\n<\/p>\n
Academics, legal experts and Jewish community advocates gathered at Harvard University Thursday for an inaugural conference focused on antisemitism and civil rights law, held by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.<\/p>\n
Speakers at the conference advocated for a multipronged approach to campus antisemitism, including educating faculty members and students and engaging in strategic lawsuits drawing on Title VI, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin, and Title VII, which protects employees from various types of workplace discrimination, including based on religion.<\/p>\n
The conference\u2014a condition of the Brandeis Center\u2019s settlement with Harvard last year\u2014follows a rash of lawsuits brought by the Brandeis Center, as well as other Jewish and Israel-supporting organizations and federal agencies, against colleges and universities for their responses to campus antisemitism. Some of these lawsuits have resulted in landmark settlements. <\/p>\n
Harvard has been targeted by multiple such lawsuits, including one from the U.S. Department of Justice last month, alleging the university didn\u2019t adequately respond to antisemitic harassment and discrimination. Harvard announced a series of reforms last spring but has denied any wrongdoing. Harvard similarly admitted no fault in its legal battle with the Brandeis Center and other organizations but agreed to changes in a settlement last year, including making explicit that Zionists are protected under its nondiscrimination policies and agreeing to host Brandeis Center events. <\/p>\n
Outside of the federal courts, colleges have faced investigations into how they responded to reports of antisemitic incidents. Critics of the approach argue the agency is using civil rights law as a cudgel to stifle pro-Palestinian speech, while proponents say it\u2019s a necessary tool to protect Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protests rocked campuses following Oct.\u00a07, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing upward of 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostages, and Israel waged war on Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a normal moment,\u201d said Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and a former U.S. assistant secretary of education who ran the Office for Civil Rights, in his introductory remarks. \u201cWe meet in the aftermath of Oct.\u00a07\u00a0\u2026 in the aftermath not only of Hamas atrocities but also of subsequent campus upheavals here at Harvard but also across the country and of institutional responses that have in too many cases revealed not clarity and consistency but double standards and dereliction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus argued that historically, in and outside the U.S., there\u2019s been \u201ca demand that Jews distance themselves from core elements of their identity, whether religious, cultural or connected to peoplehood, in order to participate fully in academic, cultural or civic life,\u201d and the pressures on Jewish students to disavow personal connections to Israel or shed outward signs of identity are no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish students report not only hostility but withdrawal, a shrinking willingness to participate fully in campus life, a hesitation to speak openly, and in some cases, a decision to avoid certain institutions altogether,\u201d he said. \u201cThe consequence is not simply tension. It is absence, a gradual contraction of the space in which Jewish identity can be expressed without cost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus praised the ramping up of litigation efforts and federal intervention that \u201cclarifies obligations under existing law\u201d and some institutions\u2019 adoption of the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which can include incidents that target Zionism. (The Brandeis Center\u2019s settlements with several higher ed institutions, including Harvard, require them to adopt the IHRA definition.)<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this moment, a legal movement must be organized across at least three mutually reinforcing domains that we address today: scholarship, litigation and public policy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Andrea Lucas, chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, spoke about her office\u2019s efforts on the public policy side during a fireside chat. The federal government working to address antisemitism isn\u2019t \u201cnovel,\u201d she said, but she asserted that the EEOC under the Trump administration has pursued \u201cthe most vigorous period of work combating antisemitism\u201d in the commission\u2019s 60-year history.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, religious liberty is a core thing that EEOC needs to be focusing on and combating antisemitism is, of course, an integral part of defending religious liberty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She highlighted, for example, the commission\u2019s current legal battle with the University of Pennsylvania after the institution refused to produce a list of Jewish staff for an EEOC antisemitism investigation, among other examples. Multiple Jewish groups have also raised concerns about the subpoena, arguing that cataloging Jews echoes dark times in Jewish history. (A federal judge recently required Penn to turn over the names, a ruling the university has appealed.) <\/p>\n
