Brandeis Center and ADL File New Federal Complaints Against Occidental and Pomona Colleges

This week the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law and the Anti-Defamation League expanded and amended the federal civil rights complaint against the Berkeley Unified School District in February, alleging that numerous overtly antisemitic acts were committed by students and teachers which the district in turn ignored.

“Kill Jews” was scrawled on a Berkeley High School wall recently the Globe reported, among other anti-semitic statements.

At the Wednesday hearing, Berkeley Schools Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel denied that the Berkeley Unified School District is home to rampant antisemitism. “That’s not who we are,” said Ford Morthel, noting that, like the city itself, the BUSD operates in “a spirit of DEI and activism.”

California schools seem to have a serious problem with anti-semitism.

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Thursday announced they have filed new complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against two California Occidental and Pomona colleges for permitting severe discrimination and harassment of Jewish students in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

DEI curriculum fomented much of this hate

We’ve seen this creeping, social justice warrior, alt-left takeover of many of California public school districts and universities, and the curriculum, promoting so-called “unconscious bias” and “inclusivity” instruction, as well as intentionally anti-Caucasian, anti-male, anti-Christian, and anti-Jewish curriculum policies.

What has infiltrated California’s public school curriculum is DEI – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – and Critical Race Theory which says objectivity and meritocracy are racist measures of people. Critical Race Theory developed from Communism, and DEI has its roots in Marxism.

In December 2022 I wrote about University policies which fail to protect Jewish students from Antisemitism:

Today on college campuses we see Berkeley Law for Palestine, the Center for Chicanx and Latinx Academic Student Success, Animal rights clubs, Environmental Justice clubs, Queer Alliance clubs, Comics and Video clubs… NYU offers more than 300 active student clubs on campus open to all students from the Cheese Club to the Superhero Club. And UC Berkeley offers Furries at Berkeley, Anthropomorphic Animal Appreciation Association, a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animals which hopes to serve and portray the furry population on campus positively (people who dress as animals).

AMCHA investigated the nature, scope and trajectory of the threats to Jewish student identity on U.S. campuses, and found a staggering doubling of such threats at 60% of schools most popular with Jewish students. The threats uncovered in their report include attempts to dissociate Zionism from Judaism, pit Zionism against progressive values, accuse Zionist Jews of undue privilege, power and control, and purge Zionism and Zionists from campus life.

The BDS movement, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. BDS paints Israel as vicious and evil, and says it should be discarded from American investments. It even calls for universities to divest from companies associated with Israel, and has perpetuated the growing anti-Semitism movement currently protesting on California college campuses.

The BDS movement set up the violence and hate we are seeing today, as did the DEI curriculum which replaced actual educational disciplines in many cases.

The Brandeis Center reports:

Since 10/7, Jewish and Israeli students on both campuses have been verbally harassed and physically surrounded, followed, threatened, and intimidated by protestors.  They have been shouted at, told to “go back to the gas chambers,” and called “kike,” “f**king Jew,” “f**king Zionist,” and “murderer.”  Many have been obstructed from moving freely about campus and cannot carry out their jobs or partake in educational opportunities as a result of anti-Semitic bullying, and some have even been physically assaulted. Many Jewish students confine themselves to their dorm rooms or refrain from participating in certain educational and/or extracurricular activities, avoiding certain dining halls or cafés, common areas on campus, and campus events to avoid anti-Semitic harassment. Several have transferred to other schools due to persistent anti-Semitism.

“Jewish students on these campuses are hiding in their dorms and avoiding their own campus rather than risk verbal and physical attacks,” stated Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights.  “Pomona and Occidental know full well this is happening.  But instead of enforcing the law and their own policies, they are caving to the anti-Semitic mob and letting them bully, harass, and intimidate Jewish students.  Anti-Semitism left unaddressed will not go away.  It will only snowball and escalate until the problem is faced head on as the law requires.”

They report  Occidental College is fully aware of the pervasive and hostile environment for Jewish students, and has ignored and even enabled it. The complaint addresses the October 7 massacre, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. “While many were horrified, a number of students and faculty at Occidental cheered the terrorist attack and engaged in protests and other activities that obstructed the ability of Jewish and Israeli students to move freely about the campus, engage in their school-affiliated employment, or enjoy the educational opportunities offered by Occidental.”

The Brandeis Center complaint describes the situation at Pomona is serious and ongoing, and says they are receiving reports of new antisemitic acts of discrimination and harassment every day.

“The already hostile environment for Jewish students at Pomona College took a turn for the worse immediately following the October 7 terrorist attack with various student groups and members of the faculty loudly supporting the murderous Hamas attacks, blaming the Israeli victims, and creating a shrine honoring the Hamas terrorists.

At both colleges, hostile students blocked access to buildings, interfered with classes and school events, and harassed current and prospective students, the complaints say, as well as multiple incidents of physical violence and intimidation occurred during the numerous explicitly pro-Hamas protests.

“There’s simply no excuse for the persistent and pervasive antisemitic harassment being faced by Jewish students at Occidental and Pomona colleges,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “No student should be forced to transfer due to continual harassment. We urge the U.S. Department of Education to investigate these schools for potential civil rights violations and to take effective measures to protect Jewish students on these campuses.”

The Globe will continue to report on all of these complaints.

The Pomona College complaint is here.

The Occidental College complaint is here.