Leonard Grunstein, retired attorney and banker, founded and served as Chairman of Metropolitan National Bank and then Israel Discount Bank of NY, and serves on the Board of Bernard Revel at Yeshiva Univ. and the AIPAC National Council. He is co-author of the book Because It’s Just and Right: The Untold Back-Story of the U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
The landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education, in 1954, which held that segregation on the basis of race in public schools violated equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, was a defining moment in US history.
I remember well in 1963, when Governor George Wallace barred entry of two students, James Hood and Vivian Malone, to the University of Alabama because of their race. The response by President Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy was electric. First Deputy US Attorney General Katzenbach personally confronted the Governor at the University of Alabama and sought in vain to convince him to desist.
Then President Kennedy ordered the US Army’s 2nd Infantry Division to be prepared to intervene and federalized the Alabama National Guard. The two students returned to the University; but this time, General Henry Graham was there with a unit of National Guard to assure their entry unmolested by the Governor or anyone else.
Later that year, President Kennedy was assassinated and the following year, under President Johnson, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was finally passed. It included Title VI, protecting the right not to be discriminated against in schools, colleges or universities receiving federal assistance if based on the person’s race, color or national origin. This prohibition encompasses discrimination, including harassment, based on a student’s actual or perceived:
(1) shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, or
(2) citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.
The Department of Education provides that such a school, college, or university violates Title VI when:
(1)harassing conduct on the basis of race, color, or national origin is sufficiently serious as to limit or deny a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the educational program, i.e., creates a hostile environment;
(2) a responsible employee of the school knew, or should have known, about the harassment; and
(3) the school failed to take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate the hostile environment, prevent the harassment from recurring, and, as appropriate, remedy its effects.
On December 11, 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13899 on Combating Anti-Semitism, which reaffirmed that Article VI protects Jews from antisemitic harassment or other discrimination based on their race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
The history and seriousness of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its expansion over time under federal and local laws and regulations to cover so many types of discrimination so as to provide for a society where everyone truly enjoys equal protection under the law and freedom from unlawful discrimination and harassment is inspirational. Yet, it is mind-boggling to appreciate that there is still one type of discrimination and harassment that survives and is even gaslighted, to wit: when it is directed against Jews. Some may wonder how this is even possible given the advances made by so many Jews over the years in the US.
However, despite the progress made, there are forces hard at work discriminating against and harassing Jews on college campuses, as detailed in a number of lawsuits filed against offending colleges and universities. The Congressional Hearings on the subject have also focused light on the wrongdoing. The problem is pervasive and there does not appear to be an end in sight. Indeed, the groups leading the Jew hatred efforts are threatening to renew their offensive conduct shortly at the beginning of the new academic year.
The situation is so dire that Federal Judge Mark Scarsi in California issued a preliminary injunction against UCLA, on August 13, 2024,. In his ruling, he noted:
In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. UCLA does not dispute this. Instead, UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.
Among other things, the Court enjoined UCLA against knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students (including based on religious beliefs concerning the Jewish State of Israel) from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and campus areas. Shockingly, UCLA instead of settling the matter by agreeing to a plan of action to prevent a reoccurrence of the offensive conduct, just callously appealed.
The situation is too fraught with danger to allow it to fester in the courts and not take proactive action to remedy the problem before it’s too late.
It’s time for a Kennedyesque public show of force by the President and Department of Justice, of the sort that occurred in 1963. The plan is elegant in its simplicity.
DOJ should intervene in the case in support of the Plaintiffs and preliminary injunction and against UCLA.
Federal assistance to UCLA should be suspended under Title VI until the matter is favorably resolved.
The President should federalize the National Guard and ready it for duty in the new academic year to secure the UCLA campus so that all students, including Jewish ones, can freely and safely attend classes and use all of the university facilities.
There must not be a repeat of the offensive conduct described in the complaint.
This proactive approach must be applied to all the colleges and universities that have experienced similar problems and are threatened with renewed outbreaks in the new academic year. There are also many cases pending including the one at Harvard, in which the Court recently denied a motion to dismiss and ruled the case can proceed. The plan summarized above should immediately be implemented wherever there is a threat that the dangerous conditions of this past year will reoccur.
The Federal Government has so many powerful tools to address the problem. Judge Scarsi relied on the equal protection clause of the Constitution. However, there is also Title VI, as noted above. Why not suspend Federal assistance until a satisfactory plan is actually implemented to prevent the offensive conduct? The plan must perforce include security arrangements barring wrongdoers from campus and assuring all students, including Jewish ones, can freely and safely attend classes and use all of the university facilities.
It is also suggested that given the reports of foreign involvement, actions pursuant to FARA (22 USC 611 et seq) and the Anti-Terrorism Laws (18 USC 2339) should be considered to deal with root causes of the problem. The Hamasniks are not just Jew-haters, they are also anti-American. As Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks Z”L taught, “the hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews”.
The situation of invidious discrimination against Jews and harassment on campus is illegal, immoral and intolerable and must not be countenanced. It’s well beyond time for the Federal Government to cure the problem and bring the wrongdoers to Justice. The time for action is now to prevent a reoccurrence of this awful situation in the coming academic year.
May the new year be one of peace including on college and university campuses enabling Jewish and all students to learn and be successful, without fear of discrimination or harassment, in a safe and secure environment.