The House Ways and Means Committee invited Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus to testify at its hearing: “Crisis on Campus: Antisemitism, Radical Faculty, and the Failure of University Leadership,” which took place June 13, 2024. The hearing’s other witnesses included recently-graduated Cornell student Talia Dror, Columbia Professor Shai Davidai, American Jewish Committee CEO and former U.S. Congressman Ted Deutch, and American First Policy Institute Higher Education Reform Director Dr. Jonathan Pidluzny.

This hearing focused on what Congress could do to respond and stop the rampant anti-Semitism that students have seen and experienced on college campuses since the October 7 Hamas massacre. The various ideas included curbing the college’s tax-exempt status, cutting federal funding, and revoking foreign wrongdoers’ visas. “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,” began Chairman Marcus in his opening statement. “Over the time since…this Committee held its last hearing…we are seeing a kind of perfect storm of student violent extremism, professorial politicization, undisclosed foreign funding, and often feckless and weak administration.”

Chairman Marcus shared concern about retaliation against students who report the anti-Semitic abuse: “In some cases, those who report anti-Semitic incidents have been met with retaliatory complaints or countercomplaints. Students should be encouraged to report their abuse without fear of reprisal.” Marcus is also troubled about how the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has dismissed some complaints unlawfully. He recommended OCR prioritize “opening, investigating, and resolving shared ancestry cases.” He suggested the Dept. of Education not merely wait for new complaints to be filed, but instead open its own investigations of anti-Semitic discrimination on campuses. And Marcus recommended joint investigations with the U.S. Department of Justice, because discrimination cases can fall under their purview.

Two bills were also discussed as potential remedies. One was the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Chairman Marcus called this a “huge step,” saying, “I hope the Senate will follow suit.”

Chairman Marcus advises that university presidents investigate Students for Justice in Palestine for “potential violations of the prohibition against materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization under 18 USC 2339A and B, and its state equivalents. Marcus also advocated for increased transparency about the “large sums of money from foreign governments.” But he cautioned for the “need to know what those funds are used for and “what impact it has on the curriculum and campus environment.”

The idea of rescinding funding to schools that refuse or declare themselves unable to respond to the ongoing crisis of hatred on campuses was endorsed by all the hearing’s witnesses. In response to a question from Congressman Drew Fergurson, Marcus said school administrations are “addicted to federal funding,” and it would change their

approach to anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination of students were their federal funding to be revoked or blocked.

Video of the hearing and a transcript of Chairman Marcus’s opening statement are embedded below.

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Full Hearing Recording – Brandeis Center Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus’s Opening Statement Begins at 1:03:07

Ken Marcus Testimony 061324 FINALDownload

Authored by: Eli Goldstein

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.

Published 10/25/23 by The College Fix; Story by Terrance Kible.

‘The world is watching,’ human rights group told universities. ‘Will you rise to the occasion?’

Amid rising campus antisemitism, civil rights groups wrote to more than 500 university presidents reminding them of their obligations to Jewish students and demanding protections that reportedly had been denied.

Alyza Lewin, president of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told The College Fix that grieving Jewish students had been denied accommodations following the Hamas attacks, which for many occurred during midterm exams.

This failure contrasted with the willingness of universities to grant accommodations after the murder of George Floyd or the election of President Donald Trump, she said.

Brandeis Center issued its letter to universities on October 12, with the Anti-Defamation League and eight other “Jewish and civil rights organizations” signing on to “express [their] shared concern about the safety and well-being of Israeli and Jewish members” on campus after “the worst pogrom committed against Jews since the Holocaust.”

“The world is watching,” the groups wrote. “Will you rise to the occasion?”

The Fix emailed Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the California State University System, Yeshiva University, and Texas A&M University to ask whether they had received the letter and to confirm or deny that grieving Jewish students had been denied accommodation requests. No response has been received.

The letter reminds universities of their commitment under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect Jewish and Israeli students from a “hostile environment.”

“Events that celebrate Hamas’ cold-blooded murder of Jews” create such an environment, according to the letter.

In a webinar accompanying the letter, posted to YouTube last week, Lewin called the denial of protections “unconscionable” in light of “what has been going on and what continues to be going on in Israel.”

Denise Katz-Prober, the Brandeis Center’s Director of Legal Initiatives, spoke in the video on hostility toward “Jewish and Israeli students on college and university campuses.”

