ADL, Brandeis Center File Complaints Against Occidental, Pomona College Over Antisemitism

The Anti-Defamation League and Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law announced on May 9 that they have filed complaints to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against Occidental and Pomona Colleges over allegations that both schools have allowed severe climates of antisemitism to be fostered on their respective campuses.

Both complaints document allegations of Jewish students being bullied and harassed on campus. Students who are employed at Occidental, the complaint claims, have had their employment adversely affected by campus antisemitism. One anonymous student quit her job at the student-run campus coffee shop after her friend was asked by her supervisor if the student is a Zionist; her friend lied and denied it. The student’s supervisor then allegedly said that she had “better start showing up to SJP’s [Students for Justice in Palestine] events or risk having students believe that she is a Zionist and she would not ‘want people thinking that.’” The student felt that she would have “to hide her identity” in order to avoid harassment at work; she ended up later hiding her Star of David necklace after “being confronted about it in the dining hall,” the complaint states.

Jewish students at Occidental also allege that they are harassed by anti-Israel protesters if they refuse “to take pro-Hamas pamphlets or pamphlets containing ancestry-based anti-Semitic content … protesters block the path so that the Jewish students cannot walk past. In some cases, Jewish students who try to walk away are tailed by the protesters, who continue to demand they take the flyers. Or protesters shout that the Jewish student is a ‘f—ing Zionist,’ ‘f—ing Jew,’ or  ‘k—’ who should ‘go back to the gas chamber.’ The protesters are often masked, compounding the anxiety created by their conduct.” According to the complaint, the college has not taken action when these incidents are reported.

The complaint also contends that when anti-Israel protesters occupied the Coons Center building on Occidental’s campus — where President Harry Elam, Jr.’s office resides — the college “rewarded” the protesters, as “President Elam sent an email to the entire school listing the demands of the group that organized the occupation, SJP, and stating that the administration looked forward to a continued dialogue and relationship with SJP. SJP proclaimed victory on Instagram.” The protesters had been chanting “there is only one solution, intifada revolution” and were aided by the college’s faculty and staff who provided them with food, water and other supplies and even participated in the chanting, per the complaint.

The complaint also accuses Occidental of unevenly enforcing the college’s policies in favor of the anti-Israel students, alleging that blue ribbons on trees to commemorate the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre were taken by down because they did not receive approval from Student Leadership, Involvement, & Community Engagement (SLICE) beforehand. But this policy was not enforced for SJP’s posters and messages that they wrote in chalk on the sidewalk.

Further, the complaint states that faculty have played a role in fostering the hostile climate against Jewish students, citing one alleged instance in which a faculty member told the class she was “invigorated” by the Oct. 7 massacre and the class erupted with applause. Other faculty members have allegedly canceled classes in order to participate in SJP’s walkouts.

The effect on Occidental’s Jewish students, the complaint claims, is that “several Jewish students chose to transfer to other schools to avoid the antisemitic environment at Occidental, including one student who chose to attend a community college next semester rather than continuing to endure the Occidental environment. Some Jewish students leave campus for days when they know that there are protests planned. Other students remain in their dorm rooms during the protests, sometimes skipping meals and class. Many students report that their ability to study is impaired.” And despite meetings with parents on the matter, the college has “failed to act in any meaningful or effective way” to address the situation.

Occidental College said in a statement to the Journal, “We’ve been made aware of a complaint from the ADL and Brandeis Center to the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concerning the College. Currently, there are no open OCR investigations into Occidental. If OCR decides to open an investigation related to this complaint, we will of course cooperate and answer any questions that they may raise. As Inside Higher Ed has reported, OCR has approximately 145 open cases relating to similar complaints tied to shared ancestry. We’ve sought to engage and work with our students and the broader campus community to demonstrate our commitment to preventing antisemitism.” They added that they shared a “letter with the ADL, which details many steps the College takes to combat antisemitism and promote constructive dialogue.”

The statement referenced a Dec 5 letter Elam sent to the AOL (which was obtained by the Journal) that outlined how the college established a Task Force on Promoting Community and Safety. The Task Force’s actions include “requiring student-service departments (including those listed in your letter) to remove their ‘likes’ of politically oriented posts on social media, and instructing them to avoid similar activity through Oxy-affiliated accounts … requiring SJP and other groups that participated in recent, non-compliant demonstrations to attend specialized training on the College’s Posting & Publicity and Dissent & Demonstration policies,” and “instructing faculty that they may not impose their political affiliations on students in the form of canceled (and not rescheduled) classes.” Additionally, Elam claimed that the Task Force has been “holding accountable student organizations and individual community members regarding their comments and actions that could contribute to a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus.”

Elam further argued that Occidental’s Office for Religion and Spiritual Life “has been meeting regularly with Jewish students, and has hosted several communal holding spaces for Jewish students since Oct. 7” and has a “strong” relationship with the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. The office has also hosted yearly events featuring Holocaust survivors sharing their stories, contended Elam. “My goal in meeting with dozens of Jewish students, parents, trustees, and advocacy groups in the past few weeks has been to listen actively, and respond thoughtfully,” he said toward the end of the letter. “Occidental is a living institution that continually grows and adapts to the circumstances it faces. We rely on the many, diverse, and dedicated members of our community to shine light on those among us who need more support.”

“We’ve continued to build on these efforts throughout the academic year, including a required anti-bias training for students in the spring of 2024 and a planned, required program on preventing antisemitism for the fall of 2024,” the college added in its statement to the Journal. “We have consistently shown our commitment to proactively creating an environment free of antisemitism and actively investigating concerns when they are reported regarding discrimination based on protected categories. Our top priority is to ensure a climate where our students and the entire College community can thrive and engage in dialogue on complex, sometimes painful, issues.”

