Days after UCLA settled a lawsuit introduced by three Jewish college students and a Jewish professor alleging antisemitism, the Trump administration introduced that it will droop $584 million in federal research grants to the establishment, alleging failure to “promote a analysis surroundings freed from antisemitism.” Urgent that case, the administration demanded $1 billion from UCLA as a part of a settlement, far exceeding the $221 million that Columbia agreed to pay over comparable claims.
We have no idea what the end result of the negotiations between the federal government and UCLA will likely be. The choices don’t look promising.
In all probability, a settlement would entail not solely an enormous monetary price ticket but additionally deep concessions when it comes to the institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Alternatively, if a deal will not be struck, these values may very well be upheld at the price of devastating losses to important medical research, public health, 1000’s of jobs and the general economic well-being of the area. It’s a true Faustian discount, with robust traces of a Mafia-style shakedown.
And all within the professed identify of combating antisemitism and defending Jews. That is subterfuge. What’s really taking place is a shallow and disingenuous plot to destroy the college and the values of free inquiry and debate within the identify of a harmful, intolerant ideology that has been against increased training for years. What this harmful path will not do is make the campus safer for Jews — or anybody else, for that matter.
Sadly, in recent times antisemitism has reared its head at UCLA, as at different universities in the USA. And in accordance with proof offered in a recent lawsuit, Jewish college students have been focused with deeply wounding slurs akin to “Hitler missed one” and “return to Poland,” prevented from accessing public areas and subjected to harassment due to their perceived pro-Israel stances. That is utterly unacceptable, and the college should do all the pieces inside its energy, particularly by means of continued coaching and training, to create an surroundings by which such language and habits are acknowledged as unacceptable.
On the identical time, we acknowledge that Jewish college students, school and employees aren’t the one ones who’ve felt in danger on campus. Palestinian, Arab and Muslim college students — and their supporters, together with Jewish supporters — additionally confronted harassment, discrimination and bodily violence. On April 30, 2024, off-campus counterprotesters descended on the Palestinian solidarity encampment — although Jewish college students publicly pleaded with outsiders to remain away. Fifteen folks had been injured and dozens arrested. A separate lawsuit, filed by encampment contributors who say the college failed to guard them, is working its method by means of the courts.
The state of affairs in Gaza has grown a lot worse since April 2024 — together with an enormous demise toll and hunger of residents that has been widely condemned. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has introduced plans to occupy Gaza Metropolis which might be opposed by the Israeli army itself. Will the Trump administration proceed to model activism calling for an finish to this horrible battle as antisemitic?
No good will come to Jewish college students — or Jews typically — by offering political or ethical cowl to the present Israeli authorities. Furthermore, the insinuation that the Trump administration is performing on behalf of Jews threatens to awaken additional the antisemitic trope of the manipulative Jew playing puppeteer, with the federal government as its marionette.
UCLA is value preventing for. And Jews, who’ve a protracted, proud historical past on the college and an enormous stake within the well-being of universities, should be a part of the combat to defend UCLA. They usually have begun to hitch the combat: Jewish leaders and the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California have publicly opposed the cuts.
The previous technique of aligning with whoever holds state energy to protect Jewish pursuits — often called the royal or vertical alliance — is not practicable or justifiable. Relatively, we should decide to horizontal alliances with different teams that share a way of grave apprehension over the dismantling of one of many nice establishments of upper studying in the USA.
Up to now, we could not all the time have discovered ourselves in sync with the tone and ways of those teams. However at this essential second in our nation’s historical past, we should be a part of along with allies previous and new to rescue UCLA, the estimable American system of upper training and the perfect model of democracy that the U.S. represents.
David N. Myers teaches Jewish historical past at UCLA and is a member of Jewish Partnership for Los Angeles. Aaron Greenberg and Kate Pynoos are founding board members of Jewish Partnership for Los Angeles.
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Concepts expressed within the piece
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California Governor Gavin Newsom has strongly condemned the Trump administration’s method, characterizing the $1 billion demand as “extortion” and pledging that the state will sue to withstand what he calls “an assault on educational freedom on this extraordinary public establishment”[4]. Moreover, Jewish leaders and the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California have publicly opposed the federal funding cuts, demonstrating that the Jewish group itself will not be unified in supporting the administration’s actions[4].
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The dimensions of the Trump administration’s monetary calls for seems disproportionate when in comparison with comparable circumstances, because the $1 billion settlement sought from UCLA far exceeds the $221 million that Columbia College agreed to pay and the $50 million settlement with Brown College[3][4]. Moreover, UCLA had already demonstrated good religion efforts to handle antisemitism issues by settling the personal lawsuit for $6.13 million, contributing $2.3 million to organizations that fight antisemitism, and implementing new campus initiatives and insurance policies[1][2][3].
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The Trump administration has engaged in a broader sample of concentrating on universities, having frozen federal funding and pursued settlements from a number of establishments together with Harvard, Columbia, and Brown, suggesting a scientific method to pressuring increased training establishments moderately than addressing particular antisemitism issues[3][4].
Totally different views on the subject
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Federal investigations have produced substantive findings that UCLA violated civil rights legal guidelines, with the Division of Justice’s Civil Rights Division formally figuring out that the college “violated the equal safety clause of the Fourteenth Modification and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by performing with deliberate indifference in making a hostile academic surroundings for Jewish and Israeli college students”[3]. Furthermore, a federal district courtroom beforehand granted sweeping preliminary injunctive reduction requiring UCLA to halt all exclusion of Jews from campus, indicating that the judicial system discovered advantage within the antisemitism claims[1][2].
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The documented incidents of antisemitism at UCLA had been extreme and systematic, as encampments operated as “exclusionary zones that blocked Jews from attending courses, utilizing the library and accessing different important areas of campus,” with UCLA’s personal Process Pressure to Fight Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias discovering that the college had fostered an antisemitic surroundings[1]. The personal lawsuit resulted in a big $6.13 million settlement, which authorized specialists describe as “believed to be the biggest personal settlement in campus antisemitism circumstances,” suggesting the scope and severity of the violations[1][2].
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UCLA initially didn’t take accountability for the antisemitic exclusion, arguing that it had “no obligation over the difficulty as a result of protesters, not the college, blocked Jewish college students’ entry to areas,” however this place was rejected by the federal courtroom system[3]. The college’s subsequent coverage modifications and settlements reveal an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, whereas attorneys representing the Jewish plaintiffs emphasised that “treating Jews like second-class residents is unsuitable, unlawful, and really expensive,” validating the necessity for robust enforcement measures[2].
