Zach Kessel recently wrote about a group of Jewish students who are suing UCLA for the establishment of a “Jew exclusion zone.” Yesterday, the students asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction to ensure their safety before classes resume in the coming months. Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (disclosure: my former employer), one of two firms representing the students, said in a press release,“UCLA’s behavior on this issue has been shameful, and the students need a court order to allow them to return to campus safely this fall.”
Judging from the facts of the initial complaint, he’s right. Even as “anti-Israel” rhetoric has engulfed prominent college campuses, the unfiltered nature of the antisemitism the complaint alleges is quite shocking. A few notable examples:
“At an October 12, 2023, demonstration at Bruin Plaza — a thoroughfare in the heart of UCLA’s undergraduate campus — activists chanted ‘Itbah El Yahud’ (‘slaughter the Jews’ in Arabic)”
“On November 8, 2023, hundreds of agitators swarmed the UCLA School of Law, holding signs and chanting ‘from the River to the Sea,’ ‘there’s only one solution,’ ‘intifada,’ ‘death to Israel,’ and ‘death to Jews.’”
“Also on November 8, 2023, at a Students for Justice in Palestine protest, harassers chanted “beat that f***ing Jew” through a megaphone while bashing a piñata bearing an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“On another occasion, a UCLA faculty member observed that the message “Free Palestine, F*** Jews” was scrawled on the bathroom wall in Schoenberg, UCLA’s music building.”
“On April 25, 2024, a group of activists ‘established,’ as Chancellor Block described it, ‘an unauthorized physical encampment on part of the Royce Quad. . . .’ Those inside the encampment chanted antisemitic slurs like ‘this is the final solution,’ ‘f*** Israel,’ ‘death to Jews. . . .’”
“At these checkpoints, students were frequently asked if they were a ‘Zionist,’ or accused of being ‘Zionists,’ and were denied entry. Others were denied passage simply for wearing a Star of David necklace.”
“On April 28, 2024, a female student suffered a concussion after clashing with an encampment member. That same night, another female student was pepper-sprayed by a member of the encampment.”
I wrote last month of the still-exceptional nature of the American-Jewish experience, but there is no sugarcoating this type of cancerous antisemitism on an American public-college campus. The whole complaint is worth reading for a disquieting, if necessary, reminder of the extent of the antisemitism faced by American Jews post-October 7.