Brandeis Center General Counsel L. Rachel Lerman discusses the complaint LDB co-filed with the Anti-Defamation League to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD). The federal complaint cites BUSD for failing to take action to end nonstop bullying and harassment of Jewish students by peers and teachers since Oct. 7, 2023. According to the complaint, Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports and knowingly allowed its K-12 schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students. Read more about our case here. Play videoTextBlockModalTitle × Your browser does not support the video tag.
This month, the Brandeis Center and ADL filed a federal antidiscrimination complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights against the Berkeley Unified School District, over its failure to address rampant anti-Semitic bullying and harassment of Jewish students after October 7 at schools throughout the District. In partnership with the ADL and law firms Covington & Burling LLP; Akin; Dechert LLP; and Davis Polk, LDB also launched a legal helpline for parents whose children are experiencing anti-Semitism in K-12 public schools in California. And we unveiled a new website! LDB + ADL File Federal Complaint Against Berkeley Unified School District for ‘Severe and Persistent’ Anti-Semitic Bullying The Brandeis Center and Anti-Defamation League filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights against the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) for failing to take action to end pervasive bullying and harassment of Jewish students by peers and teachers since October 7 at numerous schools across the District. Berkeley administrators have ignored parent reports and knowingly allowed its K-12 schools to become hostile environments for Jewish and Israeli students. Parents have repeatedly reported anti-Semitic incidents to the administration, but BUSD has done nothing to address, much less curtail, the hostile environment that has plagued BUSD for more than four months. “The eruption of anti-Semitism in Berkeley’s elementary and high schools is like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” said LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “It is dangerous enough to see faculty fanning the flames of anti-Semitism on college campuses, but to see teachers inciting hate in the youngest of grades while Berkeley administrators sit idly by as it continues to escalate by the day is reprehensible. Where is the accountability? Where are the people who are supposed to protect and educate students?” LDB, ADL and other Jewish organizations, recently filed a lawsuit to stop anti-Semitic content from being taught in Santa Ana, California public schools. Play KPIX-TV (CBS, Bay Area): Berkeley Unified targeted with federal complaint over antisemitic harassment of Jewish students videoTextBlockModalTitle × Your browser does not support the video tag. Brandeis Center, ADL, StandWithUs and Law Firms Launch Second Legal Protection Helpline – for K-12 Anti-Semitism in California In partnership with the ADL, StandWithUs, and law firms Covington & Burling LLP; Akin; Dechert LLP; and Davis Polk, LDB launched a legal helpline for parents whose children are experiencing anti-Semitism in K-12 public schools in California.The K-12 helpline, which will gather data about incidents of anti-Semitism in K-12 schools in California, is a separate initiative from the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), which primarily serves college students and was launched by LDB, ADL, Hillel International and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in response to the surge of anti-Semitism that erupted on campuses across the country in the aftermath of October 7 Hamas attacks. “Frankly, school principals and administrators should themselves be cracking down on the surge in anti-Jewish bullying we are witnessing. That is what the law requires,” stated Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “However, far too many are failing in their legal responsibilities and choosing to sweep escalating anti-Semitism under the rug. Our legal team stands ready to step into this gap and demand the protections Jewish students are guaranteed under the law.” Alyza Lewin Profiled on ‘Nice Jewish Girls’ Podcast Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin was the focus of an episode of the ‘Nice Jewish Girls’ podcast, where she discussed “The Case Against Antisemitism.” Lewin discussed her work leading the litigation team that represented the Israeli licensee of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, in the successful lawsuit filed against Unilever to prevent Ben & Jerry’s unlawful boycott of Israel. She also discussed her achievement arguing the “Jerusalem Passport” case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which 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. Play Alyza Lewin: The Case Against Antisemitism videoTextBlockModalTitle × Your browser does not support the video tag. Brandeis Center Launches New Website The Brandeis Center unveiled its new website in February. LDB’s new website puts its groundbreaking casework and resources at your fingertips. Visitors to the new website are invited to explore the Brandeis Center’s work, which rests on the “four pillars” represented in our recently redesigned courthouse logo: advocacy, education, leadership and research . Some highlights of our new website include: our Case Materials directory, which allows members of the public to search for legal filings and other documents related to our casework; an “Our Cases” page featuring key materials and information about prominent Brandeis Center cases; and a “Resource library” to help users find materials related to our work combating campus and workplace anti-Semitism – including our white papers, legal letters, webinars, surveys, and academic articles. Thank you for making us your destination to stay up-to-date about combating anti-Semitism on and off American campuses. LDB Joins Joint Statement by Coalition Working with Morningstar to Eliminate Anti-Israel Bias The Brandeis Center and a coalition of Jewish American organizations issued a statement responding to an independent experts’ report of recommended actions to remove anti-Israel bias from financial services company Morningstar’s ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) subsidiary.The coalition – which includes The Jewish Federations of North America, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, JLens, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and LDB – has been working for over two years to achieve this goal. The joint statement commends Morningstar for its stated commitment to implementing these recommendations by the end of 2024. Morningstar has already commissioned a follow-up report by the same experts to evaluate its progress.Stated LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus: “We commend Morningstar for engaging with us, examining their ESG product, and committing to make the changes necessary to ensure that their rating system is apolitical, objective, and honest. We believe that implementing the experts’ report is critical to achieving this goal.” LDB General Counsel L. Rachel Lerman told JNS she is “cautiously optimistic” that Morningstar will adopt the recommendations: “If they do, and we can convince other companies to do the same, I think there’s hope.” The Brandeis Center Welcomes New Staff As the demand for LDB’s services and legal expertise increases, we are pleased to welcome several new staff members to our rapidly expanding legal team, including Education Counsel Marci Lerner Miller, New York Senior Counsel David M. Dince, and Senior Counsel Robin N. Pick. “The alarming and hateful environment affecting Jewish students, faculty and staff on campuses across the country – plus recognition of the Brandeis Center’s legal successes – has led to 10 times the volume of legal inquiries we experienced before October 7,” said Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “Adding Robin, David, Marci, and other new lawyers to our staff helps the Brandeis Center further deliver on its mission – to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all.” The Brandeis Center will continue to hire legal staff throughout 2024. Attorneys with an interest in using their legal skills and experience to combat anti-Semitism on campus and the workplace are encouraged to visit the job opportunities section of LDB’s new website – and subscribe to the organization’s mailing list. LDB continues to accept applications for civil rights legal fellows and law student clerkships. New LDB Fact Sheet on Holocaust Denial The Brandeis Center published an important new resource to combat rising anti-Semitism: a fact sheet on Holocaust denial. LDB’s latest fact sheet defines Holocaust denial; provides a brief overview of its history; explains why it is anti-Semitic; explains who Holocaust deniers are and the common arguments they use; and discusses Holocaust education. “Holocaust denial requires that the denier believe and perpetuate the notion that Jews are capable of a hoax so massive that Jews are capable of misleading the entire world … It is built on many of the age-old defamations of the Jewish people,” said Brandeis Center Founder and Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. To learn more about Holocaust denial, access our new fact sheet here. Julie Strauss Levin Joins Brandeis Center Legal Advisory Board The Brandeis Center added additional legal might to its already-impressive Legal Advisory Board: Julie Strauss Levin, a legal and business expert in the for-profit and nonprofit spaces. Ms. Levin was appointed by President Trump to sit on two Presidential Commissions and by VA Gov. Glenn Youngkin to sit on his Commission to Combat Antisemitism. She also serves on the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Gross Family Center for the Study of Antisemitism and the Holocaust, the Board of Directors for Our Community Salutes, and the lay Advisory Council of the Coalition for Jewish Values. Levin’s experience includes tenure as Senior Counsel at America First Legal Foundation, Principal of IGMP, LLC, General Counsel at Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, and Deputy General Counsel at Feld Entertainment. “We are extremely pleased about Julie joining our legal advisory board, given her legal savvy and sound judgment,” said Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “As our work becomes increasingly complex, her expertise is an invaluable asset to us.” LDB Law School Chapter Launches at Georgetown University Law Center On February 12, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law at Georgetown University Law Center was formally recognized as a student organization. LDB’s newest law student chapter was formed by a group of students dedicated to combatting anti-Semitism on campus at Georgetown Law and in the larger DC community. The Georgetown chapter has already hosted vigils, educational sessions, and community building events, including events with notable speakers such as Matthew Levitt, Robert Garson, Alyza D. Lewin, and Cliff Rieders. The Brandeis Center is excited to expand their partnership with students at Georgetown Law Center and to provide the students with access to a wide network of experts, legal guidance, educational materials, and advocacy opportunities. LDB Events at NYU Law School + Brooklyn Law School Brandeis Center New York Senior Counsel David M. Dince and Staff Attorney Deena Margolies attended back-to-back events on February 28 at schools with LDB law school chapters. The NYU Law School LDB chapter Law Students Against Antisemitism hosted a “Coffee Chat” on campus. Margolies spoke to students at this event and answered questions about Title VI of the Civil Rights Act on campuses, post-October 7. At Brooklyn Law School, Dince and Margolies joined a panel titled “A Night of Education and Remembrance: A Conversation with Holocaust Survivor Sammi Steigman.” The event was co-hosted by the Jewish Law Student Association and Students Against Antisemitism. Members from Brooklyn Law School LDB chapter Brooklyn Law Students Against Antisemitism were in attendance. LDB Book Review: ‘Judging Jewish Identity in the United States’ Check out Brandeis Center Law Clerk Hannah Fischman’s review of the newly released book, Judging Jewish Identity in the United States, by Annalise E. Glauz-Todrank. The book devotes ample space to the landmark 1987 case of Shaare Tefila v. Cobb, which established that members of ethno-religious groups , such as Jews and Sikhs, could avail themselves of civil rights protections that were established in Nineteenth Century civil rights legislation to protect against race discrimination but not religious discrimination. As Fischman writes, “Shaare Tefila paved the road to the passage of the 2004 policy known as the Marcus Doctrine (after LDB Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus), under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which announced that discrimination on the basis of ancestral or ethnic characteristics is no less permissible against groups that also have religious attributes than against those that do not.”
