On Monday, after having seen the Trump administration cancel $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University over its failure to address anti-Semitism on its campus, UCLA announced an initiative to combat hostility against Jewish people.
On Friday, the Department of Education stated, “Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Education (ED), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the immediate cancelation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students. These cancelations represent the first round of action and additional cancelations are expected to follow.”
On Monday, Chancellor Julio Frenk wrote to the UCLA community and announced the initiative, writing, “UCLA is at an inflection point. Building on past efforts and lessons, we must now push ourselves to extinguish antisemitism, completely and definitively. The principles on which UCLA was founded — and which we continue to advance — point us toward a clear course of action: We must persevere in our fight to end hate, however it manifests itself. This is an opportunity for UCLA to rise to the challenge of being an exemplary university.”
Last August, a federal district court issued an injunction against UCLA to stop the university from permitting and aiding anti-Semitic agitators blocking Jews from the campus. The injunction was the first in the nation against a university for permitting an anti-Semitic encampment.
Yitzchok Frankel, Joshua Ghayoum, and Eden Shemuelian sued the regents of the University of California after the university helped anti-Israel activists erect encampments where they blocked Jewish students from going to class, the library, or other areas on campus.
“With the knowledge and acquiescence of UCLA officials, the activists enforced what was effectively a ‘Jew Exclusion Zone,’ segregating Jewish students and preventing them from accessing the heart of campus, including classroom buildings and the main undergraduate library,” UCLA Professor Eugene Volokh wrote in Reason. “In many cases, the activists set up barriers and locked arms together, preventing those who refused to disavow Israel from passing through. To enter the Jew Exclusion Zone, a person had to make a statement pledging their allegiance to the activists’ views and have someone within the encampment ‘vouch’ for the individual’s fidelity to the activists’ cause.”
“UCLA reinforced these zones—both by providing metal barriers and by sending away Jewish students—while taking no effective action to ensure safe passage for Jewish students,” Becket, which represented the Jewish students, noted.