Universities “should be issuing strong statements that demonstrate support for the Jewish community but that condemn the actions of Hamas,” Katz-Prober said.

“Pro-Palestinian anti-Zionist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and others on campus are sounding more aggressive . . . in their language since the Hamas attacks,” she stated.

“These groups are openly and loudly supporting, celebrating, justifying, and glorifying last weekend’s massacre of Jews and Israelis by Hamas,” Katz-Prober said. “They are often described by these groups as essential or as legitimate Palestinian resistance.”

Many groups used National Students for Justice in Palestine-created banners depicting Hamas paragliders descending on Israeli civilians at the start of the attack, she said.

Protestors under the NSJP banner coincided with Hamas’s call for “a global jihad against Jews,” which was “adding to a very real sense of physical fear for students,” Katz-Prober said.

Earlier this month, dozens of Harvard University groups signed a letter that “h[e]ld the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” against Israeli civilians, The Fix reported at the time.

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Published 1/31/24 in Washington Examiner. Story by Peter Cordi.

A pro-Palestinian University of Pennsylvania faculty group blocked the main entrance to the school’s College Hall during a “die-in” protest to mourn those who have died in Gaza after Israel’s response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

Approximately 86 school faculty participated in or spectated the protest held by the Ivy League school’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, a student-run nonprofit group at the university. UPenn Jewish student leader Eyal Yakoby, who witnessed the die-in, told the Washington Examiner that about 20 faculty members blocked the College Hall entrance as part of the demonstration.

“I believe all the tactics used are very intentionally to intimidate and harass other people,” Yakoby said. “We’re seeing this on and off campus across the country. What’s happening isn’t unique to Penn.”

“We’ve seen antisemitic events in the past, but we’ve never seen such a high concentration, in a three-month period, of open antisemitism,” he added.

As part of the demonstration, faculty simulated being dead by lying on the ground and displaying signs accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. Yakoby said this made it impossible for some students to get to class.

The protest included a 140-foot-long scroll featuring the names of 6,700 Palestinians the group says were “murdered” by Israel, which was walked over to Simone Leigh’s “Brick House” sculpture where the demonstration ended.

Bassil Kublaoui, associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Penn Medicine and UPenn FJP spokesman, said that the intention for the die-in was to draw attention to “the inaction of the university towards the Palestinian community and the racist, hate speech directed towards faculty, staff, and students calling for Palestinian justice,” according to the student-run nonprofit group.

“Universities need to ask themselves, are our professors meant to be activists or are they meant to be educators?” Yakoby offered instead.

The University of Pennsylvania faced controversy in late 2023 after former university president Liz Magill refused to say whether calls for genocide against Jewish people violated school policy in House testimony, resulting in her Dec. 9 resignation.

Yakoby spoke at a Republican House leadership press conference ahead of the House testimony, detailing what he described as a “serious” antisemitism problem at the University of Pennsylvania.

He told the Washington Examiner, “I thought Magill resigning would give someone new with a better perspective to understand how far the community has gotten from norms and reality. But it seems like maybe as a result of the leniency of the university, people still feel as though they can violate policies and just get away with it.”

According to the school’s free speech policy, “you cannot block buildings, or use amplification in a way that disrupts class, regardless of what you say” at the University of Pennsylvania.

“What’s happened is that individuals keep toeing the line of what is and isn’t allowed because of such leniency of the university; they feel emboldened to do whatever they want. And we’ve just seen utter pandemonium at times, with people sleeping in buildings for weeks on end. It’s unbelievable,” Yakoby continued.

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) shared his concerns over the demonstration with the Washington Examiner, noting that he has been “a staunch advocate of the U.S.-Israel alliance” throughout his career, whether as mayor of Miami-Dade County or as a member of Congress.

“Since the genocidal Hamas terrorists launched their murderous slaughter against Israel on Oct. 7, Jewish American students have faced a nearly 400% increase in hate crimes on campus,” he said.

“Antisemitism has NO PLACE ANYWHERE — especially not on college campuses receiving federal funding,” Gimenez added. “I’m working to ensure colleges that fail to protect students from hateful pro-Hamas activities have their federal funding eligibility immediately reviewed.”

“Make no mistake, there is no nuance between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. It’s the same old hate, reinvented for the purpose of ostracizing and relegating the Jewish community,” he continued.

