ACLJ Sends Letter to Major Universities, Demanding That They Take Action Against Antisemitism

There is a rot of antisemitism on school campuses, antisemitism that is being funded by Leftist donors like George Soros. Antisemitic protests have been taking over college campuses with “encampments” designed to intimidate Jewish students and attack the State of Israel, simply for existing. The ACLJ is taking action to protect Jewish students.

We sent legal letters to some of the campuses where these encampments have been most dangerous for Jewish students: Columbia, Harvard, UC San Diego, USC, UCLA, and the University of Michigan. At these schools and many others, protestors have engaged in antisemitic harassment and violence by taking over many areas of campus. Jewish students and Christians who support Israel do not feel safe on campus in the wake of these vile anti-Israel protests. Schools are legally obligated to immediately stop any antisemitic harassment on their campus so that they are not, by virtue of their standing, stature, and authority, creating, contributing to, or tolerating a hostile and harassing environment on their campus.

Our letter puts these universities on notice that they are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. It requires educational institutions to ensure their programs and activities are free from harassment, intimidation, and discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin. This includes a duty to protect students, including Jewish students, from harassment and discrimination.

As the Department of Education has explained:

An educational institution has a duty to provide a nondiscriminatory environment that is conducive to learning. In addition to the curriculum, students learn about many different aspects of human life and interaction from school. The type of environment that is tolerated or encouraged by or at a school can therefore send a particularly strong signal to, and serve as an influential lesson for, its students.

Many schools seem to be forgetting this obligation and tolerating amongst their students (along with external protestors that the universities have allowed to remain on campus) violent antisemitic harassment that has reached a fever pitch, with students at some schools stopping Jewish students from attending class or walking across campus. On other campuses, Jewish students have been evacuated since the campus was no longer safe for them.

Calls for “intifada” and to “globalize the intifada” have occurred as part of these antisemitic protests, furthering the message of antisemitic groups that support violence against Israel and its supporters around the world. Student groups that chant or post these phrases on college campuses are actively calling for violence against anyone who supports or is perceived to support Israel, including Jewish students on those same campuses. They are specifically targeting Jewish students for their Jewish identity and for their connection with the State of Israel. Their conduct has made Jewish students feel unsafe and forced them away from campus.

The authorities must act quickly and decisively to immediately curb the violence and disruptive harassment of these antisemitic protests. A university has a duty to provide a nondiscriminatory environment that is conducive to learning. Instead, the existence of these encampments on campuses has been fatal to any possibility of Jewish students learning or benefiting from their education. We have demanded that these schools take immediate action in order to protect students, especially Jewish students, from discrimination and harassment.