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J. Reports on Antisemitism at U.C. Berkeley • Fall 2023-Spring 2024

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Dear Reader,

ank you for your ongoing support for J. e Jewish News of Northern California. We literally would not be able to do the work we do without you.

e stories in this digital magazine are not pleasant to read. In a perfect world, antisemitism wouldn’t exist. I wish! What struck most of us by surprise this year was not the old, old antisemitism of neo-Nazis, but a new strain of antisemitism on campuses, especially a er October 7. U.C. Berkeley was not the only northern California campus to experience this hate–J. reported on antisemitic incidents at Stanford, San Jose State, U.C. Davis, UCSF, Sacramento State and San Francisco State. But the impact of these protests was felt especially hard at U.C. Berkeley.

J.’s reporting on U.C. Berkeley professor Ron Hassner led to national a ention on how pro-Palestinian protests were negatively impacting Jewish students. J.’s reporting on U.C. Berkeley antisemitism was so powerful that nine of these stories were cited by a le er from the House Commi ee on Education and the Workforce to the leadership of U.C. Berkeley, questioning the university’s inaction in confronting hate speech.

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Jo Ellen Green Kaiser

Steve Gellman

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chanan Tigay

MANAGING EDITOR Sue Barnett

EDITORIAL

DIRECTOR OF NEWS PRODUCT David A.M. Wilensky

SENIOR EDITOR Natalie Weinstein NEWS EDITOR Gabe Stutman

CULTURE EDITOR Andrew Esensten

STAFF WRITERS Emma Goss, Maya Mirsky

ENGAGEMENT REPORTER Lea Loeb

PHOTOGRAPHER Aaron Levy-Wolins

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Andy Altman-Ohr, Sue Fishkoff, Dan Pine, Alix Wall

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ADVERTISING & PROMOTION

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ART & PRODUCTION

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BUSINESS

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TECHNOLOGY

IT SUPPORT Felipe Barrueto

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CO-PRESIDENTS Steven Dinkelspiel, Carol Weitz

VICE PRESIDENTS Andy Rittenberg, Jerry Yanowitz

SECRETARY Patricia Rosenberg

TREASURER Jane Springwater

MEMBERS Liz Berman, Alex Bernstein, Mark W. Bernstein (imm. past president), David Cornfield, Alexandra Corvin, Rabbi Joey Felsen, Howard Fine, Inna Gartsman, Alia Wechsler Gorkin, Samantha Grant, Steve Katz, Susan Libitzky, Deborah Newbrun, Susan Sasson, Harmon Shragge, Peter Waldman

PAST PRESIDENTS Marc Berger, Lou Haas, Jon Kaufman, Dan Leemon, Adam Noily, Lory Pilchik, William I. Schwartz

12 In wake of chaos, UC Berkeley Jewish students feeling demoralized, angry

20 Despite two physical attacks on Jews, UC Berkeley doesn’t plan to dismantle tent city

6 A tense Berkeley campus reacts to Hamas massacre and war 7 Hundreds rally at UC Berkeley to demand action on Gaza hostages

8 ‘I’m screaming for help’: Jewish students face violence at UC Berkeley Israel talk 9 Mob violence at UC Berkeley shows free speech doesn’t exist

Israeli speaker whose Berkeley event was canceled amid violence draws protest at LA Holocaust Museum speech

Cal police release photos of five suspects from Feb. 26 ‘riot’ at UC Berkeley

13 Does Cal have an antisemitism problem? J. sits down with UC Berkeley’s chancellor

15 Marching in silence, UC Berkeley students and faculty demand safety for Jews

16 UC Berkeley chancellor to post ‘observers’ at Sather Gate

16 Congress launches antisemitism probe into UC Berkeley as ‘sleep-in’ protests expand statewide

17 UC Berkeley’s pro-Palestinian tent camp joins others across

18 What’s happening at Gaza tent protests spreading on Northern California campuses?

21 ‘Shiva-worthy’: Berkeley prof starts sit-in to force action against antisemitism

22 One-week update: Berkeley prof sees no end to his sit-in against antisemitism

23 It’s over: UC Berkeley professor ends his sit-in protest

24 Anti-Israel protester disrupts Berkeley law dean’s backyard dinner, refuses to leave

25 UC Berkeley opens probe into law professor over confrontation with anti-Israel student

Bay Area

UC BERKELEY AFTER OCTOBER 7

A tense Berkeley campus reacts to Hamas massacre and war

EMMA GOSS | J. STAFF

Like many of his Jewish peers on campus, Noah Rothman, a UC Berkeley senior and president of the Berkeley Hillel student board, is struggling under the emotional weight of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and its war with Israel.

“It’s really hard to actually focus on homework and set aside time to just take care of things like cooking, going to the gym, showering, doing laundry,” Rothman said. “It’s hard.”

Rothman, 25, is a Los Angeles native who lived in Israel for five years after high school. He served in the Israel Defense Forces before starting at UC Berkeley, and his older brother has been called up as a reservist since the war began.

Rothman joined about 30 fellow pro-Israel students and faculty outside Berkeley’s Sather Gate at the edge of Sproul Plaza on Oct. 16 as a counterprotest to a pro-Palestinian rally.

Rothman described the scene of more than 100 pro-Palestinian students, many of them holding Palestinian flags and signs decrying Israeli “genocide,” chanting rally cries like “viva, viva la intifada” (long live the intifada) and “Israel, Israel, what do you say? How many children have you killed today?”

“It’s really hard to hear that stuff,” said Ethan Katz, director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, who also attended the counterprotest. “It was deeply painful for a lot of students to hear.”

Pro-Israel students, including Rothman, formed a line and held Israeli flags. They remained silent for 23 minutes and 30 seconds — 1,410 seconds in memory of the number of victims of the Hamas massacre.

Rothman said he was relieved that the protest didn’t “feel hostile.” Overall, he added, “it was not as bad as I thought it would be.”

Since Oct. 7, Berkeley’s campus has been rife with tension between students with opposing views on the Hamas terrorist attack, Israel’s declaration of war and its bombing campaign.

The campus, known as a stronghold of Palestinian support among American universities, has been more strained than usual over the past week and a half. That has surfaced in the form of protests and political events among students and a series of open letters from faculty expressing their indignation over the campus climate and the university’s official positions toward the massacre, the war and student responses.

“I would say for Jewish students, there’s this combination of grieving and anger and sorrow that is being manifested in many ways,” said Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, executive director of Berkeley Hillel.

Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, for example, hosted a panel of Palestinian speakers on Oct. 12, attended by an estimated 200 people in person and close to 100 people on Zoom, according to Charlotte Aaron, a Jewish and Zionist student in the UC Berkeley School of Law who listened to 45 minutes of the meeting on Zoom before she’d heard enough.

“It’s providing an extremely one-sided narrative of the conflict, which is dangerous and counterproductive to resolution,” said Aaron, who is 28 and in her final year in law school while working on a joint master’s degree in public policy. She

said the Berkeley LSJP event was similar in content to an event she attended by the group last year called “Palestine 101,” characterizing both events as “demonizing” Israel.

On Sunday, Berkeley corporate law professor Steven Davidoff Solomon wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with the headline, “Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students” that also referenced Berkeley LSJP’s controversial decision

essential part of campus life, and we expect that you treat one another with the same respect and dignity that we are modeling here.”

Hassner praised Bazian for his willingness to work with him on the letter.

“I know that it took courage on his part, and I admire that,” Hassner said. “Any identity I might carry as a Jewish person or as an Israeli person is the identity I carry as a teacher. And as a teacher the idea that my students would do one another harm is just unbearable to me.”

last year to ban Zionist speakers from participating in its events and encourage other student groups to adopt the same bylaw.

“The student conduct at Berkeley is part of the broader attitude against Jews on university campuses that made last week’s massacre possible. It is shameful and has been tolerated for too long,” Solomon wrote in the WSJ.

Ahead of a Hamas leader’s call for a “day of jihad” on Oct. 13, UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner, faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, was deeply concerned about the potential for students to turn violent that day.

He’d already heard of heated arguments between students that were interrupted before turning physical. He contacted his colleague, Hatem Bazian, who is a Palestinian lecturer on Middle Eastern languages and cultures, founder of Students for Justice in Palestine and an anti-Zionst who “has never said a kind word about Israel,” Hassner said.

Hassner proposed that two of them write a joint statement calling for students to remain peaceful toward one another. Hassner posted the statement on his Facebook profile on Oct. 12. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ shared it later that day in a campuswide email. Hassner and Bazian’s five-sentence statement read:

“To our students: We are two professors on this campus who disagree, vehemently. But we have always treated one another with respect and dignity. We love this campus with its diverse communities and all of our students and are heartbroken to hear of incidents of near violence between students in recent days. We will not tolerate our students harming one another. Disagreement and differing points of view are an

The university administration has contributed to the problems on campus, Jewish students and faculty said.

A letter from two university vice chancellors, Dania Matos and Stephen Sutton, on Oct. 8 sent to all registered student organization leaders that addressed the violence in the “Middle East” didn’t land well with Jews on campus because it didn’t condemn Hamas or the antisemitism pervading Cal.

The words “Israel,” “Gaza” and “Hamas” were not used in the statement, which read:

“We are writing to offer our heartfelt sympathy and support to members of our campus community with ties to the Middle East, whether they be familial, religious, ethnic, national, academic, or ideological. We mourn the loss of life and recognize that this conflict is causing a great deal of fear and anxiety among members of our Cal community. We deeply regret the pain and trauma that is caused by this ongoing conflict.”

