Jewish groups sue UC Berkeley for anti-Semitism on campus

Two Jewish groups filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against the University of California, Berkeley, claiming that administrators failed to act against anti-Semitism on campus. The Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education allege administrators allowed for “longstanding [and] unchecked spread of anti-Semitism” on campus. The complaint describes two pro-Palestine protesters physically attacking a Jewish student draped in an Israeli flag, hitting him on the head with a metal water bottle. They also give examples of verbal harassment, alleging a faculty member cut short a class for 1,000 students to give a nearly 20-minute speech against Israel. The complaint states that UC Berkeley’s non-action violates the students’ religious and equal protection rights under the Constitution. Berkeley leaders have pushed back against the lawsuit, saying they cannot stop students from protesting under the First Amendment. However, they are encouraging students to report anti-Semitic behavior to the Chancellor’s office and have offered counseling support for Jewish students who find the demonstrations “upsetting and frightening.”

Are other schools being sued? New York University was sued earlier this month by three Jewish students for allowing students to chant “gas the Jews” and “Hitler was right” on campus. U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation Tuesday into claims of anti-Semitism at Harvard University’s campus.

Dig deeper: Read Leigh Jones’s report in WORLD Magazine on widespread pro-Hamas sentiments on college campuses.