The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a civil-rights complaint on May 16 on behalf of a Jewish student so deluged with antisemitic threats that she said she needed to avoid campus and take her final exams online.
The Title VI complaint to the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education announced last week documents the abuse experienced by Tessa Veksler, the student body president at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is Jewish. Her experiences included threats such as, “You can run but you can’t hide, Tessa Veksler,” insults like “Zionist dog” and intimidation like slashing her photo in a poster.
“No individual should ever have to experience what I went through as a Jewish student at UCSB—harassment, intimidation, threats and character assassination all in the form of pure antisemitic hatred,” said Veksler, a graduating senior double majoring in political science and communication.
She described how “despite the challenges I have faced, I knew that nothing would stop me from standing up for the Jewish community, maintaining my democratically-elected position and pursuing justice for myself after being relentlessly targeted on the basis of my Jewish identity.”
Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center, said that “what has been allowed to happen to Tessa over many months—shaming, harassing, and shunning a student until they disavow a part of their Judaism—is shameful and illegal.”
Marcus added that “sadly, this is not the first time we are seeing this mob behavior against a Jewish student elected by their student body to serve. It is incumbent upon UC Santa Barbara and all universities to say enough is enough.”
