomona College, UMass-Amherst, and Ohio State University, working in some cases with partner institutions, such as the Anti-Defamation League and StandWithUs. At the K-12 level, the Brandeis Center has also filed a federal complaint against Berkeley Unified School District and is suing the New York Department of Education and the Santa Ana Unified School District for unaddressed anti-Semitism, after securing a recent win with respect to its complaint against the Community School of Davidson in North Carolina.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is an independent, unaffiliated, nonprofit corporation established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. LDB engages in research, education, and legal advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses, in the workplace, and elsewhere. It empowers students by training them to understand their legal rights and educates administrators and employers on best practices to combat racism and anti-Semitism. More at www.brandeiscenter.com.