UC Berkeley Sued Over Anti-Semitism On Campus

The University of California, Berkeley was sued by the Jewish human rights groups Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education on Tuesday over longstanding ‘inaction’ of discrimination against Jewish students on campus, becoming the second case of it’s kind to be brought to court against a higher education institution since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War last month.

Since the Israel-Hamas War began on October 7th, multiple groups have reported a rise in both anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents across the country. Significant activity has occurred at Universities, where student activists on both sides of the war have clashed. Last month, Harvard University and other elite schools saw the number of prominent supporters drop after the Universities didn’t handle Anti-Jewish incidents fast enough. On incident involving multiple student groups denouncing Israel resulted in severe donor backlash at Harvard, as well as the eventual release of names of all students involved in signing without the banner of their group to protect them.

Polls have also found that nearly three in four Jewish students have experienced anti-Semitism in some form this year alone. Violence has been an issue, as it was last week when three Palestinian college students in Vermont were shot in a race-based attack.

The debate and conflict on campus has also spread to California, with UC Berkeley declared as one of the “hotspots” of such incidents on the West Coast.

This led to the second major lawsuit against a University over unchecked anti-Semitic incidents being filed on Tuesday against UC Berkeley. According to Louis D. Brandeis Center v. Regents of the University of California, which was filed at the Northern California District Court in San Francisco, numerous incidents have occurred on campus resulting in a “longstanding, unchecked spread of anti-Semitism.” Incidents have included Palestinian students interrupting prayer gatherings by Jewish students, professors going on long rants against Israel during classes, Jewish professors and students receiving hate mail and death threats, Palestinian protestors attacking Jewish protestors, and numerous Berkeley Law groups barring speakers who don’t stand against Israel or are pro-Zionist.

The last incident in particular helped spur the lawsuit because of the policies violating multiple laws including the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, the right to freedom of religion under the 1st Amendment, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

“Conditioning a Jew’s ability to participate in a student group on his or her renunciation of a core component of Jewish identity is no less pernicious than demanding the renunciation of some other core element of a student’s identity — whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual identity,” said the lawsuit. “No such imposition is required — or would be remotely tolerated — of other students.

“School leaders have taken no action to address the anti-Semitic nature of such policies despite having publicly acknowledged them. UC Berkeley’s inaction violates the plaintiffs’ religious and equal protection rights under the Constitution and federal civil rights laws.”

Jewish groups sue UC Berkeley

The suit says that the groups seek a permanent injunction where the University ends the discrimination shown towards Jewish students and faculty, defund and toss out groups that exclude Jews, and bolster policies in favor of nondiscrimination.

The University denounced the lawsuit late on Tuesday, saying that the 1st Amendment and the rights to free speech and protest were protected. They also noted that Jewish students could receive help and arrangements through the University if the demonstrations were upsetting to them, and that all anti-Semitic behavior should be reported to the University.

“While we appreciate the concerns expressed by the Brandeis Center, UC Berkeley believes the claims made in the lawsuit are not consistent with the First Amendment of the Constitution, or the facts of what is actually happening on our campus,” said the University on Tuesday. “The university has long been committed to confronting antisemitism, and to supporting the needs and interests of its Jewish students, faculty, and staff.”

In a separate statement, Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky added, “The complaint filed by the Brandeis Center paints a picture of the Law School that is stunningly inaccurate and that ignores the First Amendment. For example, student organizations have the First Amendment right to choose their speakers, including based on their viewpoint. Although there is much that the campus can and does do to create an inclusive learning environment, it cannot stop speech even if it is offensive.”

In the suit, he is also quoted to have have said in October that “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.”

While the case isn’t the first to challenge anti-Semitism on a College campus after the beginning of the war in the Middle East, with an NYU case becoming the first earlier this month, it is expected to get more traction because of the wider scope of laws broken being cited in the case.

“This is a tricky area, because you need to respect the right to protest and the right to free speech, but you also don’t want hate to spread,” said Helena Graff, a legal assistant who has helped in several Jewish and Arab discrimination cases in the past. “Tempers are flaring right now, especially since so many people have died or have been kidnapped on both sides. And when this winds up on college campuses, where younger people gather and have more free time, well, things like what the suit described happen more often.

“It will be interesting to see where this case goes. People don’t put up cases like this lightly, especially against bigger institutions.”

More on the Berkeley Jewish group case is to come out soon.