‘Too Few Consequences’: ADL Tells US Colleges to Protect Jewish Students’ Civil Rights, Crack Down on Antisemitism

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday called out American colleges and universities in an open letter, reminding them of their...

The post ‘Too Few Consequences’: ADL Tells US Colleges to Protect Jewish Students’ Civil Rights, Crack Down on Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

New York University students stage a protest in Washington Square Park in Manhattan to oppose Israel and call for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 25, 2023. Photo: Gordon Donovan/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday called out American colleges and universities in an open letter, reminding them of their obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and intimidation.

“Shockingly, many students engaging in this activity — including harassment, intimidation, and other clear violations of student codes of conduct — have not faced consequences,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote.

“This is unacceptable. Full stop,” he continued. “Universities have by and large been derelict in their duty to protect Jewish communities on campus, in many cases raising serious concern under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Simply put, to date, there have been too few consequences — that must change.”

The letter came amid mounting pressure on college presidents to take a firm stance against extreme anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric. In the past month, at least one president has been ousted from office for failing to do so. After telling a congressional committee that calling for a genocide of Jews would only constitute a violation of school rules in “context-dependent” circumstances, Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania resigned after 17 months on the job.

US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Elite universities have been among the biggest hubs of such activity, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing the Hamas atrocities.

In Tuesday’s letter, the ADL noted that between Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught in Israel and Dec. 7, the Jewish civil rights organization “recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents ever recorded during any two-month period” in over 40 years of tracking such data.

On college campuses alone, the ADL recorded 470 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and Dec. 18. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.

The Algemeiner has reported on numerous incidents that occurred in that span of time. At Harvard University, anti-Zionism escalated to antisemitic harassment when a mob of anti-Israel activists — including Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review whose alumni includes former US President Barack Obama — followed, surrounded, and intimidated a Jewish student on campus, according to videos that went viral across social media. “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” the crush of people screamed in a call-and-response chant into the ears of the student who —as seen in the footage — was forced to duck and dash the crowd to free himself from the cluster of bodies that encircled him.

At Cornell University, someone posted on a social media forum that is popular with students messages calling for the murder and rape of Jews. In addition to threatening the lives of Cornell’s 3,500 Jewish students, who comprise about 22 percent of the school’s student population, the posts called for an attack on a campus kosher dining hall — named 104West  — affiliated with the Steven K. And Winifred A. Grinspoon Hillel Center, which forced campus officials to shutter the property.

The ADL further explained that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters led the way in promoting a campus environment hostile to Jewish and pro-Israel voices, even suggesting that Israeli civilians deserved to be murdered for being “settlers.” Additionally, as scenes of Hamas terrorists abducting children and desecrating dead bodies circulated worldwide and invoked global outrage, SJP chapters at schools such as Brown University, the University of Maryland, Tufts University, and the University of California-Los Angeles described the attacks as a form of “resistance” and demanded that others accept “our right to liberate our homeland by any means necessary.”

Experts have told The Algemeiner that the situation on college campuses would improve if the Biden administration issued long promised regulations that apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to civil rights investigations — a measure, they argue, would help protect Jewish students from antisemitic discrimination and harassment rooted in anti-Zionism.

The regulations, based on a directive given in Dec. 2019 by then-US President Donald Trump in response to rising anti-Zionist hatred on college campuses, were scheduled to be issued this month. However, they have been delayed and will not be instituted until at least Dec. 2024, after the next US presidential election, according to a copy of the proposed rule on the website of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism — which has been adopted by dozens of governments and hundreds of civic institutions around the world — includes examples of anti-Israel bias, such as “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “denying the Jewish people their right to self determination,” and “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

Kenneth Marcus, a former assistant secretary for civil rights at the US Education Department, told The Algemeiner earlier this month that the new rules “should be the top priority for the Office for Civil Rights.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ‘Too Few Consequences’: ADL Tells US Colleges to Protect Jewish Students’ Civil Rights, Crack Down on Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.