The statement concluded with links to campus mental health resources and reaffirmed the university’s policy on free speech.

Katz called the message “very upsetting” and “very weak,” adding that many Jewish students were outraged and voiced those feelings to administrators.

“The administrators heard them, and they realized they had made a mistake and that they had not gotten it right,” Katz said. After “trying to figure out how to address the pain of Jewish students while acknowledging other people’s different perspectives,” according to Katz, Chancellor Christ sent her own statement campuswide on Oct. 11.

“I am heartbroken by the terrible violence and suffering in Israel and Gaza,” Christ wrote. “The brutal attack by Hamas on Israel, the killing of so many innocent people — including children and the elderly — and the taking of hostages, fill me with grief and dismay. Israel’s subsequent blockade and bombing of the Gaza Strip is causing the loss of yet more innocent lives. This tragedy has a long and complex history, one leading to an appalling result. I know many members of our community have deep ties to Israel and to Palestine and are experiencing tremendous sorrow and trauma at this time. Your suffering must be particularly acute; we feel compassion for all that you

on page 4

Hundreds rally at UC Berkeley to demand action on Gaza

SUE FISHKOFF | CORRESPONDENT

A rally the afternoon of Oct. 27 on the UC Berkeley campus drew about 250 Jewish students and their supporters to Sproul Plaza, with one clear message: Bring the hostages home.

“Bring them home! Bring them home!” shouted the mostly student crowd leading chants from the plaza steps, as supporters looked on.

Several campus groups were represented, including Tikvah: Students for Israel, Berkeley Hillel and the Jewish fraternity AEPi. Other students told J. they weren’t part of any group. They were “just Jewish” and wanted to be part of the rally. Flyers with the photos and biographies of each of the estimated 220 hostages that Hamas took into Gaza on Oct. 7 were strung banner-like across the plaza. Students handed out more of the flyers for attendees to hold aloft.

Then the chanting began, led by student organizers with megaphones.

“Release! Release! We stand for peace!” was one oft-repeated chant, along with “Bring them home!”

Friday’s event, which kicked off at 1:30 p.m., was the latest in a series of pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies held since Oct. 7 on the Cal campus.

Competing rallies on Oct. 16 erupted in shouting and some shoving between protesters. Since then, the two sides have held events on different dates or in separate locations.

Friday’s “Bring Them Home” rally followed a large pro-Palestinian rally two days earlier that featured chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” That slogan is widely understood as a call for the elimination of Israel.

At Wednesday’s rally, two pro-Palestinian protesters tried to steal an Israeli flag from a pro-Israel student, an incident that ended with a pro-Palestinian protester hitting the pro-Israel student over the head with a metal water bottle, according to campus police.

By contrast, Friday’s rally was intense but calm.

The only counter-protesters were a white-bearded man holding a Palestinian flag and an individual who rambled loudly about American and Israeli evils.

Big-picture politics were at a minimum. A few people held anti-Hamas posters, but the focus was kept clearly on the need to free all the hostages immediately. Demonstrators sang “Am

Yisrael Chai” and “Hatikvah.”

Speakers addressed the crowd. Offir Gutelzon, co-founder of UnXeptable, a pro-democracy group started by Israeli expatriates in the Bay Area, implored the students to share images of the hostages on social media and to write letters to their elected officials, urging U.S. action.

“And let’s thank President Biden for all he’s doing,” Gutelzon added, which elicited a cheer.

A louder cheer erupted when the students caught sight of a plane circling the campus, trailing a banner that read “Berkeley stands with Israel.”

Rabbi Gil Leeds of the Chabad Jewish Student Center at Berkeley took the microphone to read psalms before launching into a rousing rendition of “Oseh Shalom.” Students quickly joined in.

At one point, a student organizer called for a moment of silence to remember the hostages. He then read dozens of names of hostages, adding where they were kidnapped from. When he said that one of the hostages “was 36 when she was kidnapped from her home,” another student shouted back,

“She is 36 — is, not was.” He quickly corrected himself.

A small crowd of Muslim graduate students stood nearby, watching the rally silently. Several wore the floor-length caftans and head coverings of the devout, while others had draped keffiyehs around their shoulders.

Asked whether they felt afraid or unsafe watching the pro-Israel rally, they said no.

“The first rally did,” one said, saying he had been spit on by Jewish students.

None of them had heard of the joint statement posted Oct. 12 by Ron Hassner, a professor and faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, and Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian lecturer on Middle Eastern languages and cultures and the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine. The statement asked students to refrain from violence. But the Muslim students all said that tempers had cooled in the past two weeks, and they did not expect this or upcoming rallies to be interrupted.

“It’s media fatigue,” one of them offered.

Steve Tadelis, a professor in the Haas School of Business, addressed the crowd, saying that he had never before spoken at a rally but felt compelled now because of what he described as “blatant antisemitism” on the rise at his campus and nationwide.

“I want to acknowledge that emotions are high for everyone,” he said. “Everyone has the right to their opinion. But it is important not to confuse opinion with truth. I want to acknowledge there are many innocent residents of Gaza. At the same time, I want to point to the vitriol on this and other campuses that will not acknowledge the atrocities of Hamas.”

Decrying Wednesday’s pro-Palestinian rally for its anti-Israel tone, he pointed out that calling for the destruction of Israel means calling for the killing of Jews — millions of Jews.

“And that’s antisemitism,” he said. “Antisemitism must be confronted no matter what. By standing here together today, we voice our opposition to that.” n

A tense Berkeley campus reacts to Hamas massacre and war

continued from page 3

are experiencing.”

Separately, more than 300 UC Berkeley faculty members signed a letter, released Monday, that denounces the Hamas attack on Israel and stands in support of Jewish students on campus. Those signing the letter included Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Ben Hermalin — who signed it not as provost but as “Distinguished Professor of Economics & Business” — and Christ, who signed it as “Emeritus Professor of English.” The letter remains open for more signatures.

The 527-word letter states in part, “We condemn this violence for what it is, and we extend our deepest sympathies to Israelis and to Jews worldwide in this hour of terror and brutal devastation. It is possible to do this and simultaneously evince deep sympathy and concern for the people of Gaza as they face a major military onslaught whose impact will indeed be brutal. It is possible simultaneously to condemn unequivocally what occurred this weekend for the barbarism

it was and to advocate for justice for Palestinians. We mourn all loss of life and security in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and we pray for a swift resolution to the current violence and the return of the hostages.”

Danielle Sobkin, UC Berkeley class of 2024, said the official reactions came too late.

“It’s been over a week,” Sobkin said. “It shouldn’t be Jewish students begging administrators to take a stance and for them to finally hear that after so much has happened.”

Hannah Schlacter, a student in the class of 2024 at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, echoed that sentiment and added, “It’s one thing for faculty to sign that letter. It’s another thing for the chancellor to refuse to condemn Hamas terrorism.”

Schlacter and Sobkin co-authored an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post on Monday about their frustration with the university administration’s response.

Katz, who helped write the faculty letter, said in an email to J. that the letter came out of a need to denounce the Oct.

7 terrorism and the loss of lives on both sides and to “show support for our many Jewish students who are facing a very difficult environment from many of their peers and some of their professors on campus. We also did so because we believe it is important for Berkeley faculty to make a statement that draws clear lines on these horrific events.”

While the campus continues to feel the weight of grief and anger, there have been glimmers of hope, too.

In a separate letter sent to students on Monday, Asad Ahmed, a Berkeley professor and director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said the Center for Middle Eastern Studies “prays for peace and healing in the darkest of times. We dream of a safe and thriving Israel and Palestine.”

Rothman was grateful to read those words.

“It was a really beautiful statement to see from someone who you wouldn’t necessarily believe to be your ally,” Rothman said. “I think we have a lot more allies than we think we do.” n

‘I’m screaming for help’: Jewish students face violence at Cal

EMMA GOSS, MAYA MIRSKY & GABE STUTMAN | J. STAFF

Jewish students at UC Berkeley evacuated from a campus theater on Feb. 26 after a mass of protesters, chanting “Intifada! Intifada!” and other slogans, shattered a glass door at the venue and shut down a scheduled lecture that night by an Israeli attorney and IDF reservist.

Several students who were attending or working the event at Zellerbach Playhouse were injured, including two young women, one of whom sprained a thumb when she wrestled to keep a door shut as protesters muscled it open. Another female student reportedly was handled around her neck, leaving marks. A third student was spit on, he told J. The lecture was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Ran Bar-Yoshafat, who is a reserve combat officer in the Israel Defense Forces and was deployed in Gaza, planned to discuss international law as it pertains to Israel. “He’ll explore whether Israel violates international law, the rules of wartime conduct, and how the IDF can better protect civilians,” a social media post publicizing the event said.

The talk was conceived of as a small lecture in a classroom at Wheeler Hall, but organizers moved it at the direction of campus police for safety reasons after the anti-Zionist group Bears for Palestine, the Cal affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine, called for a protest to “shut it down,” according to Joseph Karlan, a student leader of campus pro-Israel group Tikvah and one of the event organizers.

“Shut it down: Genocidal murderers out of Berkeley,” the Bears for Palestine announcement said. It showed a picture of Bar-Yoshafat with glowing red eyes and a stamp under his face saying “murderer.”