Published 2/28/24 in Los Angeles Times; Story by Jenny Jarvie The week after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Ilana Pearlman asked her 14-year-old son, Ezra, a ninth-grader at Berkeley High School who is Black and Jewish, if he felt safe. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be fine,” he told her. “I’m Black.” Pearlman, a 38-year-old midwife, wanted to cry. She moved to Berkeley thinking it would be a space where her son would not be a token Jewish Black kid, that he could be celebrated for all the things that make him who he is. Instead, she said, she watched Ezra erase his Jewish identity as the climate at his high school became more hostile to Israel and Jews. His art teacher, he told her, projected “resistance art” — including a fist punching through a Star of David on a map of Israel — on a large screen. Day by day, his classroom wall filled with signs promoting a “walkout against genocide” and posting the daily death toll of Palestinians. “He never tells me anything,” Pearlman said of her son, a typical video-game-loving teen. “The fact that he shared this was unusual.” On Oct. 18, Pearlman said, Ezra’s classmates joined a walkout in which some students shouted, “Kill the Jews.” In the months after the Hamas attack, administrators at Berkeley Unified School District failed to stop teachers and students engaging in “severe and persistent” harassment and discrimination against Jewish children, according to a federal civil rights complaint filed Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education. The complaint, filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League, alleges Berkeley public schools ignored reports of bullying and harassment of Jewish students on the basis of their ethnicity, shared ancestry and national origin. District leaders, it alleges, “knowingly allowed” classrooms and schoolyards to become a “viciously hostile” environment. Since Hamas’ brutal surprise attack and Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip, students, parents and politicians have warned that antisemitism is rife on college campuses. But this complaint — the first antisemitism case filed with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against a public school district since Oct. 7 — claims antisemitism pervades public schools that teach students as young as second grade. In Berkeley, it alleges, middle school and high school teachers organized walkouts for Gaza during school hours, sometimes leaving no instruction for students left behind in class. In another case, it says, an elementary school teacher directed second-graders to write “anti-hate” messages, such as “Stop Bombing Babies,” on sticky notes — and then posted the notes outside the classroom of the school’s only Jewish teacher. The complaint alleges that students followed their teachers’ lead. At one middle school, students chanted “Kill the Jews” on a walkout. Some Jewish children reported that their classmates asked what their number is — a reference to the numbers tattooed on Jews during the Holocaust. “The Israel-Gaza conflict has spiked a huge antisemitism crisis in schools,” said Rachel Lerman, general counsel and vice chair of the Brandeis Center. “We can see from the Berkeley schools that what’s going on is clearly antisemitic: When you have rallies for Gaza, with students yelling ‘F— the Jews’ or ‘Gas the Jews,’ then you have an antisemitism problem. It’s [as] plain as day.” Responding to the federal complaint, Berkeley Unified School District Supt. Enikia Ford Morthel said the district continuously encourages students and families to report “any incidents of bullying or hate-motivated behavior” and “vigorously investigates” every report. The district had not received official notification of the federal complaint, Ford Morthel said, but would work with the Office of Civil Rights to support a “thorough investigation.” “We believe that classrooms are spaces where all students need to feel safe, seen, felt, and heard,” Ford Morthel said in a statement. “We work to make these spaces responsive and humanizing for our diverse students, today and every day.” Ezra stayed in school when many of his classmates joined the Oct. 18 walkout. Pearlman said other Jewish students who attended — because they supported the Palestinian cause — left as the chants moved swiftly from “From the river to the sea” to “Kill the Jews.” “It dawned on them: ‘This is not good,’” Pearlman said. At a later walkout at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Pearlman watched grown-ups unlock and open the gates for students to leave campus. Pearlman wasn’t bothered as students chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a chant that Palestinian activists say is an expression of solidarity for Palestinians but many Jews interpret as a call for Israel’s destruction. But then, she said, the chants morphed to “KKK.” She felt she was living in an upside-down world as she watched kids moving through the crowd, asking marchers, “Are you Jewish? Are you Muslim?” “Oh, hell no,” she said she heard students respond: “F— Israel. F— the Jews.” She said she approached school administrators, but they did nothing. “I don’t blame the kids,” she said. “I hold administrators responsible for not shutting hate speech down. When it comes to Jews, it’s just, ‘Eh, they’ll get over it.’” Pearlman pushed administrators to let Ezra attend a different art class. But his new art teacher wore “Free Palestine” patches on her clothes, and told students about the mental health day she says she needed because of the war in Gaza and the protests she had to attend. Ezra stopped going to Jewish teen events every Wednesday night. When she went over his ancestry project for ethnic studies, the only part of his ancestry he included was his Black side. He didn’t mention he was Jewish or that his ancestors were Holocaust survivors. “I’m a little offended, dude,” she told him. “What about your entire Jewish side?” “Eh, it’s not really the right climate for that,” Ezra said. Chiara Juster, the mother of an eighth-grader at Willard Middle School, said students called her daughter, 13, a “midget Jew” in the hallway between classes the week before Oct. 7. After changing classes to avoid bullying from her peers, her daughter found herself in a homeroom with a history teacher who displayed a Palestinian flag and posters calling for a cease-fire. She began to feel unsafe when her teacher urged students to join the after-school watermelon club — the watermelon has become an unofficial symbol of Palestinian solidarity in protests — if they wanted to learn the truth about what’s happening in Gaza. “Students are not feeling safe,” said Juster, 43, a former attorney. “Inside the classroom, schools need to create a really safe environment. Don’t brainwash; don’t try to influence kids with a particular set of beliefs.” Juster pulled her daughter out of Willard. But she didn’t feel comfortable sending her to neighboring Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School after hearing students had chanted “Kill the Jews.” She is now homeschooling her daughter. “We came to Berkeley because we thought it would be safe,” Juster said. “I never thought I’d be taking my kid out of school over antisemitism. If this were any other ethnic minority, it would not be tolerated.” At a time when educational institutions across the country are grappling with how to balance public teachers’ and students’ free speech with rhetoric that can be interpreted as hostile or discriminatory, the complaint argues that Berkeley went too far in allowing teachers to promote personal political views. Teachers, the complaint alleges, violated the district’s “Controversial Issues” policies that state, “Teachers within BUSD are dedicated to creating safe spaces where students can explore differing viewpoints.” Another district policy prohibits teachers from using their positions to promote a “historical, religious, political, economic, or social bias.” The complaint accuses Berkeley teachers of using class time to “indoctrinate other students with anti-Semitic rhetoric, tropes and false information about Israelis and Jews.” It cites the example of a teacher who posted a photo on social media on Oct. 7 of a bulldozer breaking through a fence: “A historic act of resistance happened in Palestine today,” the teacher wrote. “While this complaint is not intended to regulate the private speech of BUSD teachers,” the complaint argues, “these teachers bring their personal, biased viewpoints into the classroom and make their students feel more unsafe with their public viewpoints.” The complaint alleges that parents’ concerns about BUSD schools went ignored for months. In November, more than 1,300 Berkeley community members signed a letter to the Berkeley superintendent and Board of Education stating that they were “dismayed, disappointed and frightened by the district’s lack of care” for Jewish children. The letter also urged administrators to “take active steps to ensure our Jewish kids feel physically and psychologically safe at school.” The complaint alleges a number of incidents of harassment of Jewish students by classmates and teachers. As a result, children who once wore Star of David pendants were hiding visible displays of their Judaism, the complaint states. Although some Jewish and Israeli students have left the district, the complaint asserts, others remain enrolled but afraid to go to school. “There is no more solemn or basic obligation than protecting our children from the moment when they walk into the doors of their schools,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “To fail so monumentally that children feel forced to hide their Jewish identity for fear of reprisal is downright shocking.” Since Oct. 7, communities across the country have alleged that antisemitism is soaring, including graffiti and vandalism at Jewish stores and synagogues as well as physical attacks on people wearing Star of David pendants. The Anti-Defamation League tracked 3,283 reported antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and Jan. 7 — a 361% increase from the 712 incidents reported during the same period the year before. Palestinian Americans also have noted a spike in incidents of hate and discrimination. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said last month it received 3,578 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian discrimination during the last three months of 2023 — a 178% increase from the same period the year before.