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At Pomona College, on Oct. 20, at least 15 student groups built a shrine at a campus fountain for “the insurgents who have died for the liberation of Palestine” and held a rally at that location. The anti-Israel protesters at the rally saw two Jewish students and the Hillel’s executive director putting up posters raising awareness of those being held hostage by Hamas, at which point “they approached them, surrounded them, physically stood in front of them to prevent them from hanging up the posters, and refused to move.” “The SJP and JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace] students then trailed the Jewish students and the Jewish staff member, obstructed their paths, stepped on one of the Jewish students’ feet, verbally harassed and yelled at them (accusing them of supporting genocide and chanting antisemitic slogans such as, ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’), ripped down the posters they had put up, and tore up at least 300 of their pre-approved flyers,” the complaint continued.  “As the students ripped down images of innocent hostages, the Executive Director of Hillel calmly told the protestors ‘excuse me, that is approved, you are not allowed to remove that flyer.’ One angry SJP or JVP student responded, ‘you can dig it out of the trash where it belongs.’”

Also during the Oct. 20 rally, a Jewish student was allegedly assaulted by one of the anti-Israel protesters who “aggressively pushed him into a wall” after accusing the student of recording them; the Jewish student claimed that his phone was out as he was passing by the rally but wasn’t recording. Two other anti-Israel protesters allegedly followed the student and “questioned him in an intimidating manner.” The Jewish student, who is traumatized by the assault, was unable to file a report to Pomona College about it because the alleged assailant was masked, nor were there any security around at the time of the rally.

The complaint goes onto highlight “disruptive” actions taken by anti-Israel protesters, such as blocking entrances to campus buildings, including when Pomona College’s annual “Harry Potter Dinner” was held in December — the protesters forced the event to be shut down altogether. President G. Gabrielle Starr lamented the “hundreds of pounds of food going to waste” in a subsequent email but did not mention the protesters’ antisemitism. Additionally, the protesters “harassed tour groups” at the end of March, causing one prospective student to “tremble and sob” and leave early. And on March 29, the anti-Israel protesters occupied the lawn in front of the Smith Campus Center and built an “apartheid wall”  and stayed “well into the afternoon.”

Events on campus eventually reached a boiling point April 5, when staff members started removing “signs and other materials protesters had put up on the Smith Campus Center lawn.”  “The masked individuals, however … verbally harassed campus staff for more than two hours (including addressing a campus administrator with an anti-Black racial slur), refused to remove their signs, and refused to identify themselves for administrators,” the complaint states. “In protest, demonstrators then stormed Alexander Hall and invaded President Starr’s office.  President Starr ordered the demonstrators to leave or face suspension or arrest.  These students — many of them masked — occupied President Starr’s office and refused to leave.” Police later arrested 19 people involved. Starr sent out a subsequent email condemning the events that occurred that day and warned that students at Pomona College and at other campuses in the Claremont Consortium (of which Pomona College is a part of) will be subjected to disciplinary measures.

In response, anti-Israel protesters held a sit-in in front of Alexander Hall, blocking “the avenue for at least 33 minutes” on April 11; campus security has continued to remain in front of Alexander Hall ever since, per the complaint, although they acknowledged that was “as of last week.” That same day, faculty members passed “a resolution condemning the college and in support of the students who were arrested on April 5” and urged the college to revoke the charges and disciplinary measures against those students.

The effect of all this on the Jewish community on campus, the complaint contends, is that “some Jewish students have transferred to other schools; others have tried to study abroad or study remotely since Oct. 7.” “Others have had to refrain from participating in certain educational and/or extracurricular activities, including attending certain dining halls or cafés, areas on campus, or events,” the complaint states. “For yet others, it has meant seeking mental health counseling for the trauma they have endured. Prospective and admitted students have decided not to apply or matriculate at Pomona because of the intimidation they experienced while visiting the campus. The harassment, marginalization, alienation, and exclusion of Jewish and Israeli students at Pomona have become so bad, they are inescapable.”

One Pomona college student, Ayelet Kleinerman, said in a statement, “I have seen antisemitism here grow tremendously in the last 3 years. I have raised it with the administration many times, but even when they had the opportunity to take it seriously, they didn’t. They’ve called the police for their own safety, but they are not doing enough to protect Jewish students. From hate speech to retaliation in class and outside it to the mob that is occupying our campus and has taken over much of campus life, Jewish students are scared.”

Pomona College said in a statement to the Journal, “Pomona College is committed to confronting antisemitism in a sustained and comprehensive manner. We will continue to enforce our policies, promote safety and actively challenge this destructive form of hate.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement, “There’s simply no excuse for the persistent and pervasive antisemitic harassment being faced by Jewish students at Occidental and Pomona colleges. No student should be forced to transfer due to continual harassment. We urge the U.S. Department of Education to investigate these schools for potential civil rights violations and to take effective measures to protect Jewish students on these campuses.”

In his statement, Brandeis Center Founder and Chairman Kenneth Marcus said, “Jewish students on these campuses are hiding in their dorms and avoiding their own campus rather than risk verbal and physical attacks. Pomona and Occidental know full well this is happening. But instead of enforcing the law and their own policies, they are caving to the anti-Semitic mob and letting them bully, harass, and intimidate Jewish students.  Antisemitism left unaddressed will not go away.  It will only snowball and escalate until the problem is faced head on as the law requires.”