“This individual is dangerous. Ran Bar-Yoshafat has Palestinian blood on his hands,” said the Instagram post, which got more than 2,200 likes and dozens of supportive comments. Bears for Palestine did not respond to an Instagram message from J. seeking comment.

J. interviewed a number of Berkeley students who said the incident was deeply discouraging and frightening. Videos circulated widely on social media, showing protesters outside wearing keffiyehs and masks, yelling “You can’t run! You can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” and other anti-Israel chants and banging on the glass door until it shattered. Videos also showed the students who were trying to attend the event being led down hallways — what one described to J. as an “underground tunnel of the building” — in order to safely evacuate the premises.

The incident shines a harsh spotlight on UC Berkeley amid concern that the university is not doing enough to protect Jewish students.

Even prior to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war — which has led to recurring pro-Palestinian protests that some say use intimidation tactics with violent slogans — the university was under scrutiny after a number of student groups at the law school banned speakers who support Israel. In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Education said it had opened a civil rights investigation into the university over the law school controversy.

A spokesperson for the university lambasted the conduct of the protesters in an interview with J. Tuesday.

“What happened last night was despicable,” spokesperson Dan Mogulof said.

He said property damage to the theater was still under evaluation, but he confirmed that there were broken windows and at least one broken door, which was damaged after being forced.

Mogulof pushed back on the idea that UC Berkeley was scanty with its police protection. There were 19 officers present, the university said, including the chief of campus police.

“The size of the crowd, the size of what was a mob, and the willingness and readiness of that mob to engage in violent behavior” were shocking, Mogulof said. “We are deeply disturbed by what happened. It was a terrible experience for the audience.” Jewish students related their experiences in interviews Tuesday.

Senior Vida Keyvanfar, a co-president of Tikvah, was responsible for checking student IDs against a list and stood outside the entrance to Zellerbach.

Keyvanfar said Tikvah worked with police for hours prior to the event to make a plan for student safety.

“We had a ton of protocols,” she said, including allowing in only those students who had RSVP’d.

Members of Tikvah and Students Supporting Israel, among several organizers of the event, arrived at Zellerbach with the speaker around 5:30 p.m., according to Karlan. He said the protesters convened around 5:15 p.m. elsewhere on campus because they didn’t know the event had been moved from Wheeler Hall.

“Around 6:15 protesters heard of the location change, and it was blasted on social media. They came to the new location and started shouting,” he said.

“They found us,” said Keyvanfar. “I was the first to notify our security team: ‘OK, they’re coming. I can see them.’ It was a gigantic mob of people stomping, marching and screaming,” she said.

UC Berkeley estimated there were about 200 protesters who “began to surround the building.”

“I was getting calls left and right from students who had RSVP’d,” Keyvanfar said. “They were saying ‘I can’t get through the crowd. How do we get let in?’ I was trying to identify ways for students to get through this crowd safely, which isn’t my job. It should be the job of the school and the police to make sure students are able to get where they want to go safely.”

She said protesters told her they were on the list, but weren’t.

They demanded to be let in.

“They were surrounding the table that I was standing at, yelling and screaming. There was spit flying left and right,” said Keyvanfar, who described herself as a “small girl.” “I was pretty nervous, surrounded by this crowd, but I was going to keep doing my job.”

She said a university administrator advised her to shut her laptop, worried that the protesters would take a photo of the RSVP list. “They’re looking at the names,” the administrator said, according to Keyvanfar.

At that point it was determined that it was “too unsafe to stand out there,” she said. “There were protesters to the front of me, to the side of me and behind me. I was getting kind of swallowed.” The whole time, Keyvanfar worried about her younger sister, a freshman, who was inside.

As Keyvanfar moved inside for her safety, she got a message that said the protesters had made it inside the building. The students had “gained unauthorized entry into the building,”

Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement Tuesday.

“I’m running to go see if my sister is OK,” Keyvanfar said. The protesters were “banging on the windows and the doors. Eventually, glass broke.”

Keyvanfar saw another door being opened. She ran to try to pull the door shut, but it was too late. “I see that the protesters from outside had recognized that there’s an access point.”

As she held onto the door, a protester stuck out his foot to prop it open. “I’m trying to shut the door, but his foot is there. It’s just me trying to pull the door shut” against a group of protesters pulling it from the outside, she said.

“And I’m screaming for help from the police. And I’m screaming for someone to come help me.”

She said the police were barricading another door and didn’t come right away. Eventually the protesters “were able to rip me out of the door,” she said. “They ripped the door out of my hand.”

She fell out into the crowd, she said, and injured her hand. The next day she said she was told she suffered a thumb sprain and began wearing a brace.

Elijah Feldman, a junior who belongs to AEPi, the Jewish fraternity, was also there to help with the event.

“There weren’t many cops, but everyone was trying to keep them out,” he said of the protesters. “They got into doors that were locked from the outside by trying to push through.”

He said he was called slurs and spit at.

“I personally was verbally attacked, being called a Jew and dirty Jew, with a very nasty connotation,” he said. I was also called a Nazi and spit at. All in my face.”

He said that the whole experience left him “in shock and with adrenaline pumping.”

One photo published on social media showed a young woman with several red marks around her neck.

“One of the rioters grabbed her neck,” Tikvah’s Karlan said. Keyvanfar and Rabbi Gil Leeds of UC Berkeley’s Chabad said she had been “choked,” though J. could not independently verify that claim.

Keyvanfar said the experience was disturbing in part because the demonstrators had their faces covered and it seemed like they could do whatever they wanted.

“When I was standing out there, when they were surrounding me, and they were yelling in my face to let them in, I realized that there were no repercussions for what they were doing. Because there’s no way to identify these people,” she said.

continued on page 6

BAY AREA UC BERKELEY AFTER OCTOBER 7

Mob violence at UC Berkeley shows free speech doesn’t exist

DANIEL SOLOMON | GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

At UC Berkeley on Feb. 26, Students for Justice in Palestine promised a reprise of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, hanging from the campus’ main entrance a pledge to “Flood Sather Gate” — a reference to “Al-Aqsa Flood,” the Hamas code name for its rampage in southern Israel.

The latest target was Ran Bar-Yoshafat, an Israeli attorney and a reserve combat officer in the Israel Defense Forces who was invited to speak at an event that evening on campus. Members of Bears for Palestine, the local SJP affiliate named for the university mascot, made good on their vow by rioting, breaking into Zellerbach Playhouse and forcing the speaker and dozens of people, including me, to evacuate via an underground tunnel for their own safety.

The people who were forced to flee apparently forfeited their right to security after committing the unpardonable sin of coming to hear an Israeli speak on campus. The university, which has touted its commitment to free speech while actually condoning a climate of antisemitic intimidation, did little to protect the safety of the speaker and audience — and even less to protect their free speech rights.

Parading through the campus in a fashion worthy of the finest paramilitary, the pro-Palestinian rioters exulted in their victory.

This latest episode at UC Berkeley caps months of harassment — and on occasion, violent outbursts— from wannabe Hamasniks. On Oct. 7, the day of the Hamas pogrom, Bears for Palestine released a statement praising its “comrades in blood and arms” for their operations “in the so-called ‘Gaza envelope.’” The same organization then mounted demonstrations at which participants clamored to “globalize the intifada” and “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”

The university’s response to these events has felt tepid at best. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ acknowledged in early November that “fear is being generated by the rhetoric used at some of the recent protests on campus” — a turn of phrase that was telling in its use of passive voice and refusal to point to culprits.

The mob savored its win in a triumphal march through

the campus.

She did address antisemitism. “I am appalled by and condemn any condoning of or making excuses for terrorism, by stereotyping, threats, and the repetition of false, damaging tropes about the Jewish people. I reject calls for Israel’s elimination,” she stated.

But Christ’s both sides-ism in her statement included the condemnation of the “harassment, threats and doxxing that have targeted our Palestinian students and their supporters.” She even noted that one ought not to equate pro-Palestinian campus protests with support for terrorism (which seems at

students to shut down the event with Bar-Yoshafat, plastering his photo on social media, falsely blasting him as a “genocidal murderer” and as “dangerous.” Perhaps in reference to other Jews … er, Zionists … at UC Berkeley, Bears for Palestine exclaimed: “Genocidal murderers out of Berkeley.”

I had to do some sleuthing to find the event, as the venue was changed at the last minute to try to avoid clashes. When I arrived at Zellerbach Playhouse, a few anxious undergraduates were checking IDs at the door. A sparse police cordon was also present at the entrance. Ultimately, only about two dozen attendees were able to enter the building prior to the disturbances.

odds with the declarations of these self-same protesters).

Christ closed her statement with a lofty call to honor the institution’s “long-lived and unwavering” dedication to free speech.

The university’s dedication to free speech has since been on display — in the X feed of history professor Ussama Makdisi, who posted that “I could have been one of those who broke the siege on October 7.” That dedication has also been seen in signs on campus depicting the State of Israel as a snake and calling on people “to unite against Zionism.”

At UC Berkeley, this principled stand on the First Amendment has included allowing pro-Palestinian groups to block campus entrances for hours at a time, as disabled students, including me as someone who is legally blind, have been forced to traverse through dirt and puddles.

