More than 120 organizations, many of them Jewish, signed a letter calling on the University of California regents to act on a recent AMCHA Initiative report on Jew-hatred, about which 350 former and current scholars at the public school system penned a letter last month.
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, co-founder and director of the AMCHA Initiative, which organized and also signed onto the letter, told JNS that “we were hearing from different groups about the report and how outrageous it was.”
The many signatories suggest “that it’s not just a Jewish issue, that it’s not just a conservative issue, that it’s not just a legal issue,” she said. “That it’s really a human issue, that really people from all walks of life represented by these organizations are losing confidence in the university rapidly.”
JNS saw an exclusive copy of the letter, whose signatories include B’nai B’rith International, Zionist Organization of America, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Combat Antisemitism Movement and Lawfare Project, as well as Christians and Jews United for Israel, Defending Education and National Association of Scholars
The report, which is the focus of the letter, suggests that professors are a key driver of rising Jew-hatred at the public university system.
“UC’s instructional authority, official unit communications and UC-branded platforms should not be used to carry organized political advocacy into the university’s academic life as an institutional program,” the letter states.
“In the cases documented in the report, that politicization has centered on organized anti-Israel activism and has helped fuel a surge of antisemitism and hostile or exclusionary conditions for Jewish students and others perceived as ‘Zionist’ or ‘pro-Israel,’” it adds. “When institutional authority is used this way, political agendas can appear to carry the university’s endorsement, academic norms break down and affected students face harassment, intimidation and exclusion.”
The letter states that the regents should enforce current UC policies and enhance them where necessary, and discuss the report at their next meeting. (JNS sought comment from the UC system.)
“The issue is not just about Jews and Israel. The issue is about misuse of the institution,” Rossman-Benjamin told JNS. “It’s a general issue. Stop politicization.”
Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Brandeis Center, told JNS that the AMCHA report shows how antisemitism is “systemic at California public institutions.”
“In too many instances, it is driven by the misuse of academic authority, particularly among faculty members,” he said. “It is imperative that the regents take firm action, at long last, to restore institutional sanity, strengthen conduct policies and protect Jewish students’ civil rights.”
Rabbi Eric Fusfield, director of legislative affairs at B’nai B’rith, told JNS that “far from remaining ‘aloof from politics,’ as UC policy requires, faculty have used their classrooms and resources to promote incendiary anti-Israel propaganda.”
“Jewish students are paying the price,” he said.
Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at Lawfare Project, told JNS that “the regents have both the authority and the responsibility to act and make clear that while faculty and staff retain full rights to their personal views, UC’s classrooms, official platforms and institutional resources are not vehicles for political advocacy.”
He added that “free speech and academic freedom do not override students’ civil rights.”
“UC entered a resolution agreement with the government in December 2024, but these patterns have continued anyway,” Filitti said. “This is both a compliance failure and a choice, and the regents must answer for it.”
Mort Klein, national president of the ZOA, told JNS that “California’s universities, and all of our nation’s universities, have a responsibility to prevent faculty members from using their positions and institutional resources to espouse hatred toward Jewish students and the Jewish homeland.”
“Changes are moreover desperately needed at the top,” he said. “California’s governor appoints members to the University of California Board of Regents and California State University Board of Trustees.”
“California Gov. Newsom’s recent blood libels falsely accusing Israel of apartheid sends a terrible message to his appointees and fans the flames of antisemitism throughout California’s universities,” he added.
