Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Why we’re taking legal action against Wellesley College over antisemitism

Students were denied equal access to educational opportunities on the basis of their Jewish identities

It should come as no surprise today to read the words: College campuses have an antisemitism problem. We are no longer shocked to see the shocking: Students at Cooper Union trapped in their school library as anti-Israel protesters pounded on the doors outside; students at Columbia University told by peers in campus clubs that “the Holocaust wasn’t special”; students at Cornell and Rutgers violently threatened; students at Ohio State even physically assaulted. Activists, advocates and professionals spent years sounding the alarm. Now, the alarm is ringing, loud and clear.

 

Pressure is mounting on universities as students, parents, alumni and Jewish organizations demand action from the schools meant to keep their Jewish students safe. Administrators are reminded that they have an obligation to ensure that their students have equal access at school — that they feel safe participating fully in campus life, as all students should.

At Wellesley College, a renowned historically women’s liberal arts college outside Boston, administrators failed to do just that. So, Jewish on Campus and the Louis D. Brandeis Center filed a Title VI complaint to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. As antisemitism rises on campuses around the country, students at Wellesley were denied equal access to educational opportunities due to fear of harassment and discrimination on the basis of their Jewish identities.

The incident

As the Jewish community was left reeling from Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians, students at a Wellesley College dormitory received an email from their residential staff and assistants stating that they “firmly believe that there should be no space, no consideration, and no support for Zionism within the Wellesley College community.”

This statement, sent by members of the campus community whose job it is to ensure that all students feel supported in their living space,  left Jewish students feeling explicitly excluded.

That exclusion was not quelled when college officials sent a campus-wide email, promising that the RA staff would apologize for their remarks and referring students to attend a panel on the ensuing conflict — a panel during which speakers denied Israel’s right to exist and spread misinformation about Hamas and the Oct. 7 massacre.

After administrative pressure, the residence hall staff did apologize. But not before posting on social media that this apology only came because there was a “gun to [their] head.” They then posted that the students who complained were “weak b*tches fr.”

Jewish students, understandably, did not feel any more safe. But they have a federally protected right to.

Fair and equal access

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — much discussed as many grapple with what can be done in the face of rising campus antisemitism — protects “all students, including Jewish students, from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin” at all schools that receive federal funding. Schools are federally required to “take immediate and appropriate action” in responding to discrimination.

Jewish students have a right to fair and equal access to education, housing and campus life. When they’re denied that right, schools have an obligation to act. According to our complaint and students at Wellesley, the college failed to do that.

Jewish identity is vast, and for most, it includes a connection to Israel and Zionism, insofar as Zionists believe that Israel has a right to exist. To exclude Jewish students on the basis of that belief, a belief on which millennia of traditions and a continued history of survival is predicated, is not a political debate. It is not legitimate advocacy for human rights. It’s discrimination. And, most importantly, it does nothing to resolve the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza — people who deserve true advocacy.

Anti-Israel sentiment has crossed the hard, bright line into antisemitism. Never before has it been more clear that our educators and our university administrators have an obligation, not just to speak out against it, but to act against it.

Enough hollow words enabling this exclusion to propagate.

We must demand more from our universities. We must demand that university administrators condemn antisemitism in the strongest possible terms, in all forms. We must demand that our universities include antisemitism in anti-bias training, for students and faculty alike. We must demand that our universities act against discrimination, harassment, and hate. We must demand that our universities listen to students’ stories. And we must demand that universities protect their Jewish students when antisemitism emerges on their campuses — not just because the law mandates them to act, but because their conscience mandates them to act.

As has been true throughout all of Jewish history, silence is complicity. As antisemitism continues to rise, we’ve reached a crossroads — will our educators be complicit?

To contact the author, email [email protected].

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Today is the last day of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need you to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Today is the last day to contribute.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.