Pro-Palestinian activists often lament a supposed “Palestine exception” when it comes to respect for the First Amendment. But on Berkeley’s campus Monday night, the “Israel exception” was in full view. Bears for Palestine called on

Before the event could begin at 6:30 p.m., the “Free Palestine” mob smashed the glass at the entrance, pried open a door to let more allies enter and then broke into the auditorium.

Antisemitism is a lethal passion, and this was evident on Monday night. The police, no doubt hindered by the university’s restrictive rules of engagement, attempted briefly to block the rioters’ way. In all of five minutes, the event was canceled and a dean arrived to escort us out via a subterranean tunnel.

The mob savored its win in a triumphal march through the campus and a series of online posts. The university, in its pusillanimous glory, dispatched this email to the entire campus: “The event is canceled; when exercising your right to free speech, please take care of yourself and others.” The message could not be clearer: Intimidation and the specter of mob violence carry the day at this institution. In one evening, the university contradicted four months of its own dross.

There need to be consequences for students who foment mobs and for the administrators who enable them. The chancellor plans to leave her post at the end of this semester, so calling for her resignation is a moot point (though she should not continue in office a day longer). Universities that persist in absurd calls for “both sides” to remain civil and uphold free speech, while allowing rioters to exercise a heckler’s veto against Jewish and pro-Israel students, must be held to account. n

‘I’m screaming for help’: Jewish students face violence at UC Berkeley Israel talk

continued from page 5

“Something clicked in my brain. I was like, wow, they really could do anything to anyone here — and get away with it.”

Danielle Sobkin, co-president of the pro-Israel campus group Bears for Israel and one of the organizers who helped bring Bar-Yoshafat to campus, told J. she was walking toward Zellerbach on Monday evening to attend the lecture when friends began frantically messaging and calling her, telling her to turn back for her own safety.

“All I see is dozens of messages flooding in and all of these group chats, phone calls, texts,” Sobkin said. “We were expecting a situation of protests to arise, but none of us imagined it would escalate this fast, this quickly,” she added.

Though campus police officers were present at the event, they appeared to be overwhelmed by the size of the demonstration. Audio of the campus police scanner uploaded to YouTube revealed a chaotic situation. Officers first report around 100 to 125 protesters outside Wheeler Hall, the original venue, then some 150 going inside Wheeler to block the room.

After finding out about the venue change, protesters walked to the plaza outside Zellerbach.

“We have a crowd at the door on the west side,” an officer says. “I’m trying to clear them away from the door.”

“I don’t see how we’re going to clear this,” another says.

At one point an officer describes a door that’s been opened and protesters inside.

“I need more people at this gate,” an officer says, sounding alarmed. “We’re going to lose this.”

“We need cover!” another yells.

Later, police officers confirm that the attendees have been safely moved out of Zellerbach but that protesters have reached the stage and lobby. Officers report vandalism and windows broken.

“We approach events like this with two priorities: to do what we can so that the event can go forward, and to do what we can to safeguard student safety and well-being,” Christ said in her statement. “Last night, despite our efforts and the ample number of police officers, it was not possible to do both given the size of the crowd and the threat of violence.” n

Israeli speaker whose Berkeley event was canceled amid violence draws protest at LA Holocaust Museum speech

JACOB GURVIS | JTA

LOS ANGELES — As a member of the Israeli military who frequently speaks on Israel’s behalf, Ran Bar-Yoshafat is used to being heckled by anti-Israel protesters, especially on college campuses.

But he says what happened to him at the University of California, Berkeley on Feb. 26 — where a planned appearance was canceled because of a protest that turned violent — was on a different level.

“They’re giving [a] prize to the violent side, and basically shutting down the person who wants to speak,” Bar-Yoshafat told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I didn’t get a chance to even say, ‘Hello, my name is Ran.’”

Bar-Yoshafat’s scheduled appearance on Feb. 29 at Los Angeles’ Holocaust museum, three days after the Berkeley incident, took place without interruption — although several dozen protesters amassed outside and later clashed with pro-Israel demonstrators who arrived.

“We are not protesting the Holocaust museum,” one of the leaders of the protest announced over a loudspeaker as the group began its demonstration. “We are protesting an IDF soldier.”

She made sure the group knew Bar-Yoshafat’s name, then led chants that included, “Yoshafat, you can’t hide, you committed genocide.”

Israeli soldiers and former soldiers have faced protests around the world since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

In England, a university rabbi who left to join the reserves faced death threats upon his return. In Canada, a champion athlete had an International Women’s Day speech canceled over her long-ago IDF service. And events featuring IDF soldiers organized by pro-Israel campus organizations have drawn protests at colleges and universities across the United States, including at Georgetown University and SUNY New Paltz this week.

In addition to being a reservist who recently spent 100 days fighting in Gaza, Bar-Yoshafat is an attorney and longtime advocate for Israel who has spoken on its behalf in the United States for decades. (He is also deputy director of the

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters faced off outside a planned speech by Ran BarYoshafat, the Israeli reservist and advocate whose speech at the University of California, Berkeley, was derailed, Los Angeles, Feb. 29, 2024. (Photo/JTA-Jacob Gurvis)

Kohelet Policy Forum, the conservative Jerusalem think tank behind the judicial overhaul that divided Israelis last year.)

So he has had experience facing protests before. He recalled an incident that occurred at the University of California, Davis about 12 years ago, when protesters interrupted a speech he gave. He said the university handled it smoothly and allowed the event to proceed.

“People don’t have to like me,” he said. “They can come and have a walkout, which is, I think, immature, but they’re allowed to do so.”

What happened at Berkeley, he said, was different. There, his talk was derailed after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the venue, smashed windows and, according to some accounts, physically attacked students who had come for the event. The setting for Bar-Yoshafat’s speech had been moved, but the university police decided to evacuate the space at the last minute, saying that they could not guarantee students’ safety. UC Berkeley Police are now investigating the incident.

Bar-Yoshafat said he was “surprised by the magnitude of their violence” and had expected Berkeley to be better prepared with security.

“They physically attacked students, spat on them, verbally attacking and physically assaulting them,” he said. “And the university was punishing me. I didn’t say a word.”

Berkeley, where student activists in the 1960s formed a Free Speech Movement advocating for unconstrained political speech on campus and touching off a wave of student civil disobedience, has seen multiple instances of unrest in recent years over right-wing speakers coming to the school. Protests of far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos in 2017 caused a reported $100,000 in damage, while six people were arrested while protesting a 2019 speech by the commentator Ann Coulter.

Ultimately, Bar-Yoshafat held a small talk at a different location in Berkeley. And on Thursday night, he addressed about 70 people at the L.A. Holocaust museum.

Jen Stock, the L.A. regional director for Club Z, the

Zionist youth organization that put on the event, told JTA that the lecture’s schedule had been altered to prevent museum-goers from encountering the anticipated protests.

The museum had its usual security staff on hand, and a group of LAPD officers arrived moments before a pro-Palestinian protest began in the park directly outside the museum. Attendees had to be checked in by security in order to enter the building.

The protesters, some of whom represented the Palestinian Youth Movement organization, arrived bearing Palestinian flags, signs and megaphones. Many wore keffiyehs and other face coverings, while one carried a baby doll painted with fake blood.

The group of roughly two to three dozen protesters began chanting variations of “Free Palestine” and anti-Israel phrases, some of which specifically named Bar-Yoshafat and U.S. President Joe Biden.

Tensions rose when a smaller group of pro-Israel counterprotestors arrived, waving Israeli and American flags. The two sides began yelling at each other, calling each other Nazis, terrorists and obscenities.

One pro-Palestinian protester, who declined to share his name, said he is a U.S. military veteran and is fed up with American support for Israel.

“How in the world can the U.S. support killing women and children?” he asked. “This s— is unforgivable.”

An Israeli counter-protester, who also declined to share his name, said the pro-Palestinian activists had been brainwashed and claimed without evidence that they were protesting for money.

“They’ve never been to Gaza, “ he said. “They’re just getting paid to be here.”

A few times throughout the roughly two-hour protest, members of the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli camps grew heated, though there was no violence beyond the occasional shove. LAPD officers watched from outside the museum, shining flashlights on people when they got physical.

Michael Weintraub, a Los Angeles local who attended Bar-Yoshafat’s speech, said he was aware of the incident at Berkeley, and called the protesters outside the L.A. event “misguided.”

“They have an agenda that allows them to see things that are almost make-believe,” he said.

Bar-Yoshafat said the string of Israeli soldiers having events canceled, moved online or disrupted was an issue of free speech — one that he would be carrying with him as he returns home.

“I thought I was going to come here and share my experience in Gaza,” he said. “I feel like when I go back to Israel, I’m going to share my experience from here in America.” n

University police release photos of five suspects from Feb. 26 ‘riot’ at UC Berkeley theater

GABE STUTMAN | J. STAFF

Campus police at UC Berkeley released photos of five people suspected of committing “one or more criminal acts” at a violent protest where an Israeli reserve combat officer was scheduled to speak Feb. 26. Police are asking for public assistance to identify the individuals.

The photos, taken at night, show blurry images of five people, three of whom are wearing face masks. About 200 demonstrators showed up outside an on-campus theater where the “riot” ensued and eventually shut down the event, according to the University of California Police Department.

“Members of the crowd forced their way into the building, injured guests and police officers, and caused property damage,” the UCPD press release stated. “Two incidents were classified as hate crimes.”