Published by JNS on 2/8/24; Story by Mike Wagenheim “If the remaining BDS controversies come off Israeli companies after this, we can finally say that Morningstar is BDS free,” said Rich Goldberg of FDD. Morningstar, an investment firm headquartered in Chicago that manages and advises on about $264 billion in assets, released a comprehensive report on Wednesday that it commissioned to address concerns that one of its subsidiaries has engaged in anti-Israel bias. Sustainalytics, which rates the sustainability of investment products, has long been accused of downgrading assets associated with companies that operate in Judea and Samaria, as well as in eastern Jerusalem. Morningstar convened a pair of independent experts—one of whom it selected and the other chosen by a coalition of organizations, including many Jewish ones, that have expressed concern about the anti-Israel bias—to assess whether there was a need to change course. Michael Newton, director of Vanderbilt University’s international legal studies program, and Alejandro Daniel Wolff, a retired U.S. diplomat who served as ambassador to the United Nations, compiled the report, which investigated the assumptions, sources and language that Sustainalytics’s researchers and analysts used. It made seven core recommendations, including that Sustainalytics should stop taking into account the geographical location of Israeli companies and it ought to eliminate the category “occupied territories/disputed regions” when suggesting negative associations with an investment. “This report reaffirms how easy it is for anti-Israel bias to become entrenched, and how important it is for our community to remain vigilant and engaged,” stated Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, which has acted as the coalition’s point organization. Fingerhut added that the Federations commend Morningstar “for both its active engagement with our community, its strong stance against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, and the significant progress it has made toward reinforcing the fact that bias has no place in financial ratings.” Better conditions Liad Ortar, director of Shibolet ESG, which assists businesses in implementing environmental, social and governance (ESG) guidelines and standards, told JNS there isn’t adequate research available to determine whether and how much damage Morningstar’s previous ratings processes may have cost businesses operating in so-called occupied territory. “At the end, the role of ESG, or integrating human rights concerns in the supply chain, is to safeguard the human rights of the people that work in corporations and manufacturers,” he said. Israeli-owned companies operating in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas or Arab-majority parts of eastern Jerusalem tend to provide better working conditions for their employees than the PA does, which ESG ratings firms don’t tend to recognize, according to Ortar. “The Palestinian employees are much better safeguarded by Israeli regulation,” he said. “The workers are receiving pension and social benefits, insurance and holiday gifts, like any other Israel-based employee.” The recommendations Morningstar says it will implement will be unique to their company, as there are no overarching ESG guidelines or standards that are uniform to the ratings industry, Ortar added. “One of the main things you expect out of rating agencies is that if you bring to the table or examine very similar companies, you will get very similar results,” he said. “One of the things in general that is very challenging in the world of ESG ratings are the differences between the different companies and their outputs.” A ‘complex’ topic Morningstar and Sustainalytics have been under fire for several years for developing investment ratings which, by definition, lowered scores for businesses simply by virtue of operating in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, labeled as “occupied territory.” Though Morningstar has vehemently denied being engaged in practices intended to harm Israel economically, the company has come under investigation by some 20 agencies from states across the country looking into whether its practices amounted to violations of anti-BDS laws. Investors use Sustainalytics’s ESG ratings to make decisions about where to park their money, based on factors like how companies address climate change and how they treat their employees, along with compliance with international law. A coalition of Jewish American and pro-Israel groups pressured Morningstar into gradual changes in its use of sources and processes to develop its ratings, leading to the removal of potentially unfair controversy ratings from more than 100 firms, signaling a 94% decrease. “The topic of human rights is complex, and while it represents a small part of Sustainalytics’s research and ratings, it is important to many investors when they evaluate risks in their portfolios,” a Morningstar spokesperson told JNS in a statement. “Morningstar is committed to continuing rigorous, independent research in this space, and following concerns of anti-Israel bias, we engaged in a productive and transparent process to fortify objectivity, transparency, and consistency in our work,” the spokesperson added. The recommendations of the new report are to be implemented before the end of the year, according to Morningstar. The report found that referring to “occupied territories/disputed regions” as a negative element of a business’s profile “is neither statistically meaningful nor analytically necessary to assess a company’s engagement in human rights violations.” The experts stated in the report that the “focus on the affected companies and the emotive issues associated with the Israel-Palestinian Conflict Area viewed primarily through the lens of ‘occupation’ or ‘dispute’ renders this incident type particularly susceptible to actual or perceived bias.” Another key recommendation is to evaluate human rights violations by “examining facts on the ground” rather than by “relying solely on uncorroborated media accounts.” Critics of Sustainalytics had long pointed to its propensity for incorporating material from media outlets and other sources tied to the boycott Israel movement. This sometimes meant that unfavorable media coverage of Israel could lead to manipulated ratings. “Reliance on credible sources does not necessarily equate to credible information that should drive objective risk analysis,” per the report. “Interested parties or non-governmental actors can generate media reporting to advance their own objectives by besmirching legitimate business activities in the Israel-Palestinian Conflict Area.” The experts recommended that Sustainalytics “establish more rigorous procedures for assessing the underlying facts contained in media reports, regardless of the purported reliability of the media entity.” Coinciding with that, Sustainalyitcs, per the expert recommendations, will be required to “clearly define what specific human rights a business is alleged to be violating.” ‘Cautiously optimistic’ Critics previously noted that Sustainalytics issued negative ratings to business operations on the sole basis of their operating in “occupied” territories rather than violation of international law. Rachel Lerman, general counsel at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, has been involved with the coalition seeking changes at Morningstar. “You can treat a disease by treating the symptoms or by treating the body, and I think they’ve elected to treat the body,” she told JNS. Rather than focusing on one business or another, the recommendations are structural and could be applied at other ESG rating agencies, according to Lerman. “What they recommend would make the product a lot better,” she said. Lerman is “cautiously optimistic” that Morningstar will adopt the recommendations. The experts who compiled the report are due to issue a follow-up report on the implementation of their guidance. “All of us had a tendency to be very skeptical, including myself. So, I feel like this report was a real shot in the arm,” Lerman said. “If they don’t do anything with this, then of course, it’ll be for naught. But if they do, and if we can convince other companies to do the same, I think there’s hope.” Rich Goldberg, senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a harsh critic of Morningstar’s practices, told JNS that the true test is whether the handful of companies remaining on Morningstar’s controversies list doing business in Judea and Samaria are removed. “The bottom line question is whether the recommendations translate to actions,” he said. “If the remaining BDS controversies come off Israeli companies after this, we can finally say that Morningstar is BDS-free.”
