Berkeley Law Dean, Profs Express Support for Jewish Students

Several members of the Berkeley School of Law faculty, including Dean Erwin Cherminsky, have signed a statement expressing support for Jewish students after several student groups passed bylaws refusing to invite Zionist speakers to campus.

The statement, which was spearheaded by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), says that the bylaws passed by these student groups are “antithetical to free speech and our community values.  These bylaws would also impermissibly exclude a large majority of our faculty from participating in the work of these organizations, including our Dean.” “Many Jews (including some of us signing below who are Jewish) also experience this statement as antisemitism because it denies the existence of the state of Israel, the historical home of the Jewish people,” the statement continued. “For many Jews, Zionism is a core component of their identity and ethnic and ancestral heritage. As an educational institution we hope that the student groups that have now endorsed a ‘No Zionist speakers’ pledge will engage in dialogue on these issues.”

Berkeley Law Faculty––including the dean––have released a statement spearheaded by @TheAENetwork supporting Jewish law students after several student groups passed bylaws against inviting Zionist speakers to campus. pic.twitter.com/GaMPivRyax

— Aaron Bandler (@bandlersbanter) October 4, 2022

The statement comes after Kenneth Marcus, who heads the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and a Berkeley alum, wrote a September 28 Journal op-ed accusing the student groups of establishing “Jewish-free zones” with the bylaws. Cherminsky wrote in The Daily Beast that Marcus’ assertion that the bylaws amounted to “Jewish-free zones” on campus is “grossly misleading.” “A handful of student organizations—fewer than 10 out of over 100—initially adopted the by-law,” Cherminsky wrote. “But the rest rejected it or ignored it. Some that quickly accepted it are now reconsidering that. Most importantly, no group has violated the Law School’s policy and excluded a speaker on account of being Jewish or holding particular views about Israel. Such conduct, of course, would be subject to sanctions.”

Cherminsky’s statement about sanctions prompted Marcus to respond with an October 3 Journal op-ed stating that the “the tide is beginning to turn at Berkeley Law.”  “It is hardly enough, though, to tuck an important policy statement into a parenthetical comment in an internet publication. Chemerinsky must take the next step and make it formal,” Marcus wrote. “And he must convince all Berkeley law student groups to remove anti-Zionist provisions from their bylaws. He should remind these groups that their future application for bar membership is contingent upon a moral character determination. Adoption of discriminatory bylaws is hardly evidence of high moral character. He should remind them that exclusionary bylaws are inconsistent with their status as university-funded, registered student organizations.” Marcus also noted that more than 150 student groups worldwide signed onto an October 3 statement denouncing the bylaws “as a deliberate attempt to exclude Jewish students from the UC Berkeley campus community.”

Also on October 3, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement calling on California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and the UC Regents to decertify the student groups at Berkeley Law that passed the bylaws against Zionist speakers. Wiesenthal Center Founder and Dean Rabbi Marvin Hier and Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda Rabbi Abraham Cooper compared the student groups’ actions to “Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao’s China, or Ayatollah Khamenei’s Iran” and that the groups are essentially “aiding and abetting Hamas and other groups seeking the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel.” “California taxpayers, Berkeley alumni, and university donors should not be contributing one penny to any Berkeley law school linked group that has signed on to such pernicious censorship,” Hier and Cooper said. “Those involved with this campaign should be sanctioned by the Law School and barred from any honors or law reviews.” They concluded with a call for Newsom and the UC Regents “to immediately act to de-certify Berkeley law school groups discriminating against ‘Zionists.’”