A Feb. 26 police crime log of incidents recorded during the protest listed misdemeanors including trespassing, riot, battery on a peace officer/emergency personnel, battery on a person, and obstructing or resisting an officer or emergency med tech. It also cited two injuries and felony vandalism. However, campus police crime logs do not constitute official charges.

Video shared widely on social media showed demonstrators outside Zellerbach Playhouse pounding on the

“Whether it’s a Muslim student in a hijab, or a Jewish student in a kippah, everyone deserves the right to be physically safe on our campuses.”

glass entrance until it broke. As protesters forced their way into the venue, Jewish students and the speaker were shuttled through a back exit and an underground hallway to evacuate the building safely.

Two Jewish students reported injuries. Senior Vida Keyvanfar said she was flung down while trying to barricade a door, spraining her thumb, and freshman Brooke Resnik said she was grabbed around her neck. A third student, junior Elijah Feldman, said he was called slurs and spat at.

The protest was organized by Bears for Palestine, the Cal affiliate of the anti-Zionist campus organization

Students for Justice in Palestine. Chancellor Carol Christ told J. in a March 13 interview that Bears for Palestine is under investigation for possible sanction.

During the same interview, Christ said that any disciplinary investigation into student conduct — such as suspension or expulsion — would wait until the conclusion

“Members of the crowd forced their way into the building, injured guests and police officers, and caused property damage.”

student conduct process is irrelevant to them.”

If Bears for Palestine is sanctioned, it would not be the first SJP-affiliated chapter to face disciplinary action since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war.

In October, the chancellor of Florida’s state universities directed university presidents to “deactivate”SJP chapters for what officials considered to be support for Hamas, a terrorist group. Brandeis University announced it would no longer recognize its SJP chapter because it “openly supports Hamas,” according to a November statement from president Ron Liebowitz. SJP branches at Columbia University and George Washington University were also temporarily suspended.

Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor for communications, told J. in a series of text messages on Tuesday that campus police operate independently of the Cal administration “in order to protect the integrity of the investigative work.”

of the criminal probe. The identities of the five suspects are not known, including whether they are university students.

“A lot of people don’t understand that these two investigations have to be sequential,” Christ said two weeks ago. “First, the criminal investigation takes place. I have no idea whether the people that allegedly committed criminal violations were students or not. And if they weren’t students, this

Asked whether a student would be expelled if convicted of a hate crime, Mogulof replied, “We do dismiss students when they violate our anti-discrimination policy, and a hate crime would certainly constitute a violation of that sort.”

Bears for Palestine has not responded to J. requests for comment. In a statement published on its Instagram page two days after the protest, the group lashed out at Israel and what it called “Zionist communities at UC Berkeley.” The group asserted that its Feb. 26 protest of Ran Bar-Yoshafat, an Israeli attorney and reserve combat officer who served in Gaza after Oct. 7, was wholly warranted and that his presence posed a “significant threat to the safety and well-being of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.”

Bar-Yoshafat returned to speak on campus three weeks later, under heavy police presence and little protest. n

BERKELEY

In wake of chaos, UC Berkeley Jewish students say they feel demoralized and angry

LEA LOEB | J. STAFF

A week after anti-Israel demonstrators nearly incited a riot outside a UC Berkeley theater, some Jewish students on the school’s campus are feeling depressed, ostracized and confused.

“I’m too anxious and sad to go into my departmental building,” said “David,” a first-year student who, like others J. interviewed, would only speak on the condition he be identified using a pseudonym, fearing for his safety and possible academic reper-

Jewish experience on campus, they nevertheless reflect a growing sense among some students that the university feels less comfortable for Jews than it once did.

The students shared their stories on the first day of “apartheid week,” with scheduled events “surrounding the history of Palestinian struggle,” according to the Bears for Palestine.

Daniel Solomon, a Ph.D. history student who has been vocal about the climate for

cussions. “I have anxiety every time I walk past Sather Gate. I feel I’m too anxious and sad to be in class.”

David described his experience at the university as a “trainwreck.” He said he’s been subjected to antisemitic rhetoric from a professor and other students on campus and on social media. He does not identify as a Zionist and now feels he does not fit in anywhere on campus, so much so that he is considering leaving the school.

“I feel harrowingly lonely, because it really feels like there’s no one to speak to about this, especially because I don’t feel super comfortable hacking through conversations with Jews who are much more right-wing than me,” David said. “It’s so depressing.”

On March 4, a week after protesters shut down a talk at Zellerbach Playhouse by an Israeli reservist and lawyer, forcing their way into the building and injuring some Jewish students, J. met with a small group of students who described similar feelings of anxiety on a campus now under federal discrimination investigation for its handling of antisemitism. While their sentiments do not represent the totality of

Jews on Berkeley’s campus, said every time he has raised concerns to colleagues and administrators in his department about antisemitism, anti-Israel comments or calls to action, he becomes more ostracized.

“Each time I point out communications that are offensive, I’m accused of being uncivil,” said Solomon. “And I said to a department administrator, ‘This is, like, Orwellian. You’re telling me that I have to be civil as they promote barbarity.’”

Hannah Schlacter, a second-year MBA student from Chicago and a member of Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, believes the failure of the university’s administration to effectively condemn violence against Jewish students in the past led to the incident at Zellerbach Playhouse. Schlacter submitted a 33-page testimony to Congress for a Feb. 29 hearing about campus antisemitism. “Before Feb. 26, I did not feel safe outwardly expressing my Jewish identity at Berkeley,” she told J. “After Feb. 26, the underlying root cause of that sentiment continues. By and large, the reason the riot happened is because when you don’t call out hate against Jews, it continues to happen.”

“Rachel,” who is 18 and a freshman, says the school has reached a “tipping point.”

“[Protesters are] saying, ‘globalize the intifada,’ which Jews understand as a call for violence,” she said. “And that’s not how it was treated by the administration. And now it’s crossed the line into violence where people were assaulted, and that’s a crime.”

Rachel was born in Israel but grew up in Southern California. She did a gap year volunteering in Jerusalem before starting at Berkeley in the fall. She lives in one of the on-campus dorms and says students on her floor are vocally anti-Israel. She often chooses not to be visibly Jewish or display items that identify her as Israeli.

“It’s not like I feel like on campus I’m going to be attacked or harassed, but it is kind of always in the back of my mind,” she

“How bad does it have to get before something is done?”

Rachel, UC Berkeley freshman

“How bad does it have to get before something is done?” she said. “How serious of an injury do they need to see before they’re going to acknowledge that this is a problem?”

Signs of the heightened tensions on campus aren’t hard to find. Sather Gate is an iconic landmark that many students pass through to attend class. For at least three weeks, anti-Israel activists have been demonstrating there daily, displaying Palestinian flags and posters and playing a 10-minute, amplified audio recording on repeat. The audio features a continuous drone sound, the voices of several people purporting to be besieged Gazans and a mock Israeli announcing that bombs will be dropped, followed by the sound of an explosion and screaming.

Demonstrators said that the audio was sourced from “many places,” including Red Crescent, the humanitarian organization that services hospitals and provides emergency medicine and ambulance services in Palestinian areas. The recording, they said, was edited together by Cal students.

When this J. reporter began to film the action at Sather Gate, demonstrators wearing masks blocked the camera with a kaffiyeh.

said. “In conversations with people, it’s like, ‘Do I mention that I’m Israeli? Do I bring my gap year up at all? Is that going to make the conversation go in a direction I don’t want it to go?’”

Rachel said statements from the university and its pursuit of a criminal investigation are a good response to the Feb. 26 incident, as long as they are followed up by action.

David, the first-year student, reported being harassed in a similar way on the same day. According to a statement he made to a professor and shared with J., as he walked toward the gate, a demonstrator began to film him. When he asked why, she refused to answer and was soon joined by five or six others who surrounded him, circling and recording him.

“This is when antisemitism gets physical,” David said. “I am now too scared for my safety to walk through Sather Gate to get to Dwinelle.” Dwinelle Hall is the second-largest building on campus. Despite the fear and unease among Jewish students, Rachel said she is glad so many are continuing to show up and not backing down.

“It’s really important that there is that strong Jewish community on campus, and not to let [aggressive actors] push us out,” said Rachel. “To say, like, ‘No. You can be hateful, but we’re still going to be here.’” n

Does Cal have an antisemitism problem? J. sits down with UC Berkeley’s chancellor

GABE STUTMAN | J. STAFF

Two weeks after a violent protest shut down a UC Berkeley event hosted by pro-Israel Jewish students and forced them to flee for safety, J. received a request from the university for a sit-down interview with Chancellor Carol Christ.

Christ, who assumed office in 2017, was initially criticized by some in the Jewish community for her response to the Feb. 26 riot. In a statement published the next day, co-signed by Executive Vice Chancellor Benjamin Hermalin, Christ strongly criticized the protest for violating campus rules, but did not mention antisemitism or Jewish students. A week later, she and Hermalin published a second statement noting that Jewish students reported being subjected “to overtly antisemitic expression.”

Since Oct. 7, the campus has become an ideological battleground more intense than at any time in recent memory, centered on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The protests began soon after the Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel. By Oct. 16, more than 100 pro-Palestinian students were protesting outside UC Berkeley’s iconic Sather Gate accusing Israel of genocide.

In November, a progressive Oakland city councilor, who is Jewish, was disinvited from speaking because he supports Israel. Meanwhile, UC Berkeley is still dealing with reputational fallout from 2022 after student groups at its prestigious law school pledged not to host speakers who support Zionism.