Published 2/4/24 in the Washington Post; Story by Laura Meckler In Oakland, Calif., concerns about antisemitism and school culture prompt some Jewish families to leave In New York City, Jewish leaders, teachers and parents demanded that the schools do more to address what they see as antisemitism, staging a rally on the steps of the city’s education department. In Montgomery County, Md., a petition supporting the investigation of teachers for sharing pro-Palestinian images and messages garnered 3,500 signatures. And in California, at least 30 Jewish families have requested transfer out of the Oakland Unified School District because of issues related to the Israel-Gaza war. Charges of antisemitism that have coursed through college campuses since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel by Hamas are also embroiling some K-12 school districts, as the emotional toll and anger surrounding the resulting war continues to tear at communities. It was unclear how many of these cases have surfaced, but school districts across the country have grappled with how much to allow students and staff to say about the conflict, and what to do when that speech offends or even makes others feel unsafe. The U.S. Department of Education has opened 19 investigations of potential federal civil rights violations into K-12 school systemsalleging antisemitism, Islamophobia or other bias related to the conflict. “Our concern is not so much about Israel and Gaza but about the one-sided viewpoints being pushed into the classrooms and teachers crossing the line when they go beyond teaching the facts,” said Simon Ferber, who is pulling his 6-year-old son out of the Oakland schools at year’s end. He and his wife complain that teachers have emphasized the harm to Palestinians but not harm to Israelis. They plan to move their family to Los Angeles, where they believe the climate for Jews will be more welcoming. A spokesman for the Oakland school district declined to comment about families leaving the district, but the district superintendent has spoken out against teachers using unauthorized, pro-Palestinian material in their classrooms. Charges of bias have also come from the opposite direction, with some alleging that schools are not allowing free expression of pro-Palestinian views. In Montgomery County, Md., for instance, a middle school teacher was put on leavein Novemberafter she included the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in her school email signature,one of several teachers to face consequences for expressing pro-Palestinian views. Some interpret “From the river to the sea” as a call for eliminating the Jewish state.The teacher has said she was attempting to show support for Palestinians’ “peace and for their freedom.” But as the war presses on, some Jewish families say they’re still seeing too much antisemitism language and images. “There’s been complete neglect of this issue,” said Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, a pro bono law firm that represents Jews in cases where antisemitism is alleged and who helped organize the rally this week in New York. “There’s a parallel to college campuses. But here we are talking about more susceptible younger children [who are] more easily affected.” The New York rally was intended to ask school officials to do more to prevent and respond to incidents such as a loud November protest by hundreds of students after a Jewish teacher posted a photo of herself holding an “I Stand With Israel” sign. “We Jews are not okay,” said Michelle Ahdoot, director of planning and strategy at #EndJewHatred, which co-sponsored the rally, recounting recent classroom incidents as many in the crowd held Israeli flags aloft. Last week, New York Schools Chancellor David Banks announced a plan to combat antisemitism, Islamophobia and “all forms of hate,” including new education and training for staff and clear instructions on how to report incidents. “Let me be clear: We have zero tolerance for any form of bigotry or hate,” Banks said. But rally organizers said that was not enough and demanded, among other things, that the schools define antisemitism to include anti-Zionism. While some argue these things are inextricably linked, others say that opposition to Israel as a Jewish state is not the same as hatred of Jews. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which works to combat antisemitism, has been tracking incidents across the country. It is focusing on California, where it believes some schools deliver anti-Israel messages through a state-mandated ethnic studies course, said L. Rachel Lerman, vice chair and general counsel for the group. For instance, the group alleges that lessons present a history of the conflict in a biased way that puts too much of the blame on Israel for harm to the Palestinians and does not hold the Palestinians accountable for their actions. The California Legislative Jewish Caucus voiced similar concerns about some ethnic studies curriculums in a January letter to colleagues. Lerman said she is now preparing possible litigation to address what she considers antisemitic activity in the schools. The activity, she said, amounts to a “hostile environment” and is barred by federal civil rights law. The California Department of Education did not reply to a request for comment. In general, U.S. public schools have operated under the premise that they need to be nonpartisan, but in recent years, educators, school boards and administrators alike have all begun to weigh in on controversial political issues, said John Rogers, an education professor at UCLA who studies education and democracy. Many teachers, he said, see a moral urgency to call out injustice when they detect it. “I do think that many educators have followed the news in Israel and Gaza and have been heartbroken at the dynamics that have been playing out and have wanted to do something,” he said. “Some educators have felt compelled to act politically on behalf of the issue. That’s not entirely surprising.” In Oakland, a district of about 34,000 students east of San Francisco, controversy was sparked in October, when the Oakland Education Association, which represents the district’s teachers, posted on social media a statement condemning “the genocidal and apartheid state of Israel.” The union apparently deleted the post following criticism online that it was one-sided and, in the words of one Jewish parent writing on X, “blatant antisemitism.” In a new post on Facebook, the union said that it “unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” but it also shared the text of a resolution that some Jewish parents found nearly as offensive. The resolution condemned Israel’s “75 year long illegal military occupation of Palestine,” and repeating that Israel was “an apartheid state” whose leaders “have espoused genocidal rhetoric.” A faction of the union encouraged members to teach this point of view in the classroom, providing materials for a pro-Palestinian “teach-in” in December, which was unauthorized by the district. Material included, for instance, an alphabet book for elementary students called “P is for Palestine,” that includes, “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grown-up!” An elementary school teacher who helped organize the teach-in said the plan grew from activists asking themselves, “What is our power as workers?” She said the answer was “using our collective strength to bring these issues to our students.” The teacher argued that it was justified to teach unsanctioned material because the material given to them did not include enough of the Palestinian perspective. She estimated that 70 to 100 teachers participated (out of about 2,300), although secretly because they feared disciplinary action if caught. She said no one had been disciplined. She spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of facing discipline from the district. Not all teachers unions have taken the same tack. An October statement by Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, which Oakland’s union is part of, was more evenhanded in condemning events in Israel and Gaza and spoke of a “dangerous rise in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bigotry and violence.” Officials from the Oakland Education Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Oakland Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell voiced her concerns about the union’s actions in an open letter to the community. “Our schools are sanctuaries for learning, and I am deeply disappointed by the harmful and divisive materials being circulated and promoted as factual,” she said. She said the district has “remained unwavering in our stance against antisemitic, anti-Israeli, Islamophobic, or anti-Palestinian prejudice or discrimination,” and added: “We are aware of some recent incidents that may have cast doubt on the District’s commitment to this fundamental expectation.” Nonetheless, the debate has been deeply unsettling to some Jewish parents in Oakland. Shira Avoth said the walls of her seventh-grade son’s English classroom were papered with posters calling Israel’s actions genocide and generally “vilifying” its conduct in the war. One poster, she said, called for Palestinian freedom “from the river to the sea.” After Avoth complained, her son was removed from the class. “He didn’t feel safe there,” she said. He then “sat in limbo or in the office” during class time. Subsequently, she said, the teacher was removed but Avoth does not know whether he will be allowed to return. Avoth plans to request a transfer to another district for next school year but has not yet decided if she will use it. “If we’re going to allow curriculum that is attempting to indoctrinate children and vilify my son’s heritage, we’re going to leave,” she said. She is part of a large group of Jewish parents who have gathered in a WhatsApp text group where members offer affirmation to one another and trade stories of classroom incidents. She described finding the group, a few weeks after the Oct. 7 massacre, as “indescribable relief.” For Simon Ferber, the father preparing to leave Oakland for Los Angeles, it has all been deeply unsettling. He grew up near Oakland and was excited about settling down there,where he was confident his liberal values of inclusion, diversity and belonging would be embraced. But he felt that Jews don’t receive the same support as other minorities. “It’s felt isolating and as if the support we thought we would have — or expected — has dropped out from under us,” Ferber said. In a neighboring district, Berkeley Unified, there are similar complaints, although no sign of mass departure from the schools. Ilana Pearlman, who has children in the first and ninth grades in Berkeley, said anti-Israel posters with a photo of a little girl’s bloody face were affixed to utility poles surrounding her daughter’s elementary school but administrators did not seem to take her concerns about this seriously. At the high school, she said, a walkout and rally in support of the Palestinians was promoted by her son’s art teacher. In class, she said, the art teacher repeatedly showed what she believes to be “antisemitic images,” such as a drawing of a fist punching through a Jewish Star of David and the word “Palestine” in large letters. “My son felt uncomfortable,” Pearlman said. She said five Jewish students including her son left the class but the teacher was allowed to continue teaching. “All of our complaints go into a giant black hole,” she said. She complained that the school culture allows for scant nuance in difficult situations like this war, where violence has been inflicted on both sides and where the events were preceded by a long history with pain on all sides. “In Berkeley, you can only be an oppressor or the oppressed,” she said. The art teacher declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Berkeley district also declined to comment on the art teacher but said the district encourages students to immediately report any incidents to administrators or others “so that they can be promptly and thoroughly addressed.” In a statement, Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel said that she had increased engagement with the community in the months since the war began and that the district has a clear stance “against all forms of hate.”
