The San Francisco Chronicle is drawing criticism, and a “community note” clarification on the social network X, after it reported that University of California-Berkeley had settled a Jew-hatred lawsuit not with a civil rights nonprofit, but with a “Zionist organization.”
“UC Berkeley has settled a Zionist organization’s lawsuit by agreeing to instruct students, faculty and staff on the dangers of antisemitism and to pay $1 million to cover the group’s legal fees and costs,” the paper reported in its news section. “But the settlement does not appear to have accomplished the suit’s main goal: requiring student groups to allow Zionists, who define Israel as a Jewish state, to speak at their meetings.”
Gabe Stutman, news editor at the J. The Jewish News of Northern California, called attention to the article.
Nowhere on the “about” page of the website of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which settled the suit with Berkeley, do the words “Israel” or “Zionist” appear.
It identifies as an “independent, unaffiliated, nonprofit corporation established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all,” which “engages in research and legal advocacy to combat the resurgence of antisemitism on college and university campuses, in the workplace and elsewhere.”
The center “empowers students by training them to understand their legal rights and educates administrators and employers on best practices to combat racism and antisemitism,” it says.
Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Brandeis Center, told JNS that “we understand that those who characterize us that way, rather than as the civil rights organization we are, generally aim to marginalize us or undermine our efforts.”
“However, we are proud of that characterization, even if it is not the direct focus of our mission,” Marcus told JNS. “Our mission is to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and to promote justice for all.”