Kenneth Marcus, founder and head of the Brandeis Center, shared a similar sentiment.
“21st century anti-Zionism is essentially antisemitism,” Marcus told the Washington Examiner, describing the origins of the current anti-Zionist movement.
“Historically, there were people who opposed the establishment of a Jewish state based on certain ultra-orthodox Jewish messianic views or based on other historical considerations that simply aren’t applicable today,” he explained. “Nowadays, the attack on Israel is a descendant of historical antisemitic movements as opposed to a descendant to other forms of anti-Zionism that have nothing to do with antisemitism.”

Yakoby revealed that from his experience on campus, antisemitism and anti-Zionism are “interchangeable,” and said, “I don’t think all anti-Zionists are directly antisemites, but all antisemites are anti-Zionist.”

“The fact that this is a faculty activity is especially outrageous,” Marcus stressed. “There is no issue of freedom of speech here since these professors appear to be violating clearly established content-neutral rules of the university and doing so apparently while they’re on the clock.”

Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told the Washington Examiner, “Students take their cues from faculty. And so when faculty are doing this, why should we be surprised if we see students engage in peer-on-peer harassment, and certainly anti-Israel activity and even antisemitism from student groups? And so we’re concerned by these new faculty for Justice in Palestine groups that are forming across the country.”

Marcus, who served as assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights in the Trump administration, said that the faculty who participated in this demonstration “send a signal to Jewish and Israeli students that these faculty members simply are not available to them” because they are espousing views that are antithetical to the Jewish-Israeli identity.
“This is not just a matter of them expressing their views, but of breaking university rules in a way that signals to Jewish and Israeli students that they are not welcome,” he continued.
He said that the school is sending a message that “they have learned nothing” from former president Magill’s controversial resignation in allowing the violation of university rules, namely blocking the entrance to a school building, to go unchallenged.
“This protest shows that any serious campus reform needs to address not only administrative programs like DEI but also the deeply entrenched problems that we have with the university faculty,” Marcus said.

“We’re a faculty-facing organization,” Elman said of AEN, which she says is concerned with the rise of “harassment, isolation, and ostracism of Jewish Zionist students on campus” in the last few months.

“The role of faculty is to model respectful and civil discourse and engagement, to heal the community, bring students together across differences, show how that can be done, and not to violate the campus and make the situation worse,” she said.

“If this is what they’re doing in the quad, what are they doing in the classroom?” Elman pondered.

Elman stressed what she calls “the height of hypocrisy” in the same faculty who participated in the die-in protest “waxing eloquent on free speech and academic freedom, and yet they’ve hitched themselves to this initiative that undermines those ideas” in supporting academic boycotts.

She said the participating faculty ignored the “lived experiences” of Jewish students in staging the demonstration and that she couldn’t see “how Jewish and Israeli students can feel supported by faculty” in the wake of the protest.

Elman condemned the group, “Thank you very much, Faculty for Justice in Palestine. You’re not doing your job. Your job is to educate.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine, and Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine for comment.

Published by Wall Street Journal on 11/17/23; Story by Joseph Pisani.

Education Department is looking into seven complaints alleging antisemitic and anti-Muslim harassment at colleges and one K-12 school district

The Education Department is investigating several schools over reports of harassment against Jewish and Muslim students in response to ongoing campus tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war.

The department is investigating Columbia University, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, Lafayette College, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and the Maize Unified School District in Kansas. The schools are under investigation for alleged violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects students from, among other things, discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.

College campuses have become a hotbed for tension following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with protests often drawing national attention. Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups have reported more harassment, intimidation and assaults around the country since the attack. The surge of threats has fueled widespread calls for schools to keep students on both sides of the conflict safe.

The Education Department said five of the complaints allege antisemitic harassment and two allege harassment against Muslims. It declined to provide further details.

Schools that don’t protect students from discrimination and refuse recommendations from the Education Department’s civil rights office could lose federal funding, the department said.

“Hate has no place in our schools, period,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement Thursday.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a Jewish advocacy group, filed complaints to the Education Department against Penn and Wellesley last week, alleging the schools didn’t do enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. The Brandeis Center said schools should provide mandatory training on antisemitism to staff and update their policies on antisemitism, among other remedies. 