Contact: Nicole Rosen 202-309-5724 Once a Beacon of Civil Rights, Berkeley Now Home to Physical Intimidation and Violence Against Jews and 23 Orgs that Ban “Zionists” Washington, D.C., Nov. 28, 2023: The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law is suing the University of California (UC) Regents, UC President Michael Drake, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, and other officials, for the “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism” on Berkeley’s campus that has resulted in a current hotbed of anti-Jewish hostility and harassment. The complaint was filed today in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Since Oct. 7 anti-Semitism has run rampant at the school, according to the Brandeis Center. Reported for the very first time in this complaint are numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and physical violence against Jewish students. For example, during one of the numerous rallies held at UC Berkeley celebrating Hamas, a Jewish undergraduate draped in an Israeli flag was set upon by two protesters who struck him in the head with a metal water bottle. Jewish students and faculty are receiving hate mail calling for their gassing and murder. Many Jewish students report feeling afraid to go to class. Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a prayer gathering by Jewish students. Pro-Palestinian rallies blocked the main entrance to campus. And a UC Berkeley faculty member went on an anti-Israel rant for 18 minutes, with roughly 1,000 freshman as his captive audience. Students participating in the pro-Hamas rallies have spouted hatred and threats against Jews, harassed Jewish students, demanded the dismantling of Israel, honored Hamas “martyrs” who were killed while butchering Jewish civilians, and chanted phrases such as “intifada, intifada,” condoning violence against Jews, and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” calls for the elimination of Israel and the eradication of the 7 million Jews that live there. UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky acknowledges the rampant anti-Semitism at his school, writing recently, “I am a 70-year-old Jewish man, but never in my life have I seen or felt the antisemitism of the last few weeks.” He noted that, “[t]wo weeks ago, at a town hall, a student told me that what would make her feel safe in the law school would be to ‘get rid of the Zionists.’” He added he had “heard several times that I have been called ‘part of a Zionist conspiracy,’ which echoes antisemitic tropes that have been expressed for centuries.” UC Berkely Jewish students shared in the complaint that the school does so little to protect Jewish students, it feels as if the school is condoning anti-Semitism. They added that officials at the university display a “general disregard” for Jewish students. Indeed, many Jewish students have reported feeling afraid to go to class during the pro-Hamas rallies because they have little confidence UC will protect them from anti-Semitic mobs. “The anti-Semitism Berkeley’s Jewish students find themselves embroiled in today did not start on Oct. 7,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for the Bush and Trump administrations, current founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, and a graduate of UC Berkeley’s law school. “It is a direct result of Berkeley’s leadership repeatedly turning a blind eye to unfettered Jew-hatred. The school is quick to address other types of hatred, but why not anti-Semitism? Berkeley, once a beacon of free speech, civil rights, and equal treatment of persons regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, and sexual preference, is heading down a very different and dangerous path from the one I proudly attended as a Jewish law student.” The most prominent example of pre-Oct. 7 willful blindness Marcus is referring to, and a primary focus of this lawsuit, is a decision last year by nine law student organizations to amend their constitutions with a bylaw that bans all Zionist speakers. The numbers have now swelled to 23 groups, including academic journals that prohibit Zionists from publishing and pro-bono organizations that prevent Jewish students from receiving hands-on legal experience, training, supervision and mentorship. The Zionist ban denies Jewish law students networking opportunities provided to others; deprives them of earning pro-bono hours for state bar requirements; curtails their avenues for developing and improving legal research, writing, and editing skills; and limits their choices for obtaining academic credits towards graduation. This is all illegal under federal law and university policies. It has become commonplace for persons seeking to disguise their anti-Semitism to use the word “Zionists” to mean Jews. The Biden National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism notes that, “[w]hen Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism.” The White House explains that protection of Jews as a religious, national and ethnic group includes protection from anti-Israel bias and discrimination. Anti-Zionism is different from criticism of Israel or opposition to the policies of the Israeli government. Anti-Zionism rejects the very right of Israel to exist and denies Jews the fundamental right to self-determination. A Pew survey found that 80% of Jews view Israel as integral to their Jewish identity. Dean Chemerinsky himself has acknowledged the ban excludes “90 percent or more” of Jewish students at Berkeley law. While UC Berkeley leaders have repeatedly acknowledged the Zionist ban is blatant anti-Semitism, they have done nothing to address it. This has allowed anti-Jewish bigotry to normalize and escalate. The UC leaders have, instead, excused the discrimination as “viewpoint discrimination,” protected, they claim, by the First Amendment. The lawsuit makes abundantly clear, however, that UC Berkeley leaders’ choice to ignore discriminatory behavior violates federal law and university policies. According to the Brandeis Center, the discriminatory ban does not exclude individuals based on viewpoint because it has nothing to do with anything a given speaker might say or author might write. Instead it excludes Zionist speakers because of who they are. “Making Jews renounce that core component of their identity to participate in a student organization is no different than asking members of the LGBTQ community to remain ‘in the closet’ as the cost of membership—a cost that is not imposed on other students who are free to participate fully in those organizations without disavowing or hiding their identities,” stated Rachel Lerman, vice chair and general counsel at the Brandeis Center and also a graduate of UC Berkeley Law School. According to the complaint, Berkeley’s acquiescence to these discriminatory policies has helped give anti-Semitism free reign on campus in violation of the law. “This suit targets the longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism at the University of California Berkeley, which, following the October 7 Hamas attacks, has erupted in on-campus displays of hatred, harassment, and physical violence against Jews,” states the complaint. “Court intervention is now needed to protect students and faculty and to end this anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment, which violates University policy, federal civil rights laws, and the U.S. Constitution.” Earlier this month, the Brandeis Center, along with the ADL, Hillel International, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and other leading law firms and Jewish organizations, launched the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), a free legal protection helpline for college students who have experienced antisemitism. Over the past month, the Brandeis Center has filed two Title VI complaints with the U.S. Department of Education against the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and Wellesley College, and sent a strong legal warning to Harvard University regarding its failure to take action against a professor that Harvard itself admitted had discriminated against Jewish Israeli students. Two weeks ago the Department of Education announced it was formally investigating Brandeis’ UPenn and Wellesley complaints. The Department of Education recently reached an unprecedented agreement with the University of Vermont to address growing antisemitism on its campus in response to a complaint filed by the Brandeis Center on behalf of UVM Jewish students, and, in addition to UPenn and Wellesley, the Department of Education is investigating another four pending Brandeis Center complaints at SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California (USC), Brooklyn College, and the University of Illinois. To view this press release as a PDF, click here.
