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
Wellesley College campus Photo by Jared and Corin, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Julia Jassey November 14, 2023
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 opinion@forward.com.
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