“The swift responses to our complaints reaffirm how severe the antisemitism crisis is on college campuses and sends an important signal to university leaders,” said Kenneth Marcus, the Brandeis Center’s founder and chairman.

Penn and Wellesley said they have taken steps to combat antisemitism on campus. Columbia declined to comment on the investigation. Cooper Union, based in New York City, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Lafayette College, in Easton, Pa., said it doesn’t know why it was included in the department’s investigation, but that it would cooperate. Maize Unified School District, which oversees K-12 schools in Maize, Kan., also said it would cooperate.

Schools have struggled to navigate the national scrutiny brought on by campus protests. Penn and other elite institutions, including Harvard University, have faced pressure from billionaire donors threatening to cut funding to schools that take actions they disagree with.

Schools are also facing challenges directly from students, some of whom are taking their universities to court.

The University of Florida’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group, sued the chancellor of Florida’s university system and other Florida officials this week for ordering a shutdown of the group at the state’s public universities. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the group, said in court documents that disbanding the group violated students’ rights to free speech. The chancellor, Raymond Rodrigues, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Three Jewish students sued New York University on Tuesday, saying the school didn’t do enough to stop antisemitism on campus, making them feel unsafe.

An NYU spokesman said the lawsuit’s allegations were false and that it “paints a bogus picture of conditions on NYU’s campus.” NYU said this week it plans to open a center for studying antisemitism next year.

Published by JewishLink on 11/2/23; Story by Deborah Rubin

As Israel battles Hamas terrorists, a battle is raging in the United States with college campuses exploding with antisemitic threats and violence directed against Jewish students.

The alarming increase has resulted in physical assaults, including at Tulane and Columbia universities and the University of California-Berkeley, to threats posted at Cornell University to kill Jews to Montclair State University in New Jersey, which was forced to shut down the comments on its own Instagram account after it was filled with hateful rhetoric that a Muslim student who died had been thrown out of a window and murdered by Jews.

“This certainly did not happen in a vacuum,” said Denise Katz-Prober, director of legal initiatives at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. “The Brandeis Center has been warning for years that university administrators were not addressing the antisemitism and anti-Zionism on their campuses and when you sweep it under the rug this is what happens.”

Katz-Prober said her center has received an enormous amount of inquiries from parents and faculty from K-12th grade through college since the October 7 murder of 1,400 Israeli civilians by Hamas terrorists and Israel launching its offensive in Gaza.

“Frankly this was predictable,” she said, adding that university leaders failed to recognize that Jewish students have a shared connection to Israel, and that anti-Israel rhetoric is antisemitic, leading to Jewish students feeling unsafe and unsupported on their campuses.

“When Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other groups are celebrating and even justifying Hamas’ atrocities when we know Hamas targeted innocent civilians, they are celebrating violence against Jews,” she noted. “And when university administrators do not forcefully condemn this they are fostering a hostile atmosphere on campus for Israeli and Jewish students and contributing to a very real fear for their safety.”

Katz-Prober added: “We need moral leadership. We need more clarity for university students. We need university administrators to condemn Hamas. There should be no moral equivalence between Hamas’ atrocities against civilians and Israel’s lawful response in self-defense.”

A 21-year-old Cornell student, Patrick Dai, was arrested on October 31 on federal charges for threatening to “shoot up” students at a Jewish dining hall, stab male Jewish students, rape female students and bring an assault rifle to campus and “shoot all you pig Jews.”

The university, where 22% of the student body is Jewish, has been the scene of extensive anti-Jewish and anti-Israel demonstrations and hate, so much so that a student interviewed last week by The Jewish Link was too scared to even let her first and middle initials be used as identification in the article.

At Montclair, the demand to shut down comments on its Instagram came from Hillel, said Rebekah Adelson, director of Hillel of Greater MetroWest, which includes Montclair. She termed the incident “a blood libel.”

After the Montclair freshman’s October 17 death, reportedly from suicide, rumors began circulating he was murdered by a gang of Jews for his support of Palestine.

The university subsequently put out a statement, explaining, ”There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any foul play or criminal actions.” It said the university’s police department had gathered extensive information, including eyewitness reports, surveillance video and statements from the deceased’s friends indicating he died alone.

At Columbia, a swastika was found in a restroom of the School of International and Public Affairs building. An Israeli student was assaulted after he confronted a woman taking down posters of Israeli hostages.

