UCSB Student Senate Passes #EndJewHatred Day Resolution

The UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) Student Senate passed a resolution on April 19 urging the university to proclaim April 29 as #EndJewHatred Day.

The vote breakdown was 16 in favor, one against and eight abstentions, according to a source. The resolution stated that one of the reasons the day is necessary is the various incidents that happened on campus in January, citing “the vandalization of a classroom with false allegations that the State of Israel, the only Jewish State, a perpetrator of genocide, femicide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and white supremacy, as well as the dissemination of flyers with heinously antisemitic propaganda and tropes impacting the emotional and mental well-being of Jewish students throughout the community.” The resolution also noted that the student senate held a meeting on Yom Kippur in 2022, thus “senators, public forum speakers and spectators were unable to participate due to religious observance.”

Therefore, as part of #EndJewHatred Day, the campus will provide “a safe space for Jewish students on campus” and “add the Jewish Holidays named above to the academic calendar to make it easier for Jewish students to schedule make-up exams and assignments with their professors.” The resolution urged the university to “sign binding commitments by the conclusion of Spring Quarter, 2023, to prosecute antisemitic behaviors … with the same intensity as other racial, religious, misogynistic, homophobic, and otherwise bigoted acts.”

“This resolution was carefully crafted over the period of several months. I do believe that something significant has been achieved through the support of this Senate and I feel proud to be part of the legislative body of this university,” Alexa Grines, an End Jew Hatred UCSB fellow, said in a statement. “This resolution explicates the demands of the UCSB Jewish community and symbolizes our passion to work towards being safely integrated into the broader student community. I believe that a student community that is welcoming to its Jewish students is a better campus environment for all students. This achievement is significant, but it is also only the first step on a path to making real progress to our campus life. I look forward to continuing to work towards ensuring the safety of each and every Jewish individual on this campus.”

Yehuda Jian, campus coordinator for End Jew Hatred, also said in a statement, “This is only the first step as we have much more work to do before the Jewish community is given a level playing field on college campuses and has the same protections granted to other minorities.”

April 29 was declared #EndJewHatred Day in 2022 after the Holocaust Museum and Center for Education and Tolerance in New York suggested it to End Jew Hatred, the nonpartisan grassroots organization. April 29 was the day after Yom HaShoah in 2022.