\u201cI understand why the controversies have arisen, but fundamentally, to some degree, the Jewish community does have to decide, do you want to have civil rights enforcement in this space?\u201d Lucas countered at the conference, because \u201cthere is no other way for me to be able to get money to victims who have been harmed\u00a0\u2026 unless I know something about someone\u2019s affiliation with a religious organization.\u201d Similarly, \u201cI can\u2019t protect Black workers if I don\u2019t collect information about the Black workers\u201d in a given workplace.<\/p>\n
Marcus noted that while Title VII includes religious discrimination, Title VI doesn\u2019t, but now the civil rights law is understood to bar antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of religious discrimination as it relates to shared ancestry, which he pushed for while in government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a policy that for 20 years we\u2019ve had to fight for,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to fight for protection of the Jewish people in a provision that didn\u2019t explicitly mention religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Multiple speakers emphasized the importance of not just litigation but changes in academia as a route to curbing campus antisemitism.<\/p>\n
The founder and president of Harvard\u2019s Chabad chapter, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, said legal fights can only do so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in the last few days and weeks, students constantly are at my office, in my email box, complaining of isolation, of exclusion and the victims of hate,\u201d Zarchi said, noting he recently met with a candidate for Undergraduate Council afraid his running mate\u2019s Jewish last name would sink his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law is very powerful, but it has its limits,\u201d Zarchi said. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to the attorneys and to the legal experts who are fighting in the courtrooms, but at the end of the day, if we\u2019re going to win this\u2014and we certainly will\u2014it\u2019s through education. It\u2019s by introducing light.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also encouraged Jewish students not to abandon universities like Harvard, despite the bad press and reports its Jewish population has been declining.<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish life is thriving\u201d on campus, and participation and engagement in Jewish programming is on the rise, he said. They\u2019re experiencing \u201cjoyful Judaism\u00a0\u2026 and if they\u2019re discriminated against for it, there\u2019s someone here [at the Brandeis Center] that will come to defend them, protect them and ensure that they have all the rights and privileges that this great country offers them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, a group that supports Jewish and Zionist faculty and administrators, said in a similar vein, her organization is trying to focus on not just \u201cthe oy\u201d but also \u201cthe joy of Jewish life\u201d on campus with its members and has been gratified to see Jewish faculty members growing more comfortable with displays of religious or cultural identity, like wearing kippahs.<\/p>\n
In a panel called Towards a Jewish Civil Rights Movement, she described changing the hearts and minds of scholars as the most critical element in a broader fight against campus antisemitism. She noted that, in a survey of AEN members, 70\u00a0percent said their colleagues were \u201cthe key sources of anti-Israel bias and antisemitism\u201d on their campuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not primarily a student-driven problem,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to educate [faculty members] a lot better about Zionism and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went so far as to say some departments, particularly in the humanities, \u201cmay have to go into some form of receivership in order to get that open intellectual conversation and that diversity reflected in the curriculum.\u201d In negotiations with Columbia University, the Trump administration initially demanded the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies Department be placed into \u201cacademic receivership\u201d for five years, ceding control of the department to an external chair. The proposal spawned widespread faculty backlash and concerns about academic freedom. <\/p>\n
More broadly, she believes Jewish scholars should align themselves with the broader movement against the \u201cpoliticization of higher ed\u201d and in favor of \u201copen inquiry\u201d and a focus on \u201cknowledge production\u201d as universities\u2019 core mission. She also said faculty members can play a role in helping \u201cthose less versed in the law to understand the recourse that the law provides.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, \u201cwe need to have the right educational components so that the lawsuits can be avoided,\u201d Elman said. The Brandeis Center \u201cis a wonderful organization, but it should be going out of business at some point.\u201d The goal is \u201cto educate so that the campuses can actually avoid the lawsuits and get A\u2019s on the [Anti-Discrimination League] report card.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Academics, legal experts and Jewish community advocates gathered at Harvard University Thursday for an inaugural conference focused on antisemitism and civil rights law, held by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. Speakers at the conference advocated for a multipronged approach to campus antisemitism, including educating faculty members and students and engaging<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[2200,4320,324,5731],"class_list":{"0":"post-48527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-campus","10":"tag-legal","11":"tag-movement"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}