At least a dozen colleges and universities have been sued over antisemitism on campus, ranging from allegations that schools allowed Jews to be physically excluded from certain portions of campus, to claims that Jews were subjected to a hostile educational environment, and claims that there were double standards in enforcement of campus rules, with anti-Israel protesters being given a free pass for rules violations that would have been punished if they had been committed by someone else.
This week, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging that school officials let students take control of the campus and establish “Jew exclusion” zones.
As The College Fix notes,
The complaint marks the second lawsuit in the span of one month to be filed against UCLA alleging rampant antisemitism, part of a bevy of legal actions universities across the nation face in the aftermath of aggressive, and sometimes violent, pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Multiple colleges and universities face antisemitism lawsuits that cite in part unlawful encampments, verbal assaults, and hostile takeovers of their schools in recent months in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens on Oct. 7. Harvard, Northwestern, Rutgers, UNLV and UC Davis are all grappling with such suits, among others.
Columbia University — which made national headlines in May after pro-Hamas activists took over a campus building — was too, but this week settled with a Jewish student who had filed the complaint, agreeing to “the creation of a ‘Safe Passage Liaison’ who will have authority to open alternative entrances and exits to students with existing 24-hour security escorts,” the Washington Post reported.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has won multiple landmark victories in the U.S. Supreme Court in religious freedom cases.
The University of Virginia is being sued over alleged antisemitism, reports Virginia Business:
A Jewish undergraduate student is suing the University of Virginia, its president and rector, and two pro-Palestinian organizations, alleging that he was “a victim of hate-based, intentional discrimination, severe harassment and abuse, and illegal retaliation” at U.Va., according to a federal lawsuit filed May 17. Matan Goldstein, [alleges] that he was physically and verbally assaulted on U.Va.’s grounds over his Jewish faith…An 80-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on Goldstein’s behalf claims that the university, as well as U.Va. President Jim Ryan and Rector Robert D. Hardie, “thoroughly and completely failed” to “protect students from discrimination, harassment, abuse, violence and retaliation, including antisemitism.” Goldstein is represented by Keswick-based civil rights attorneys Gregory Brown and Kristi Lyn Gavalier of Brown & Gavalier….
Goldstein claims in the lawsuit that he was attacked by participants during an October 2023 walkout protest on U.Va.’s campus. According to the lawsuit, Goldstein wore a yarmulke and a Star of David, and carried an Israeli flag to an Oct. 25, 2023, protest at U.Va., during which students and faculty members walked out of class and marched to the university’s Rotunda, protesting the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. “At the event, Matan was berated, insulted, threatened with violence, and physically assaulted,”…
The lawsuit also claims that “pro-Hamas faculty members have offered extra credit and boosts in grades to students who attend anti-Israeli, antisemitic rallies.”
Plaintiffs in some of the lawsuits ask the court to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit, potentially allowing hundreds of students to seek damages or partial tuition refunds.
“On May 20, 2024, a Northwestern University student filed a class action lawsuit against the school, alleging that inaction by its leadership against antisemitic behavior fostered a hostile on-campus environment that traumatized its Jewish student population,” says a nationwide class action law firm, FeganScott, about the lawsuit it filed against Northwestern University.
“For months, Northwestern and its leadership chose to turn a blind eye to rising antisemitism in hopes that it wouldn’t reach crisis levels, and it completely consumed the campus,” says FeganScott attorney Jonathan Lindenfeld. “Through our lawsuit, we intend to set a precedent that universities do not have a choice when it comes to addressing potential threats to students, including antisemitism, and must take meaningful action to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone on their campuses.”
Corey Gerwaski is suing the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and several student groups that support Hamas, “alleging he experienced antisemitism on campus…that led to pain and suffering,” KSNV News 3 reported. Gerwaski’s lawyers believe that anti-American ideologies taught on campus have helped spawn antisemitism on campus. “The failure of academia to address these progressive [anti-American] narratives over the course of decades is how we got to the situation we are today,” says Sigal Chattah, one of Gerwaski’s attorneys.
At UC Davis, Jewish resident Jonathan Groveman is suing the school over violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and disabilities-rights laws, according to CBS News.
UC Davis faces “a federal lawsuit filed against it by a Jewish, pro-Israel community member who says his civil rights were violated on campus when trying to counter-protest an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment,” CBS reports. Groveman alleged that the pro-Palestine “encampment [was] discriminatory in nature” against both those with disabilities by surrounding a sidewalk–thus violating ADA requirements–and the Jewish community…
In addition to the lawsuit against it over “Jew exclusion” zones, UCLA is also being sued by student Liana Nitka, who filed a class-action lawsuit last month alleging “civil rights violations, negligence, assault … and breach of contract,” according to NBC Los Angeles. A judge has not yet ruled on whether to allow the case to proceed as a class action, which turns on whether many students may have suffered a common injury, whether the plaintiff’s claim was typical of many students, and whether the plaintiff can adequately represent the interests of the class as a whole.
Harvard University is also being sued. “The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education accused Harvard of ‘deliberately’ ignoring antisemitism on campus and creating ‘an unbearable educational environment’ for Jewish students in a lawsuit filed last week,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
