July 26, 2022

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law announced on July 26 that  the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights will be investigating USC over their handling of the antisemitic harassment faced by Rose Ritch when she was a student there.

Ritch resigned from her position as Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Vice President in August 2020 after being harassed on social media for being a Zionist. During her campaign for student vice president earlier that year, “Ms. Ritch’s campaign posters were repeatedly vandalized and the campaign posters of other Jewish students running for student senate were pulled down,” the Brandeis Center’s November 2020 complaint stated. “Although Ms. Ritch reported these incidents to USC, the University did nothing to address the hostile climate for Jewish students that was revealed by these acts of vandalism.”

The antisemitic harassment on social media ramped up after Ritch faced impeachment proceedings in June 2020; during a December 2020 webinar, Ritch said that the calls for impeachment against her were over her silence of the then-USG president allegedly engaging in racial microaggressions and that her Zionist identity caused Palestinian students to feel harmed. However, the official impeachment filings against her didn’t mention her Zionist identity, Ritch said in the webinar. The Brandeis Center complaint noted that the university had suspended the impeachment proceedings against Ritch in July 2020, but did not publicly announce it.

The social media posts targeting Ritch included calls to impeach her “Zionist a–” and statements that she made “Palestinian students feel unsafe” because of her vocal support for Zionism, per the complaint. Another social media post highlighted in the complaint gloated about “the zionists from usc and usg getting relentlessly cyberbullied.” Ritch ultimately resigned, stating at the time that she had to in order “to protect [her] physical safety on campus and [her] mental health.” Ritch, who graduated from USC in May 2021 and currently resides in Washington, D.C., told the Journal in a phone interview that the harassment continued “for about a month or two afterwards” following her resignation before it subsided.

The complaint alleged that “USC was well aware of the ongoing anti-Semitic harassment against Ms. Ritch taking place on social media,” pointing to the fact that both USC’s Hillel chapter and the Brandeis Center notified USC about the harassment Ritch faced and urged the university to take action. But, according to the complaint, the university only issued a statement following her resignation that “vaguely condemned anti-Semitism ‘in all its forms’ and announced a University initiative to counter hate.” “The letter failed to specify that Ms. Ritch was targeted on the basis of her Jewish identity and did not explicitly condemn anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination based on Jewish shared ancestry or ethnicity.”

“The fact that they only publicly acknowledged that it happened after I resigned speaks to the very large issue at hand with the lack of support I was receiving during this experience,” Ritch told the Journal, adding that since then “there’s been a lot of lip service, and nothing really meaningful or substantive has come of it. It’s essentially the same position as they were in two years ago.”

Therefore, USC violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to adequately protect Ritch from antisemitic harassment, the complaint argued. The complaint called for USC to issue a statement condemning all iterations of antisemitism and highlighting the importance of Zionism to the Jewish identity as well as adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Additionally, the complaint urged USC to provide training to the community at large on antisemitism.

USC violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to adequately protect Ritch from antisemitic harassment, the complaint argued.

“I’m very grateful that after the two years [since resigning], OCR is opening up this investigation,” Ritch told the Journal. “Obviously this isn’t an issue that is a one-off thing or a rarity … I hope this is something that is able to show students that there are people looking out for you, that your rights should be protected and that this behavior is not acceptable.” She added that had better education and training on anti-Zionism and antisemitism been in place, “a lot of this could have been avoided.”

Alyza D. Lewin, President of The Brandeis Center who wrote the OCR complaint against USC, called Ritch “a trailblazer.” “At that point, the type of harassment she was describing, most people didn’t understand it, didn’t recognize it. Certainly not university administrators,” she told the Journal in a phone interview. “[Ritch] really exposed it. She bravely exposed this type of harassment and discrimination and gave students a voice. She empowered students to understand that being marginalized and discriminated against and harassed in this way on the basis of this part of their Jewish identity was not acceptable.” Until now, university administrators didn’t see that Jewish students were being excluded from progressive spaces because of their Zionist identities and instead viewed the spread of anti-Zionism on college campuses as a “political debate,” Lewin added. Only when university administrators started to recognize how Jewish students were being excluded did they to “take steps to try and address it.”

The university said in a statement to the Journal regarding the investigation: “USC is proud of its culture of inclusivity for all students, including members of our Jewish community. USC over the last two years has made a number of commitments to combat antisemitism and anti-Jewish hatred. These significant steps have included developing strong partnerships with national organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation and the American Jewish Committee (AJC); expanding the Stronger Than Hate initiative at the USC Shoah Foundation; sending senior leaders to attend the President’s Summit on Campus Antisemitism at NYU (hosted by Hillel International, the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), and the AJC); convening the President’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Life at USC; and participating in AEN’s Signature Seminar Series.

“We are continuing to take these steps to further build on the welcoming environment we have created for our Jewish community. We look forward to addressing any concerns or questions by the U.S. Department of Education regarding this matter.”

USC Hillel Executive Director Dave Cohn said in a statement to the Journal that the Hillel has “participated in [the university’s] ongoing work confident in the authentic desire our university shares to comprehensively support Jewish student life.” However, he acknowledged “the inherent urgency of taking assertive steps toward progress on issues pertaining to campus climate” and that USC Hillel hopes that OCR’s investigation “will prove useful in spurring further productive action.”

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Los Angeles Deputy Regional Director Ariella Loewenstein also said in a statement to the Journal, “Every student should feel safe and empowered to be who they are on campus. Education is the best antidote to bias so it is particularly alarming when students experience bias or harassment in a school setting. This case before the U.S. Department of Education warrants serious attention. As we have warned for years, antisemitism on university and college campuses is rampant. Cases like these demonstrate that institutions of higher education must address this growing threat.

“As a USC alumnus and member of President Carol Folt’s Advisory Council on Jewish Life as USC, this issue is particularly close to my heart. ADL Los Angeles looks forward to continuing this partnership to ensure Jewish students’ safety and freedom to be themselves on campus.”

“Universities should be safe and inclusive spaces, where students should never feel pressure to hide who they are for fear of being ostracized, harassed, or made to feel unsafe,” Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles President and CEO Rabbi Noah Farkas said in a statement. “All students—including Jewish students—must feel free to do so in a supportive and welcoming environment. We all must work together with diverse student populations and college administrations to arrive at a place where we can embrace differences and develop understanding. The Jewish Federation has built partnerships at the grassroots levels and worked with administrators to help train students and staff alike. Recently, we are proud to be included as a member on the President’s Advisory Council on Jewish Life as USC, an initiative launched by President Carol Folt to address ongoing issues that Jewish students have faced at USC. We look forward to continuing to work with President Folt and her administration as well as our partners on campus—USC Hillel, Chabad at USC—to ensure that Jewish students at USC can thrive and live their fullest Jewish life free of any hate or bias.”

This article has been updated.