Some of the protests have turned ugly. Most recently, on Feb. 26, demonstrators

Christ addressed a number of topics, including what went wrong on Feb. 26, whether hate speech is permitted at UC Berkeley, whether shouting “intifada” at Jewish students is permissible and whether antisemitism is a problem on campus.

(Note: Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor for communications and a board member of UC Berkeley Hillel, was also present for the interview and participated throughout.)

“The law for public institutions in the United States is very permissive of speech that we may find abhorrent.”

Cal Chancellor Carol Christ

stormed the theater where an Israeli attorney and reserve military officer was scheduled to speak. The protesters overtook police and caused minor injuries to Jewish students. The demonstration forced the event to shut down and required attendees to flee through an underground hallway.

In an hourlong interview on March 13,

The interview has been edited for clarity.

J.: You have stated publicly that something went wrong on Feb. 26, and I’m curious what you think that was?

CC: You know, it’s really hard for me to put myself in other people’s heads. Because obviously, I don’t know.

I think one of the things that went wrong is — we have a major events policy that takes unusual measures and precautions. The organization sponsoring the event has to ask and has to present a security plan. But this particular event didn’t fall under that policy because they anticipated having fewer than 50 people there. They can just go in the classroom reservation system

and reserve a classroom.

So we didn’t know about the event until 24 hours beforehand. That’s on us. We really have to change our policies and procedures. So when there is an event that doesn’t fall under our major events policy, where I think you anticipate an audience of over 200, that we are alerted to it and can make the appropriate preparations.

So if you had known about it in advance, or it fell under the major events category, would there have been additional police presence?

CC: Two things would have happened. First of all, we would have had it in a different venue. We changed the venue of the event just a few hours before the event. And it turned out, in retrospect, not to have been the best venue. It was better than the original one. But it wasn’t the best one, in terms of ability to protect it.

And we would have had time to hire additional security before the event. But you need lead time, and quite a bit of lead time, to do that.

I know that police are investigating some of the activity from that evening. But were there violations of university policy in addition to potential crimes? And if so, what violations are you

looking at?

CC: Well, let me explain that, first of all, a lot of people don’t understand that these two investigations have to be sequential. First, the criminal investigation takes place. I have no idea whether the people that allegedly committed criminal violations were students or not. And if they weren’t students, this student conduct process is irrelevant to them.

Also, we never do a student conduct investigation until the police have completed the criminal investigation, because we don’t in any way want to interfere with the criminal investigation.

Then, when the police finish their investigation, we look at both who the individuals are who are involved, whether they’re students and whether there’s a violation of our student conduct policies.

But those two processes are always sequential. And they’re also confidential.

The Anti-Defamation League and others are calling on the university to take measures against students, after, I suppose, the criminal investigation is complete. To take some kind of disciplinary action, either against students or against Bears for Palestine, the campus group that organized the protest.

CC: The organizations are not under criminal investigation.

That investigation and deliberation about the organizations, and whether any sanction is called for against them, is going on right now.

Broadly speaking, does hate speech violate campus policy in any way?

CC: It’s actually a complicated question. I’m going to sound like those ladies in front of Congress.

So hate speech in an abstract context is protected by free speech. I could say something like, you know, in the context of a dinner party at my house, I could say, ‘I hate the Chinese.’ And that would be protected if there weren’t individual Chinese people there that were threatened by that speech.

If my speech creates a harmful atmosphere that detracts from the educational benefits that a student might receive — if I said that very same thing, ‘I hate the Chinese,’ in a classroom in which they were Chinese students — that would not be protected. And I would be subject to discipline.

The thing that determines what is not protected is if it is understood as a threat to the people hearing the speech.

“If my speech creates a harmful atmosphere that detracts from the educational benefits that a student might receive — that would not be protected.”

So it would have to be understood as a threat? Let’s say, for example, someone posts on Snapchat something overtly Islamophobic, calling Muslim people terrorists, and 300 people see it. Would that violate campus policy?

CC: No, it would be protected free speech. We’ve actually had instances of that. And the only thing we can do is if a person makes a comment like that, on a website, for example, that attaches itself to the University of California, they can’t do that. But if they’re using some sort of vehicle in the marketplace like Snapchat, they can say an alarming range of really abhorrent things.

There were groups of protesters at the Feb. 26 protest chanting, “intifada, intifada,” essentially at Jewish students who were attending the event. Would that violate school policy?

CC: I don’t think so.

Despite “intifada” referring to “uprising” and associated with a series of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings and so forth?

DM: I’ve asked the question myself. And I’ve asked it from none other than [Law School Dean] Erwin Chemerinsky, who knows a thing or two about the Constitution. In order for there to be incitement—

Sorry, you wouldn’t think that chanting “intifada” outside of an event would interfere with the education of— DM: Let me finish.

OK.

DM: In order to cross the line to incitement, it has to create an imminent threat of mob level violence. That chant has been heard around the campus quite often since Oct. 7. And it hasn’t.

As we’ve said before, we’ve had dozens of events without any violence, without any outbreak. We couldn’t go to a court. We would be sued, and we would lose. And I think the last thing we want is for something like that to happen. We don’t want to make martyrs and heroes of people who would sue the university.

We’ve told students, if you believe that was harassment or discrimination, you report that to the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, and it will be investigated, we promise, and it will be responded to.

What about the actions of that group on Feb. 26 violated campus policy?

CC: Well, damage to property.

OK, so is it just the damage to the window?

CC: No, they also damaged the door and pushed through the door. The speaker and the audience both had to be evacuated for their own safety. So that violates campus policy, not allowing a speaker to speak. There were claims of physical assaults, as well as directed hate speech at individuals. And so those things all violate campus policy, as well as the law.

Chancellor, a more general question, do you think discussion of antisemitism belongs in the same general category as discussions around anti-Black racism, anti-Asian racism, transphobia, homophobia and other forms of

students, who make up a pretty sizable chunk of Berkeley students, should exist in that matrix?

CC: Yeah, that’s a really interesting question. And certainly the office of equity and inclusion, the Division of Equity and Inclusion, understands both Jewish students and Muslim students as part of their charge. They are frequently present at events, frequently talk with those communities. So it’s not as if they don’t think of Jewish students as a distinct ethnic group whose sense of belonging isn’t part of the mission of their office. That’s certainly true. But they don’t have a particular office that’s connected to the Jewish community.

However, there are resources that the Jewish community has. There’s a center for Israel studies, the Center for Jewish Studies. There’s Hillel. So some of the community-building work that these particular

bigotry? Does it occupy that same space at Berkeley?

CC: Absolutely. But one of the things that I’ve learned is each of these forms of bigotry is somewhat different, given the context, the historical context of the bigotry. But they absolutely belong, all in the same category.

Berkeley has a division of equity and inclusion, as most universities do. You have Centers for Educational Justice and Community Engagement. The website describes it as a “collaborative of offices and centers that advocate for, build capacity with and dialogue among and across diverse communities.”

There’s an office for African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Chicanx students, an office for gender equity, Native American equity, and something called the multicultural community center. Do you think an office for Jewish

some of our other groups.

So you don’t think there’s a specific problem with antisemitism at Cal that’s unique?

DAN MOGULOF: There’s no doubt we’re receiving a lot of reports from students — of just sort of passing in the hallways, things being said to them. I mean, things that we see in society as a whole, yes, we are also seeing on the campus. The campus doesn’t have a wall up between it and society.

Perhaps I should have phrased the question differently. Chancellor, I wasn’t saying, is the university responding inadequately to antisemitism. I’m asking, is there a problem originating from students or perhaps faculty as well that contributes to a special atmosphere of antisemitism at the university? Or is it simply one form of prejudice among many that has been blown out of proportion in the media?

CC: I don’t think either of your two alternatives is right. I think it’s a form of prejudice that has taken a particularly anguished and painful form because of the current conflict in the Middle East.

I think it’s unique, or different from the other kinds of prejudice that I see at Berkeley in that there’s a kind of … what should I say … a political and historical story that those supporting the Palestinian cause often embrace. I think it’s a wrong story.

But I think not putting it in its current historical and world context leads you to think of it as simply and merely bigotry. And I don’t think it’s simply and merely bigotry. It’s gotten attached and complicated by very strong political opinions and a very strong political narrative, which you can agree with or not agree with.

I don’t think it’s a kind of clear issue that is just about antisemitism. I don’t think you can separate it from people’s extraordinarily strong views about what’s going on in the Middle East.

programs in equity and inclusion do is carried out by other kinds of units on the Berkeley campus.

Do you think that there’s a problem with antisemitism on campus at Berkeley?

CC: Yeah, that’s a hard question to answer. I think that there are problems with lots of different kinds of prejudices. On the Berkeley campus, I hear from Black students that they feel that they’re victims of prejudice. I hear from Muslim students that they feel they’re victims of prejudice. We live in a world in which there is a lot of prejudice and bigotry. Asian students often talk to me about the prejudice that they feel. So I don’t think antisemitism is unique in the kind of bigotry that students suffer. What is different about it is this national narrative that’s gotten attached to it. That really complicates the situation in a way that’s quite different from

Understood. Even though many students do describe it, experience it, as antisemitism.

CC: Yeah, no. I mean, it’s incredibly, incredibly sad to me. But yes, I agree.

OK. This might be a very easy question, chancellor.

DM: Oh, no, that would be a change!

