Jewish students filed a complaint to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) against the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), accusing the university of failing to properly combat anti-Semitism on campus.
The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by the Journal, was filed in March by Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP in conjunction with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. A supplemental memorandum was submitted in June and a supplemental letter was submitted in October.
“We gave UIUC seven months since the complaint was filed to address the ongoing harassment,” Brandeis Center President Alyza Lewin said in an October 23 statement. “In the face of continuous stall tactics and almost no action from the university, we decided to publicize our efforts. We hope public awareness of this dire situation will prompt the university to finally acknowledge and address the egregious anti-Semitic harassment it has swept under the rug for far too long.”
The complaint argued that Jewish and pro-Israel students have been subjected to a hostile campus climate over the past five years from anti-Semitism on both the right and the left. The complaint alleges that while the university has taken some action to address the campus climate, their “efforts have been wholly inadequate. In fact, in some cases, UIUC staff members were complicit in fostering this hostility and discrimination.”
The complaint argued that Jewish and pro-Israel students have been subjected to a hostile campus climate over the past five years from anti-Semitism on both the right and the left.
The complaint proceeds to list 23 anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred on campus since 2015. Among the incidents were several instances of swastika graffiti, the UIUC Chabad Center for Jewish Life’s menorah being vandalized four times between 2015-17, and rocks being thrown at the window of a UIUC Jewish fraternity in 2017. In the latter incident, the police said they couldn’t do anything because there weren’t any suspects.
Anti-Semitic incidents related to Israel included a UIUC vice chancellor removing a Jewish student from the Student Elections Commission during a 2017 campaign for a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution; per the complaint, the vice chancellor said, “She’s Jewish, I had to remove her because she’s biased.” Additionally, in September 2019, a UIUC Multicultural Advocate gave a presentation on “Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Terror” that glorified Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) member Leila Khaled. After UIUC Chancellor Robert Jones condemned the presentation’s “anti-Semitic content,” Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) succeeded in passing a student government resolution the following October defending the presentation. according to the complaint, During that meeting, students held signs stating “Free Palestine, F— Zionists” and “F— Nazis, Support Palestinians,”
More recently, a Jewish and pro-Israel Illinois Student Government (ISG) Senator resigned on October 14, stating in a resignation letter that her ISG colleagues have frequently harassed her because of her Zionist identity, according to the complaint.
More recently, a Jewish and pro-Israel Illinois Student Government (ISG) Senator resigned on October 14, stating in a resignation letter that her ISG colleagues have frequently harassed her because of her Zionist identity, according to the complaint.
“I have come to understand that this is not a place where any of you really care about human rights, fairness, no hate having a home here, because none of you are willing to take a chance and listen to what I have to say because you are jaded by your hate of Jews and Israel,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, it is clouding your ability to represent all students on campus.”
The complaint noted that under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, universities are required to take action against a hostile climate on campus toward students who are being discriminated against due to their ethnicity or religion. But UIUC has not been not effective in combating the hostile climate against Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus, the complaint argued, in some cases campus officials have emboldened the hostile campus climate,
“First, in the face of most instances of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, the University simply did nothing,” the complaint alleged. “Second, in response to other incidents, UIUC took actions that were obviously inadequate on their face. Third, in some instances, UIUC took steps that might in other contexts have been sufficient, but—as indicated by the continuing anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist incidents—were insufficient in UIUC’s particular case.”
The complaint proceeded to contrast the university’s response to anti-Semitism with its reaction to a noose found hanging in a residence hall elevator in September 2019. The noose prompted an immediate police investigation, and Chancellor Jones sent an email to the community a few days later condemning the act.
“UIUC’s swift, immediate, and unequivocal response to this racist incident contrasts greatly with its deficient responses to the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist incidents on its campus, as outlined above,” the complaint stated.
The complaint concluded with an acknowledgement that while protecting free speech is important, “the First Amendment would not prevent UIUC from condemning SJP’s repeated rhetoric that Zionism is a form of racism, akin to a Nazi or white supremacist ideology. It would also not prohibit UIUC from releasing a statement recognizing that, for most members of the UIUC Jewish student body, Zionism is an integral part of their Jewish identity, and constitutes a Jewish “ancestral or ethnic characteristic.”
“The purpose of this complaint is not to ‘shut down’ anyone’s speech,” Lewin said. “To the contrary, its goal is to protect Jewish pro-Israel students at UIUC who are being discriminated against, harassed and excluded on the basis of their identity, behaviors not protected under the First Amendment, and to ensure that they can participate in campus life on an equal basis with other students.”
Jewish students also spoke out against the university.
“Once I became a leader in the pro-Israel Jewish community on campus, I was immediately targeted,” student Lauren Nesher said in a statement. “I was even publicly singled out by a professor on social media. While there are faculty who are supportive, it can be really hard to be publicly Jewish. I constantly worry about how people will react when they find out I’m Jewish or that I support Israel.”
Another Jewish student, Ian Katsnelson, also said in a statement that as an ISG senator he has “been called a genocide supporter, a white supremacist, and harassed; all for being publicly Jewish. And all of this in front of the administration—who did nothing.”
Another Jewish student, Ian Katsnelson, also said in a statement that as an ISG senator he has “been called a genocide supporter, a white supremacist, and harassed; all for being publicly Jewish. And all of this in front of the administration—who did nothing.”
He added that has many Jewish friends who are afraid to publicly wear Jewish paraphernalia in public.
“This is my third year at U of I and I can tell you . . . it’s exhausting,” Katsnelson said.
UIUC Associate Chancellor for Public Affairs Robin Kaler told the Journal that OCR hasn’t contacted the university yet but the lawyers did also file a complaint to an organization responsible for accrediting the university, and the organization concluded that the allegations didn’t warrant further review.
“Throughout this time, the university has been engaged in a long, meaningful and what we believed was a collaborative discussion about the concerns raised by the involved parties, so it is very disheartening that they chose to stop engaging with us,” Kaler said. “We are disappointed with the approach this group has taken to move our conversation to the media, but we are absolutely committed to an inclusive university community where everyone feels welcome.
“One of our core institutional values is ensuring that people of all faiths, ethnicities, national origins and viewpoints can live, learn and thrive. We will never tolerate bigotry, racism or hate, and we condemn acts and expressions of anti-Semitism.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.