The Brandeis Center stands with the world’s Jewish community, following the horror and grief of Hamas atrocities since October 7. Demand for our services to keep Jewish students safe on college campus and K-12 environments has since escalated significantly. Brandeis Center attorneys have been continuously speaking with a large number of students and professors around the country about potential lawsuits against universities that have tolerated a hostile environment for Jewish students. Springing into action immediately, we worked with nine other Jewish American organizations to draft and send a letter to more than 500 North American university presidents the week after the Hamas massacres, reminding schools of their legal obligation to keep Jewish students safe. We contributed Hamas-related content to the upcoming Shine a Light toolkit for the Chanukah season. We held an emergency webinar on how Jewish students can hold their school administrators accountable to keep them safe. We spoke to the Society for Human Resource Management to help HR managers provide Jewish employees proactive support – and the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee about a potential hearing they could hold. We rereleased our fact sheet: “International Humanitarian Law in Asymmetric Warfare.” And we spoke to our JIGSAW legal fellows, law student chapters, and legal clerks to help them address the issue on their campuses. The Brandeis Center stands proudly with Israel and the Jewish community everywhere. Joint Letter to North American University Presidents In response to the national group Students for Justice in Palestine calling for a “national day of resistance” across campuses the week after Hamas atrocities started, as well as student groups publishing statements siding with Hamas terrorists and anti-Semitic violence already erupting on campuses, the Brandeis Center assembled a coalition of Jewish American organizations to send a joint letter to North American university and college presidents. The Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents, Hillel International, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Israel on Campus Coalition, Jewish Federations of North America, Jewish on Campus and Zionist Organization of America joined our effort. Our coalition reminded university presidents of their moral and leadership responsibility to condemn Hamas’ violence against Jews and their legal obligations to protect Jewish and Israeli students. The San Francisco Chronicle linked to our letter in a story published October 11. LDB-ADL Joint Letter to North American University Presidents The Brandeis Center and ADL sent a joint letter to the presidents of nearly 200 colleges and universities in response to the increase of anti-Semitic incidents on campus in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians. The LDB-ADL letter states that Students for Justice in Palestine “provides vocal and potentially material support to Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” and demands that schools investigate the campus group. Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, who signed the letter with the LDB President Alyza D. Lewin, told Jewish Insider that “we’re seeing a different situation than what we’ve been dealing with on campus. Groups have shunned, marginalized and excluded Jewish individuals. Now student groups are going as far as aligning themselves with a State Department identified terrorist organization that has pledged genocide against the Jewish people.” Marcus said that there is a “real prospect” legal action will be taken against schools that do not investigate SJP groups. “We’re not just talking about offensive speech. This is the greatest level we’ve seen. When there are student organizations that are explicitly and prominently glorifying the work of a terrorist organization, you wouldn’t think that university presidents need to be reminded of this obligation. But they do,” Marcus continued, adding that the goal of the letter is to “make sure they have no excuse for not doing so.” An abridged form of JI’s story ran in eJewish Philanthropy’s “Your Daily Phil” newsletter on October 27. Kenneth L. Marcus Joins U.S. Sen. Chip Roy for Heritage Foundation Event on U.S.-Israel Alliance In a panel discussion broadcast by C-SPAN, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus joined U.S. Senator Chip Roy and former Deputy Special Monitor or Combat Anti-Semitism for the U.S. State Dept. for a conversation on the “Future of the U.S.-Israel Alliance at 75.” Chairman Marcus explained to the Heritage Foundation event audience that about the significant and growing impact of the “Marcus Doctrine” policy he helped establish in 2004 while serving as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. The Biden administration declared last month that eight additional U.S. executive branch agencies will use the Marcus Doctrine to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of ethnic or ancestral discrimination. In Politico, Kenneth L. Marcus Pushed Biden Administration to Issue Long-Delayed anti-Semitism Regulations In a Politico story published October 12, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus renewed pressure on the Biden administration to finally issue new regulations on campus anti-Semitism. “This highlights the need for the Biden administration to make good on its long delayed promised regulations,” said Chairman Marcus, who twice led the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. “This has been promised over and over again and delayed throughout the administration.” Marcus told Politico that LDB has already seen significant increases in anti-Semitic remarks on social media since Hamas began committing atrocities, and it expects requests from students to increase. He urged university leaders to get ahead of potential harassment. LDB Re-Releases its Fact Sheet on International Humanitarian Law Following the eruption of inconceivable Hamas atrocities – violating almost every key tenet of international humanitarian law – the Brandeis Center reissued its fact sheet “International Humanitarian Law in Asymmetric Warfare.”Recognizing that in order to understand the Hamas-Israel war, it is crucial that audiences have precise and accurate information about the rules of war and who is violating it. LDB’s fact sheet gives specific factual details sourced from publicly available information demonstrating the Israeli Defense Forces’ consistent and determined compliance with IHL guidelines and the clear violations perpetrated by Hamas. The fact sheet covers the most widely accepted principles of: “distinction,” “necessity,” “proportionality,” and “humanity.”Readers may also find it helpful to share our two-part Instagram explainer of this fact sheet on social media. Kenneth L. Marcus Helps HR Professionals Provide Proactive Jewish Worker Support In the Society for Human Resource Management, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcusprovided needed advice to HR professionals, helping them provide proactive support to Jewish employees in the wake of Hamas violence. Marcus told SHRM that many Jewish and Israeli workers are traumatized by the recent events in Israel, and their emotions could be exacerbated by anti-Semitism. He noticed a spike in anti-Jewish rhetoric on social media since Hamas began its attacks and expects to see a rise in many other sectors, including the workplace, as the war progresses. He recommended ways for employers to be proactive in supporting Jewish employees, including: establishing an employee resource group for Jewish employees, sending messages of support to any employees impacted by the attacks, including employees who may have lost family or friends in Israel, being aware that some Israeli American employees may be called to service if they are members of Israel’s military reserves – and staying cognizant of the prospect that workplaces may experience an uptick in harassment and bias incidents against Jewish employees. Brandeis Center Holds Emergency Webinar: ‘The Hamas Atrocities and the American Campus’ Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin, Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, Director of Legal Initiatives Denise Katz-Prober and National Jewish Advocacy Center Director Mark Goldfeder addressed an emergency situation for Jewish students across American college campuses in a webinar held October 12: “The Hamas Atrocities and the American Campus.” Jewish students are watching student groups at Harvard, NYU and other schools publish statements supporting Hamas terrorists, and have already begun suffering physical attacks on campuses, such as Columbia University. College administrators are legally obligated to take actions that will keep Jewish students safe, and the Brandeis Center’s webinar is a valuable resource for concerned students and parents to hold schools accountable. Higher-education news source The College Fix ran a story about LDB’s webinar, excerpting quotes from both President Lewin and Director Katz-Prober, as well as linking to the LDB’s joint letter to university presidents. Webinar: The Hamas Atrocities and the American Campus (10/12/23) Kenneth L. Marcus Lambastes Harvard Student Groups in Campus Reform After more than 30 Harvard student groups issued a joint statement asserting that Israel is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” following Hamas’s horrific massacres, Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcusresponded forcefully in the higher education news source Campus Reform. “It is reprehensible, to say the least, that so many Harvard student organizations are taking the wrong side on this massacre,” declared Marcus.“ When so many people are being slaughtered, raped, and their corpses desecrated, it shouldn’t be difficult to decide whether you are on the side of the murderers or the victims. And yet all of these Harvard students are rushing to join the wrong side—the side of the perpetrators. These wrong-headed student voices are more pronounced in light of the administration’s failure to speak out quickly and firmly against the atrocities, just as they spoke out when Russia invaded Ukraine,” Marcus added. Marcus criticized the administration’s prioritization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) prioritization, claiming that it has “allowed such bigotry to grow unchecked. It is also a sign of something rotten in Harvard’s admissions program, that they have admitted these people.” Brandeis Center Publishes New Fact Sheets on Understanding Hate Crimes and Erasive Anti-Semitism Responding to the growth of anti-Jewish hate crimes in America, the Brandeis Center published two important new resources: fact sheets “Understanding Hate Crimes” and “Erasive Anti-Semitism.”