I keep seeing activists saying that “Zionists are not welcome at Berkeley.” And I’m wondering: Are Zionists welcome at Berkeley?

CC: Of course Zionists are welcome at Berkeley.

DM: I was just in the chancellor’s office yesterday, and she didn’t throw me out! n

Read the full interview at tinyurl.com/christtranscript.

Marching in silence, UC Berkeley students and faculty demand safety for Jews in ‘unbearable’ environment

SUE FISHKOFF | CORRESPONDENT

It was an unusual protest on a campus known for the unusual.

On the morning of March 11, some 250 Jewish students, faculty and allies gathered at Zellerbach Playhouse at UC Berkeley, most of them dressed in white, and then marched — in total silence, as organizers had asked — to demand safety for Jews on campus.

Two weeks earlier, on Feb. 26, an angry mob had stormed the same building, broken glass at the entrance, prevented a visiting Israeli attorney from speaking and assaulted Jewish students who had to be escorted to safety via an underground tunnel. It was a turning point for Jewish students, many of whom have felt unwelcome and unheard on campus since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 in Israel that launched the ongoing war and a global spike in antisemitism.

University police have begun investigating the mob violence on Feb. 26, and the administration has released statement after statement, but none that promised enough action to satisfy the Jewish students who showed up for Monday’s march. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education has announced a federal investigation into how UC Berkeley is handling antisemitism on campus.

Some of the same Jews who were present on Feb. 26 joined the march on March 11 to demand that Cal’s administration ensure student safety, which they say is under constant threat. An anti-Israel demonstration has lasted for weeks at Sather Gate, with a wide pro-Palestinian banner blocking the iconic arch.

“Before Oct. 7 I was cautious, but now I’m scared to walk around campus,” said sophomore Leah Cohen, 20. “I got yelled at by someone who saw my ‘Bring Them Home’ necklace,” she said, referring to chains with dog tags that reference the hostages still held in Gaza.

MBA student Hannah Schlacter, 28, one of the organizers of the March 11 march, testified recently before a congressional roundtable on campus antisemitism.

“We are protesting the Berkeley administration, demanding that it enforce its policies,” she told J. “That’s why we are marching to Sather Gate. Students are violating campus policy by blocking the gate, yet the administration is aggressively choosing not to enforce its policy consistently. That sends a message to student groups that the rules don’t apply to them.”

Charlotte Aaron, who is 28 and pursuing dual master’s degrees in public policy and law, agreed.

(PHOTO/AARON

“For the past four weeks, Jews have been unable to cross freely through the university’s most iconic site, Sather Gate, where the Free Speech Movement began,” he said, referring to the weeks-long barrier at Sather set up by anti-Israel activists, some of whom harass or photograph Jewish and Israeli students passing by, according to students who have been so accosted.

Quoting from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who famously marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s to demand freedom and safety for Black Americans,

Noting that the last time she marched in a protest was in eighth grade, Aaron told J. that she has spent two years working with Cal’s administration to articulate the problems faced by Jewish students, even serving on the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Life and Campus Climate.

“It’s unbearable to learn in an atmosphere so hostile to Jews,” said one student, who was among the 250 marchers. (PHOTO/AARON LEVY-WOLINS)

“I can honestly say we’ve tried everything,” she said. “Their inaction is saying it’s OK. They understand that Jewish students generally follow the rules. What we get for that is being run over. We’re here today to say: You need to enforce your policies.”

As the march got underway, Jewish history professor Ethan Katzreminded the crowd why they were there.

Katz suggested that Heschel “could hardly imagine that 60 years later it would be hard for Jewish students to cross their campus. Battles my generation believed were won must sadly be fought again.”

Jewish students and supporters walked in three lines, arms linked, without speaking, to Sather Gate.

As the marchers approached the blocked gate, they turned left, clambered down a small hill and crossed ankle-deep Strawberry Creek, one by one, before finally regrouping on the far side and continuing on their way to a rally in front of

California Hall. No slogans were shouted. No songs were sung. Both the marchers and those protecting the anti-Israel banner at Sather Gate maintained their silence. The only sound was the constant whirring of a helicopter circling overhead.

“I’ve been through a lot of Berkeley experiences, but this is the first time I’m coming out to walk,” retired history professor Paula Fass told J. “It’s that important.”

At the rally after the march, speakers addressed the quieted crowd. Clapping was permitted, but a handful of rabbis circulating among the marchers quickly shut down adults from outside the campus community who came with their own agendas.

“We are here because it’s become unbearable to learn in an atmosphere so hostile to Jews,” Schlacter said to loud applause. ”Bears for Palestine continue to do business as usual,” she continued, referring to the Cal affiliate of the anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine. “Last week they held events on campus, while Jewish students were forced to hold theirs off campus.”

Sophie Hahn, a member of the Berkeley City Council, told the crowd that Berkeley “cares about your safety and well-being and your right to walk freely in this city” and called on the university administration to work with the city council to keep students safe.

“We can have differences of opinion,” said Hahn, who is Jewish, “but when we see the kind of despicable violence we saw on this campus two weeks ago, we are appalled.”

Senior Danielle Sobkin, 20 and president of the pro-Israel student group Bears for Israel, told the crowd that her parents emigrated from the former Soviet Union so they could express their Jewishness openly.

“Why is it that I can’t walk to class without facing intimidation at a blocked-off Sather Gate? Why do I get threats just for being Jewish?” she said.

“I refuse to hide who I am. My Jewishness is not a costume to be worn when it’s deemed acceptable and shed when it’s not. That’s not what my parents came here for. Just as we stand firm in our identity, we call on our universities to stand firm in their commitment to inclusivity and respect for all.”

The day’s loudest applause was saved for professor Ron Hassner, faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, who called in to the rally from his office, where he is maintaining a round-the-clock vigil to demand safety for Jewish students. Monday was day four.

“He wants to say how proud he is of all of you,” said the student who listened to Hassner’s call and repeated his words through a microphone. “And he invites you all to his office for hot tea and cookies after the march.” n

UC Berkeley chancellor to post ‘observers’ at Sather Gate

EMMA GOSS | J. STAFF

More than a month after anti-Israel protesters began blocking the main arch of UC Berkeley’s Sather Gate and eight days after 250 Jewish students, faculty and allies marched in silence to “liberate the gate,” the university’s chancellor said she will take steps to address the situation.

“The current protest at Sather Gate has been unusual in the length of time that it has gone on, the disruption it has imposed, and the conflict it has engendered,” UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said Tuesday in a campuswide email. “Political protest is a protected — indeed a valued — activity on the Berkeley campus, it is also subject to time, place, and manner regulations.”

Christ said that the “variety of complaints” have led her to a decision to “post observers who can monitor and report on the situation” at the iconic gate. Meanwhile, her office will continue to “try to connect” with both protest organizers and those objecting to it, she said, “so that we can find a path forward and reduce conflict.”

The chancellor added that she’s “convening a small group to re-examine the policies and procedures” around the

“time, place and manner” restrictions on freedom of speech on campus. Christ said she is uncertain that the current approach is “serving us well.”

It appears the university is finally taking action.

Although students could still walk through the side arches of Sather Gate, Jewish students have reported inci-

It appears the university is finally taking action.

dents of harassment and intimidation. Protesters blocking the main arch have shouted at or filmed Jewish students whom they recognize or identify by their jewelry, such as a Star of David necklace.

Professor Ethan Katz, who is director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, said he applauds Christ’s statement and the actions she outlined.

“I think the reason we are where we are is [administrators]

Congress launches antisemitism probe as ‘sleep-in’ protests expand statewide

ANDREW LAPIN | JTA

Jewish academics protesting campus antisemitism have found a new way to vent their frustrations: Sleep on it.

That’s the idea behind a new “sleep-in” mass protest which Jewish students and faculty across multiple campuses, mostly in California, are launching Tuesday evening. It comes amid increased scrutiny of antisemitism on many campuses and particularly at UC Berkeley — a just-announced congressional investigation will probe what the investigating committee called the university’s “failure to protect Jewish students.”

The sleep-in is inspired by Ron Hassner, the chair of Israel studies at Berkeley, who has moved into his office indefinitely until the university takes concrete steps to address antisemitism on campus. Hassner and the other protesters hope to inspire Jews to take nonviolent action and pressure administrators to more forthrightly deal with speaker disruptions, campus spaces occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters, and other concerns raised by Jewish students in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war.

Hassner is an inadvertent leader of this movement; he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that at first, he did not expect to inspire others to follow his lead.

“I’m very embarrassed by that,” Hassner told JTA. “The kind of enthusiasm with which people treat this as heroism suggests to me that we lack heroes.”

The main trigger for Hassner’s actions, and for the increased scrutiny at Berkeley, was a Feb. 26 protest by pro-Palestinian groups that turned violent. A visiting Israeli speaker’s planned event was shut down and some Jewish students were assaulted. Afraid that a subsequent march by Jewish students directed at a highly visible pro-Palestinian campus protest might escalate into violence, he sought to offer an alternative.

The Jewish students’ march wound up being peaceful, but Hassner says there’s more work to be done. Now on his

feel hamstrung by the policies and their ability to respond,” said Katz, who chairs the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate.

Professor Ron Hassner, who is two weeks into his openended sit-in to protest the administration’s response to Jewish student safety, including at Sather Gate, said Christ’s announcement shows that “there’s clearly progress, there’s clearly a plan” to resolve the issues at the gate. However, he noted that the letter left him with a lot of questions.

