More Campus Anti-Semitism in California

This article first appeared in New English Review.

Hat tip Louis D Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law, Stand With Us, and the Amcha Initiative

Royce Hall at UCLA

The problem of campus anti-Semitism is not just limited to universities. It has also spread to secondary schools. Recently, complaints have been filed in the state of California pertaining to both levels.

The Louis D Brandeis Center and Stand With Us have filed a joint lawsuit against the state of California and its educational offices for failing to protect Jewish students K-12, and this article gives several examples of what Jewish children have had to suffer in various school districts up and down the state.

At the university level, several Jewish UCLA professors have joined a federal lawsuit against UCLA. In this article from the law firm, Holtzman Vogel, 7 professors describe what they have experienced on campus in recent years, especially since October 7, 2023. 

Let me be clear: I fully support the efforts of the above organizations as well as the US Justice Department in bringing legal action to force universities and school districts to fully protect Jews on campus. Call it lawfare or whatever, but if our educational establishment refuses to stand up for Jewish students and faculty on campus, there should be a steep financial price to pay until they get the message. After all, these entities care very much about the bottom line, especially our universities that are awash in billions of dollars, largely from government grants and grants from private individual donors, not to mention foreign sources like China, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

At the same time, while I support remedial actions like sensitivity classes on anti-Semitism, education about the Holocaust, and adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, these are not sufficient. What is needed is the removal from campus of individuals, be they students or staff, as well as groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), who promote and stoke Jew hatred and bring disruption to campus.

The other side brings up the issue of free speech and criticizing the state of Israel in support of the Palestinian cause. Since October 7, 2023, however, support for the Palestinians has warped into support for Hamas, a terrorist organization. The above two links give examples of what this "free speech" has degenerated into. It is not acceptable to openly call for the deaths of Jews. It is not acceptable to verbally or physically intimidate Jews on campus. It is not OK to push a Jewish faculty member to the ground. It is not acceptable to disrupt Jewish events on campus.

There is a saying that a fish rots from the head down. California is such a fish. I don't want to make this a partisan issue, but California is in desperate need of new leadership from top to bottom. It is a one-party state, and this is what you get in a one-party state. Our educational bureaucrats don't care about the problem because our state political leaders don't care about the problem. Say what you will about the current president and administration in Washington, but at least-at last- we have a president, a Justice Department, and a Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights that do care and are willing to bring pressure to bear on our universities. Left to their own devices, our universities and our school districts, at least in California, will not reform. The reform must be forced on them from outside.