“Understanding Hate Crimes” outlines what a hate crime is; who is most commonly targeted for hate crimes in America; why prohibiting hate crimes is important; and the distinction between punishing hate crimes and punishing hate speech or hateful thoughts. “The Brandeis Center is committed to educating and empowering those who experience anti-Semitism by teaching them about their legal rights. Fact sheets like this one help educate and inform the public about the type of support the Brandeis Center provides,” stated Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin. “Erasive Anti-Semitism” explains what erasive anti-Semitism is and provides real-life examples from college campuses, corporate environments, and in legal settings. “Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War, we’ve seen anti-Semites engaging in twisted conspiracy theories, trying to explain away the atrocities committed against Jews,” said Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “This is despite all of the verified photographic and video evidence, as well as testimonials from survivors and witnesses. Anti-Semites refuse to acknowledge Jews as being victims.” LDB-led Jewish Group Coalition Suit Against CA School District Gains Awareness A lawsuit filed by the Brandeis Center, ADL, AJC, and Potomac Law Group, with the help of StandWithUs, acting as consultant, against the Board of the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), on behalf of the Brandeis Center and its membership arm, So-CUE (Southern Californians for Unbiased Education), continues gaining awareness in California. The lawsuit alleges that the Board violated California’s open meetings law and asks the Court to void the actions taken by the Board, including its approval of anti-Semitic ethnic studies curricula. “Part of the problem is whether Jewish students in class are harassed, which would be important, and we also don’t want children of other ethnicities being taught that Jews are bad,” stated Brandeis Center General Counsel L. Rachel Lerman. “That’s not good for the community,” she added. Alyza D. Lewin Helps Canada Update its Anti-Semitism Messaging to Include Jewish Identity Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewinspoke to attendees of the “Using the Legal System to Combat Antisemitism” panel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), part of the Canadian Jewish Federations last week. Lewin said that clear and coordinated public messaging is needed from the Jewish community now to combat the tide of rising anti-Semitism – including vocabulary to articulate that legal actions to fight anti-Semitism are independent of anyone’s political views, but instead necessary for Jews “being targeted, harassed, discriminated against and killed on the basis of identity, as Jews.” LDB President Lewin said many people do not understand that Jews are targeted “because we’re a people” nor understand what makes Jews a people. “Today Jews are being targeted on the basis of our shared ancestry and our ancestral connection to Israel. There are now those who are insisting that Jews do not have a shared ancestry and ethnicity and that certainly we do not have a shared ancestral connection to the land of Israel.” We need to push back against this effort to erase and deny our identity as a people and to erase and deny our ancestral connection to Israel,” Lewin urged. Philanthropy Roundtable Includes Brandeis Center in List of Organizations Fighting Anti-Semitism Following the horrific Hamas violence against Israel, Philanthropy Roundtable published a list of organizations combating anti-Semitism around the globe. The Brandeis Center is grateful and humbled to have been included in this important resource. Deseret News Speaks to Kenneth L. Marcus for Feature Story on Campus Anti-Semitism In an in-depth feature examining the state of anti-Semitism across American college campuses, national weekly publication Deseret News spoke to Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus. “The unavoidable fact is that there is something monstrous in U.S. college campuses and on U.S. streets,” Marcus stated. “The hatred of Israel that we’re seeing in the anti-Zionist movement is simply a continuation of the age-old hatred of the Jewish people under the guise of political discourse.” The article discussed Marcus’s viral op-ed from last year “Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones,” following several student groups at UC, Berkeley amending bylaws to prohibit invitations to speakers supporting Zionism.
Story from Jewish Insider’s “Daily Kickoff” for September 22, 2023 Pressure is mounting on the University of Pennsylvania ahead of a conference featuring an array of anti-Israel speakers that is slated to begin today on the Philadelphia campus, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. Four attorneys at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law are claiming in a detailed letter to the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Elizabeth Magill, that she has failed in her legal responsibilities to address a controversial Palestinian literature festival held on the school’s campus and featuring several speakers who have voiced antisemitic rhetoric and called for the destruction of Israel. “By tacitly condoning the inflammatory and false narratives about Israel and the denial of the Jews’ ancestral connection to the land of Israel — themes that speakers at this weekend’s festival repeatedly espouse — Penn is allowing the festival to create a hostile environment for Jewish students on its campus at a time when, even the university has acknowledged, antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault are rising on college campuses,” the attorneys write in the letter, which was shared exclusively with JI. Brandeis-Center-letter-to-U-of-Penn-President-M.-Elizabeth-Magill-Sept-21-2023-1Download
Lawsuit alleges significant violations of the Brown Act, California open meeting law. ADL Contact: Todd Gutnick, adlmedia@adl.org, 917-544-2342 Brandeis Center Contact: Nicole Rosen, nicole@rosencomm.com, 202-309-5724 AJC Contact: Steve Gosset, mediacomms@ajc.org, 212-891-1363 PLG Contact: Marlene E. Laro, mlaro@potomaclaw.com, 703-517-6449 StandWithUs Contact: Jennifer Kutner, jkutner@standwithus.org, 310-245-4109 (Santa Ana, Calif., September 11, 2023): ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the American Jewish Committee and Potomac Law Group announced today that they filed suit on behalf of the Brandeis Center and its membership arm, So-CUE (Southern Californians for Unbiased Education), comprised of Orange County and Santa Ana residents, against the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) for alleged violations of California’s open meetings law, including failing to provide proper public notice before approving multiple ethnic studies courses containing anti-Jewish bias and for refusing to protect the public, including members of the Jewish community, from intimidation and harassment at Board meetings. The suit is intended to prevent antisemitic material from being taught in Santa Ana schools while the Board goes through the process of approving courses in a lawful manner. The lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court, State of California, Orange County, alleges that in March and April 2023, the SAUSD knowingly circumvented the law and was misleading in its effort to pass curricula with dangerously anti-Jewish teachings that violate state rules and ethical standards, all without community awareness. Documents responsive to a Public Records Act request revealed this lack of transparency was intentional, as those developing the curriculum questioned how to “address the Jewish question” and suggested collaborating with outside organizations with a history of controversial viewpoints, instead of with the Jewish community. When members of the community discovered the school board’s actions and appeared at a meeting to publicly comment following the controversial curriculum’s covert approval, they were harassed with antisemitic rhetoric. “It’s clear that the Santa Ana Unified School District violated the law in their rush to approve antisemitic content within their ethnic studies curriculum. Closed-door discussions prevented input from marginalized communities – in direct contrast to the goal of the ethnic studies program, which is to support marginalized communities,” said James Pasch, ADL Senior Director of National Litigation. “No school board should silence the families and students who have a vested interest in the lessons taught in public schools. We’re grateful to the members of the community who endured significant harassment to speak out against this hateful content and the school board’s actions.” “The Santa Ana School Board has allowed ethnic studies courses with substantial antisemitic content to slide through the approval process without giving the public legally required notice or a meaningful opportunity to comment,” said L. Rachel Lerman, General Counsel of the Brandeis Center. “Emails we have uncovered suggest the School Board knowingly tried to keep things under wraps so they wouldn’t have to address what the course developers called ‘the Jewish Question.’ As a persecuted minority, we know all too well the importance of a strong ethnic studies education, but antisemitism does not belong in ethnic studies or anywhere in our classrooms. Teaching kids to hate Jews is a recipe for disaster and must be addressed, particularly now at a time of rising levels of antisemitism.” Under the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, school boards are required to make the public aware of upcoming agendas and plans so community members can provide input. The lawsuit requests that the court recognize that SAUSD violated the law by being covert, and hold them accountable for failing to control disruptive, aggressive behavior that targeted Jewish community members. Additionally, the lawsuit calls on the court to bar the school district from teaching courses that include antisemitic content and were unlawfully approved, and ensure the community has an opportunity to comment and raise objections before those courses are taught. Finally, plaintiffs further ask the court to require SAUSD to follow open meeting laws moving forward, so new ethnic studies courses are not approved without community input. SAUSD’s illegal actions allowing antisemitic content to be taught in schools come at a time when antisemitic attitudes and antisemitic incidents are at historic levels. California saw a 51-percent increase in antisemitic harassment alone in 2022, and more than 500 incidents of harassment, vandalism and assault against Jews. And according to the FBI, Jews are the religious group most targeted by hate crimes. “Done right, ethnic studies prepare students to live in an increasingly diverse society. Done wrong, they can be divisive and discriminatory,” said Marc Stern, AJC Chief Legal Officer.