Jewish students at Cooper Union were barricaded in a library while a rowdy SJP rally took place.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul called on universities to step up and do more to protect Jewish and Israeli students, and especially called out the City University of New York for failing to do so as its campuses across the city. She said she planned additional steps to address campus hate speech.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin called on schools to immediately report hate and bias crimes.

President Joe Biden has also spoken out against campus antisemitism; among the initiatives his administration is undertaking is a partnership between the departments of Justice and Homeland Security and campus law enforcement to monitor online hate speech.

The Brandeis Center was among 10 Jewish and civil rights groups that sent a letter to more than 500 university and college presidents demanding they “fulfill the moral and leadership responsibility entrusted to you as a university president, by speaking out now to voice your unequivocal condemnation of Hamas, its terrorist violence against Israel, and its declaration of war against the Jewish people everywhere, as well as your solidarity with and support for your Israeli and Jewish students, faculty and staff.”

The five-page letter was also signed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), American Jewish Committee, the Zionist Organization of America, Jewish Federations of North America, Hillel International, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Israel Campus Coalition, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Jewish on Campus.

Additionally, the Brandeis Center and the ADL sent a subsequent letter to about 200 universities with an “urgent request” they investigate the activities of SJP on their campus for violating their university’s code of conduct and for potential violations of federal and state laws against materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization whose leaders have “explicitly endorsed” killing Jews.

It stated that SJP has voiced an “increasingly radical call for ‘dismantling’ Zionism on American campuses, on some campuses have issued pro-Hamas messaging and/or provided violent anti-Israel messaging channels,” adding, “SJP chapters are not advocating for Palestinian rights; they are celebrating terrorism.”

Hamas was officially designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997.

The letter said at its recent “Resistance Day” SJP provided its chapters with public relations materials and a toolkit instructing, “We must act as part of this movement.” At many rallies there were shouts of “We are Hamas” or “We echo Hamas.”

It also warned that if the universities don’t check the activities of SJP chapters, they could be violating their Jewish students’ rights to be free of harassment and discrimination on campus.

The more broadly distributed letter notes that universities must protect the physical safety of all students, including Jewish and Israeli students, as well as their right to freely express their ancestral and ethnic identity.

The U.S. Department of Education recently has clarified Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in federally funded programs or activities, to define a “hostile environment” as being when unwelcome conduct “is subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from” an educational program or activity.

The Office of Civil Rights has accelerated an update to its discrimination complaint form that will now include certain types of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“Events that celebrate Hamas’ cold-blooded murder of Jews, are ‘subjectively and objectively offensive,’” read the letter.

Among the initiatives it insisted that universities undertake are: issue a public statement supporting Jewish and Israeli students affected by the tragedy; speak out forcefully against antisemitic hate speech; take appropriate security measures to ensure Jewish and Israeli students are safe in living spaces; use discriminatory incidents to educate the campus community about the oldest form of hatred, including contemporary forms of antisemitism that target Jewish shared ancestral and ethnic identity; and make sure diversity, equity and inclusion staff are trained in contemporary forms of antisemitism.

StandWithUs, an international nonprofit that works with young people and college students to support Israel and fight antisemitism, has also been sending letters to various universities through its Saidoff Legal Department and Center for Combating Antisemitism. One recent letter was sent to New York University President Linda G. Mills, in which the organization praised her condemnation of the Hamas attack, but expressed “deep concern” about three individuals caught on camera ripping down hostage posters who had been identified as NYU students, and urged action be taken for violations of the university’s code of conduct on destruction of property, university policy regarding freedom of speech and expression and regarding discrimination.

“Campus administrators have a legal obligation to ensure student safety, as well as to provide a discrimination-free environment for all students,” said StandWithUs co-founder and CEO Roz Rothstein in a statement to The Jewish Link.

“When administrators fail to take the necessary steps to fulfill these legal duties, students facing harassment or other forms of hostility based on their Jewish or Israeli identities should know that they are not alone,” she noted. “Best practices for students in the midst of an antisemitic or anti-Israel situation include documenting the incident (to the extent they can do so safely) and, if necessary, contacting campus law enforcement.”

To report harassment, threats or an incident: Contact stndwithus.com; the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, brandeiscenter.com; or ReportCampusHate.org, an online initiative of Hillel International, Anti-Defamation League and the Secure Community Network. For physical assault and threats contact campus security or police.

