September is here. For college students, that means it’s the start of a new school year. And while for most the fall semester means new beginnings after a long summer break, for Jewish students, a school year filled with rampant anti-Semitism is hardly a distant memory. It was only a few months ago that countless universities allowed students to camp out on school grounds; many of these encampments featured calls to divest from Israel, chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “globalize the intifada,” and blockades preventing Jewish students from attending their classes. Some Jewish students were forced to finish the semester online due to the social unrest.
Last month, Paul Larkin of the Heritage Foundation published a timely report describing the state of anti-Semitism on college campuses. The report highlights actions being taken in response to this issue and identifies some of the legal remedies available to challenge universities that refuse to take action against campus anti-Semitism.
As the report pointedly recognizes, anti-Semitism has never gone away, but rather lay dormant and was brought back to the forefront of society as the result of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. And unfortunately, it is unlikely that we’ve seen the end of campus anti-Semitism. The disturbing student behavior on display in campus protests and encampments and the abdication of responsibility among campus administrators do not bode well for the coming year.
Some are taking legal action in response to the hostile campus environments for Jewish students. One notable example is the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s complaint against UC Berkeley over the widespread and unchecked anti-Semitism on its campus. The complaint alleges violations of the Equal Protection Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, interference with the right to contract based on race, and violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
As Larkin’s report reminds readers, if these allegations are proven, the plaintiffs will be entitled to a judicial remedy. And particularly if these early lawsuits are successful, it is possible more will follow. Just last month, a Los Angeles federal district court granted a motion for a preliminary injunction in favor of plaintiffs who brought suit over the encampment at UCLA that excluded Jewish students from parts of UCLA’s campus.
In addition to the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the report suggests plaintiffs could assert rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and even under state law.
Jewish students go to college to receive an education, meet new people, and maybe attend a few football games. It should not be an accepted notion that part of the Jewish college experience now also includes facing years of campus anti-Semitism.
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