“Public comment and debate are essential to devising a broadly acceptable ethnic studies curriculum. Community input is not just important, it is also the law, one the Santa Ana district has blatantly violated. The district must open up its curriculum for public examination so families can ensure their children are receiving instruction in ethnic studies that emphasizes diversity rather than discrimination.” “Ethnic studies has the power to foster inclusivity and cross-cultural understanding in California students during a time when antisemitism and other forms of hate are on the rise,” said Marci Lerner Miller, a partner at Potomac Law Group in the Education, Litigation and Government Investigation Practice Groups. “Through full transparency, we can ensure that ethnic studies courses are taught as lawmakers intended, without bias, bigotry, or discrimination.” “StandWithUs is proud to partner in this important litigation in support of the Jewish community. Students deserve a proper education about marginalized minorities, not indoctrination based on misinformation and hate. Community members are entitled to the opportunity to fully participate in the process of the adoption of ethnic studies curricula, including the right to voice their views and concerns to their local school boards during that adoption process—not after it has already concluded. We are grateful to our partner organizations spearheading the litigation efforts and trust that the court will take the necessary steps to ensure that the ethnic studies curriculum ultimately used within SAUSD schools is in full compliance with the law,” said Carly Gammill, Counsel for Litigation Strategy, StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department. ADL, The Brandeis Center, AJC and Potomac Law Group serve as the plaintiffs’ counsel for this case. The StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department is supporting the litigation as legal consultant. To read this press release as a PDF, click here. ADL is the leading anti-hate organization in the world. Founded in 1913, its timeless mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact. A global leader in combating antisemitism, countering extremism and battling bigotry wherever and whenever it happens, ADL works to protect democracy and ensure a just and inclusive society for all. More at www.adl.org. 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. The Brandeis Center is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice. AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 offices across the United States, 14 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC’s mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. Potomac Law represents clients worldwide on a broad range of corporate matters, including public interest and high impact litigation. Headquartered in Washington, DC and with lawyers in 20 states, PLG is one of the fastest growing firms in the country. We serve as counsel to clients in a wide range of industries and developmental phases, from Fortune 100 companies to early-stage startups. Our value stems directly from the talent and commitment of our attorneys who have an average of seventeen years of experience at top national firms and/or in-house at major corporations. StandWithUs is an international, nonprofit, and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism. Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs throughout the U.S., Israel, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands. #####
Published September 11, 2023 by Jewish News Syndicate; Story by Menachem Wecker The Santa Ana Unified School District allegedly discussed responding to the “Jewish question” internally, without alerting the public to or allowing it to comment upon antisemitic content in courses. The Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Potomac Law Group filed a lawsuit against the Santa Ana Unified School District and its education board late on Friday. The group alleges that the Orange County, Calif. district broke the law by inserting antisemitic content into new ethnic studies courses, and that it didn’t alert the public to or give it the opportunity to comment upon the hateful content in question. The coalition further alleges that the school district didn’t adequately protect Jewish speakers, who were harassed at its meetings and subjected to anti-Jewish hatred. The 86-page suit, which was provided to JNS over the weekend, was filed on behalf of the nonprofit Brandeis Center and its membership organization the Southern Californians for Unbiased Education. Many of the ethnic studies courses that the district developed “contain controversial and antisemitic content that is—or would be, if properly made public—deeply disturbing to the local community,” the complaint states. “The public was deprived of its legal opportunity to address the content of these courses before the board approved them,” it adds, “because the board failed to give the community the legally required opportunity to learn about the content and comment on it at public meetings of the board.” ‘Jewish question’ The suit states that an item on the agenda for an Oct. 4, 2022 meeting of the district’s committee that developed the ethnic studies courses in question was to “Address the Jewish question—do we have to create a response—consult with XITO, and the Ochoas.” The suing coalition interprets the “Jewish question” as “potential objections from the Jewish community to antisemitic content included in the courses.” “Instead of talking to the Jewish community, however, the committee chose to get advice from organizations with a history of antisemitism on how to ‘handle’ the Jews,” the complaint states. XITO is “a controversial ethnic studies group that vocally defended the rejected versions of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, and strongly objected to the removal of antisemitic materials from the final Model Curriculum,” it states. “XITO’s teachings and materials equate Israel with ‘settler colonialism’ and call Zionism ‘a nationalist, colonial ideology’ that has called for the ‘creation and expansion of Israel as a Jewish state in historic Palestine by any means necessary.’” The coalition believes that the “Ochoas” refers to “Gilda and Enrique Ochoa, professors at Pomona College and Cal State Los Angeles, respectively, who are vocal supporters of the rejected draft model curriculum, including its antisemitic content.” “Other minority groups were not treated as pariahs but still had to be carefully ‘vetted’ before providing input,” the complaint adds. “The Subcommittee Notes from its June 27, 2021, meeting say, ‘Yes can ask for help from Native American local community, but make sure to vet them.’” ‘Racist’ country In late August, the education policy adviser to Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote to school leaders in the state cautioning them that some ethnic-studies materials that vendors had circulated discriminate against individuals or communities. Some Jewish groups hailed the letter—which didn’t mention antisemitism in particular—but Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, director of AMCHA Initiative, told JNS it was “too little, too late.” The state law AB 101, which California passed in October 2021, requires that public school graduates take at least one ethnic studies course in order to graduate. The law is slated to go into effect starting with the graduating class of 2029-2030. Rachel Lerman, the Brandeis Center’s vice chair and general counsel, told JNS that the nonprofit shared the governor’s letter with counsel for the Santa Ana board the day it was issued. “Counsel told us the next day that the letter did not change anything,” said Lerman. “Counsel told us the board had no plans to change the curricula despite the governor’s letter and our own letter to the board explaining why the curricula blatantly violates AB 101.” Lerman told JNS that the Brandeis Center told the school board that it fully supports an ethnic studies program that “teaches students to appreciate the challenges and contributions of different ethnic groups in California.” “Jewish organizations like ours know all too well the importance of courses like ethnic studies which aim to prevent bigotry and discrimination,” she said. “But when these courses are used to spread hate against a particular group, we need to speak out.” The complaint also alleges that the Santa Ana district isn’t complying with Newsom’s letter. “The governor’s letter directs school leaders to ‘closely scrutinize’ any curriculum or instructional materials for ethnic studies courses before they are selected to ensure they are free from bias, bigotry, or discrimination,” the suit states. “This close scrutiny dovetails with the rules requiring that decisions be made after the public is given meaningful opportunity to review and comment on ethnic studies course curricula so that biased materials come to light.” Santa Ana is one of several California school districts that haven’t complied, per the complaint. “Based on the materials available to the public (and it is unclear whether this is everything), at least five ethnic studies courses” which the Santa Ana board approved, “including ethnic studies courses in world history, English and world geography, include one-sided anti-Israel screeds and propaganda,” it states. The latter “teaches students—falsely—that Israel is an illegitimate, ‘settler colonial,’ ‘racist’ country that ‘stole’ land from a pre-existing country called Palestine and engages in unprovoked warfare against Palestinian Arabs,” it adds. Antisemitic heckling Beyond the board’s alleged decision to hide antisemitic components of its ethnic studies courses from the public, it also failed to protect Jewish attendees of its meetings, according to the complaint. At a general board meeting on May 23, for example, “classic antisemitic tropes as well as threatening and violent language” were hurled at Jews and Israelis. “Audience members hissed as the names of Jewish attendees were called, applause broke out in response to antisemitic slurs and during a presentation by two Jewish high school students, board meeting attendees shouted, ‘you’re racists’ and ‘you’re killers,’” according to the suit. The complainants added that a meeting attendee followed a Jewish student to her car and harassed her, and the district’s security “was unable to provide sufficient protection or support.” Video of the board meeting also showed that attendees told a speaker wearing a yarmulke to “go home,” and that due to the board’s “insufficient response, attendees continued to interrupt and heckle Jewish speakers throughout the meeting.” Lerman told JNS that the lawsuit is so urgent right now because all but one of the ethnic studies courses in question are currently being taught. “We want the open meeting rules followed, so that the public is made aware of the content of these courses, as the law requires, and has a full opportunity to raise objections,” she said. “These courses are supposed to be vetted publicly, not pushed through under the radar. That is what our open meeting laws are all about.” JNS sought comment from the Santa Ana Unified School District about the lawsuit. “We are unable to provide comment on any ongoing or pending litigation, per our standard district practice,” said Fermin Leal, the school district’s chief communications officer, told JNS.