Washington, D.C. (October 12, 2023): The Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Conference of Presidents, Hillel, and numerous others today sent a strongly worded warning to more than 500 university presidents of specific actions they must take under the law to protect Jewish and Israeli students from the fallout of today’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) “National Day of Resistance” taking place on campuses across the U.S.

To read this press release in PDF form, click here.

The Hadassah Shir Shalom event, ‘Antisemitism: On Our Campuses,’ premiered a new video featuring Brandeis Center President Alyza D. Lewin.

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In her video address, President Lewin speaks about contemporary anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses — much of which centers on denying the integral part of Jewish identity known as Zionism. Visit the Brandeis Center’s YouTube page to see more speeches from President Lewin and Chairman Kenneth L. Marcus.

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A Victory for Campus Freedom ~ June 9, 2021 ~ by Diane B. Kunz

The decision is now final. After a five-year battle, the New York courts have upheld Fordham University’s ability to deny Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) the right to register as a recognized student organization (Matter of Awad v. Fordham Univ., 2020 NY Slip Op. 07695, December 22, 2020).  This decision demonstrates that universities can stand up for academic freedom and fight against the “long march through the institutions” that SJP has launched.  That phrase, coined by German Communist Rudi Dutschke in the nineteen sixties, has inspired students and faculty in the United States to launch their own long march to substitute an anti-Semitic narrative for objective debate on Israeli-Palestinian issues and grievously erode the right of Zionist students to live and study in peace and safety on American campuses.

Fordham had based its denial of accreditation on the grounds that SJP was “affiliated with a national organization reported to have engaged in disruptive and coercive actions on other campuses.”   Fordham’s decision  is well buttressed  by the evidence.  In the last two decades, SJP has disrupted numerous academic classes, public meetings, and invited-speaker presentations at campuses from coast to coast.   Rather than promote dialogue, SJP has created a network of campus chapters dedicated to using obstructive and intimidating tactics to promulgate the Big Lie—that Israel is an apartheid state, that Jews have no right to be in their indigenous home, and that the Jewish state alone, of all the world’s nations, is illegitimate, notwithstanding all evidence or facts to the contrary. As the National SJP umbrella organization puts it, ”the fight for justice for the Palestinian people cannot “be attained within a Zionist framework.” (https://www.nationalsjp.org/2019).  In other words from the river to the sea, the state of Israel will be purged from existence.  

Moreover, as testimony before Congress in 2016 disclosed, SJP has “strong ties to American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)…,” some of whose most important members have been also responsible for funding the Hamas terrorist organization (https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA18/20160419/104817/HHRG-114-FA18-Wstate-SchanzerJ-20160419.pdf).

What stands out from the New York Appellate Court’s decision is the Court’s firm statement that “on the merits of the case, Fordham’s conclusion that SJP “’would work against, rather than enhance [Fordham’s] commitment to open dialogue and mutual learning and understanding’ was not ‘without sound basis in reason’ or ‘taken without regard to the facts.’”  (The actual decision turned on standing). For too long universities have allowed themselves to be intimidated into allowing SJP, an anti-Semitic hate group, to hide behind legitimate free speech concerns.  As a result,  SJP has weaponized academic freedom to  spread hate and prejudice,  and to frighten students into passive acquiescence of SJP’s eliminationist platform. 

As the Court made clear, Fordham’s administration had the right to distinguish SJP from existing registered student groups on its campus and deny it recognition.  SJP is not the same as the Muslim Student Association, the Black Student Alliance, the Korean Student Alliance, or the Jewish Student Alliance, all of which are registered campus cultural organizations.  Nor is it akin to the Humanitarian Club or the Environmental Club, both of which are recognized campus special interest organizations.  Indeed Fordham has no recognized student organizations that advocate for political causes.  On those grounds alone, Fordham’s decision was justified.  But more importantly, the Appellate Court recognized that a university administration has the right to refuse accreditation to an organization that specializes in intimidation in the service of propaganda or worse.  As LDB’s chairman Kenneth L. Marcus explained, “This is a huge loss for SJP.”   And it is a larger win for campus freedom.

Diane Bernstein Kunz is an American author, historian, lawyer and executive director of a not-for-profit adoption advocacy group, the Center for Adoption Policy. She is the author of Butter and Guns (1997), an overview of America’s Cold War economic diplomacy.