“What is the timeline? Who are the people [monitoring] going to be? Who is on this committee?” asked Hassner, who is faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies. He said he would pose these questions to the chancellor’s office.

J. contacted the chancellor’s office for comment but did not hear back.

“I think the fact that there is a stance is encouraging,” Hassner said. “After a month and a half of crying out, it appears the university is finally taking action, and I think that’s great.” n

“The sleep-in, coming after our march, is a testament to our determination to force the administration’s hand,” Daniel Solomon, a Jewish doctoral student at Berkeley and protest organizer, told JTA in a statement. Solomon also published a piece this week in Tablet magazine accusing the Berkeley administration of having “done nothing to halt continued harassment and intimidation on the campus.”

second week camping out in his office, he has the attention of administrators and says he’s already “seen movement from the university.”

One of his demands was that the university more forcefully police the pro-Palestinian protest at Sather Gate, a central campus gathering place, where Jews on campus say the pro-Palestinian crowd frequently harassed and blocked the paths of Jewish students. That has now turned into a “game of cat-and-mouse with the university where the university takes down their stuff, they put it up again the next day,” Hassner said.

But other demands remain unmet, and Hassner has no immediate plans to pack up his things. On the contrary, he has enlisted students to stage their own sleep-ins at campus Hillel and Chabad houses and has called colleagues at other California campuses — and fielded calls from others across the country — about mobilizing a larger display of solidarity.

Neither Hassner nor the student organizers provided an estimated count of the sleepin’s participants, saying that they were waiting to see how many pledges would turn into real commitments. But they named several campuses where they expected students and/ or faculty to participate, including UCSF; Stanford University; San Francisco State University; and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which is run by the University of California.

Another participant will be Jeff Kopstein, director of UC Irvine’s Center for Jewish Studies and a friend of Hassner’s. Kopstein told JTA his sleep-in would be for two nights only: “I’m 62. I’m not sure how long my back will last on an air mattress. Especially one of these ones that I just got on Amazon.”

Kopstein said he believed the environment for Jewish students at UC Irvine is not as bad as that on other campuses such as Berkeley. But that comes with a big asterisk: After protesters disrupted a November talk on the Israel-Hamas war by visiting Israeli professor Alon Burstein, the Jewish studies department decided not to schedule any more Israel-related events and hasn’t held any since.

Cal’s pro-Palestinian tent camp joins others across nation

MAYA MIRSKY | J. STAFF

Pro-Palestinian activists at UC Berkeley erected a handful of tents April 25 on the steps of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall. By Wednesday afternoon, the “Free Palestine Camp” had mushroomed to 70 tents.

“It’s been a rapid expansion,” an organizer from the UC Berkeley Divest Coalition, which is running the encampment, told J. The student did not disclose his name.

Inside Cal’s tent camp — organized in a response to the recent arrests at Columbia University of pro-Palestinian students living in tents there — students chatted, drank coffee and did homework on laptops. But the campground atmosphere was at odds with the words of a young woman giving a talk on what to do if confronted by police: keep your student ID on hand, make sure your phone has a passcode and don’t volunteer information. “They can lie to you,” she said.

Similar encampments have rapidly sprung up across the country, including at Yale, Harvard, New York University, Northwestern University, University of Michigan and University of Southern California.

The Cal organization running the roundthe-clock encampment is calling not only for “boycott, divestment and sanctions” against Israel but also for an end to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza

They also have university-specific demands, such as an “academic boycott,” which would prohibit UC Berkeley from signing research or scholarship agreements with Israeli universities. And they want the establishment of a Palestinian studies program at Cal.

One of the tents at the camp had a Jewish Voice for Peace sign adhered to it. The anti-Zionist organization has helped organize multiple protests across the Bay Area since Oct. 7.

The Free Palestine Camp is running daily programming on topics ranging from “Poetry as Resistance” to “Judaism and Anti-Zionism.” Interspersed with that, a speaker system plays the sound of aircraft under other clips,

such as a woman stating the camp’s demands.

The camp is taking donations and has posted a list of requests online, from hot coffee to batteries to money, warning potential donors to “make sure you are bringing BDS-friendly items!”

The student organizer with the UC Berkeley Divest Coalition said protesters had received “tons of food” so far, enabling community meals.

They are also asking for matzah donations. A Jewish student involved in the protest, who said he didn’t want to give his name because he worried about being doxxed, noted that Jewish protesters celebrated Passover together at a JVP-sponsored seder.

“We had our first-night seder at the encampment, which was amazing,” he said. “It was beautiful.”

He said that his Jewish identity has inspired his activism and his decision to join the tent encampment, mentioning the “righteous gentiles” during the Holocaust who risked themselves to save vulnerable Jews.

“Many JVP people are just trying to embody that spirit,” he said.

have consequences for those engaging in it because of the impact it can have on the rest of the campus community.”

“With three weeks left in the semester, we are prioritizing students’ academic interests and have committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the protest does not disrupt the university’s operations,” Mogulof said in an email to J. “The protest at Berkeley is not blocking doorways, thoroughfares, and there has, so far, been no disruption of teaching, learning, or research.”

On April 18, pro-Palestinian students also organized a rally outside Berkeley’s law school. It followed an April 9 altercation at UC Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s home where law student Malak Afaneh began giving a speech about Palestine during a dinner party for students.

University spokesperson Dan Mogulof said Wednesday the school will continue to follow the UC policy for nonviolent protests during the current situation. UC policy recognizes “explicitly the historic role of civil disobedience as a protest tactic” but also states that “civil disobedience will generally

Congress launches antisemitism probe into UC Berkeley

continued from page 13

“It was a very objective, you might even say almost pro-Palestinian talk,” Kopstein said of Burstein’s remarks. “They didn’t really care about what he said. They were there to disrupt, so they disrupted it, and nobody has been yet held accountable for that at all.”

None of the Jewish studies programming the center has embarked on since then has involved Israel, and the center has still maintained a police presence, even for Holocaust-related or Yiddish poetry events.

“I don’t want to have disrupted events,” Kopstein said. But the cost of trying to keep campus temperatures down, he said, is that “in essence I’m not able, as the director of the Center

for Jewish Studies, to fully do my job.”

Kopstein is providing his chancellor with his own list of “requests” similar to Hassner’s, which include enforcing university rules prohibiting the disruption of campus events; re-inviting any speakers whose talks have been shut down; and instituting mandatory antisemitism and Islamophobia training for staff. He declined to comment on the university’s response to his requests.

As the sleep-in was preparing to go live Tuesday, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which has already launched a handful of investigations into prominent universities’ handling of campus antisemitism, announced it was also opening a probe into Berkeley.

Catherine Fisk, a law professor and Chemerinsky’s wife, pulled at Afaneh’s microphone, phone and shoulders while repeatedly asking her to leave. The April 18 rally was a call for the “removal” of Fisk and Chemerinsky, who Afaneh described as a “self-identifying Zionist.” n

The letter from Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, the committee’s chair, requests an extensive series of documents from the university regarding its handling of recent reported incidents of antisemitism. It cites a number of events dating back years, and asks for information on Jewish Studies faculty and staff hiring. But it specifically cites the events of Feb. 26, which have also prompted a criminal investigation and a Title VI discrimination investigation by the Department of Education.

“We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of UC Berkeley’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” Foxx wrote to the school’s chancellor, president and Board of Regents chair. n

What’s happening at Gaza tent encampments spreading on Northern California campuses?

GABE STUTMAN & MAYA MIRSKY | J. STAFF

Students began pitching tents on campus lawns and plazas in protest of Israel at universities across Northern California in late April, following a national trend and calling to mind mass student movements of the past, including the anti-Vietnam War protests that started in the mid-1960s.

Unlike those protests, however, the current wave has come with significant complications for the Jewish community. The protests have been marred by allegations of anti-Israel animosity, making Jewish students with even the slightest connection to Israel feel unwelcome. On one occasion, a pro-Israel Jewish student was punched in the face. Another protest sent a campus into a weekslong lockdown.

In conversations with students and professors at the region’s campuses and after reviewing often widely shared photos and video, a complex portrait has emerged, showing, at times, peaceful protests calling for an end to a brutal war in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands — and, at other times, expressions of venomous hatred toward Israel, outright antisemitism and support for Palestinian “resistance” by any means necessary, including terrorism.

UC Berkeley

“The protesting community is diverse,” said Ron Hassner, a UC Berkeley professor. Hassner, who is the faculty director of Cal’s Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, recently garnered national attention for holding a two-weeklong sit-in in his university office in March to protest his university’s response to antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7.

Anti-Israel demonstrators set up an encampment in Sproul Plaza, a main campus thoroughfare, on April 22. Since then, they have been sleeping in tents and holding daily demonstrations, calling on the university to “divest” from Israel and cut ties with the Jewish state.

Many of the protesters are “young students who have no relationship to the Middle East, who are neither Muslim nor

Inside the camp, students chatted, drank coffee and did homework on laptops. But the campground atmosphere was at odds with the words of a young woman giving a talk on what to do if confronted by police: Keep your student ID on hand, make sure your phone has a passcode and don’t volunteer information. “They can lie to you,” she said. Meanwhile, pro-Israel Jewish students have raised

“These people have been allowed to essentially run roughshod over any notion of decency or community or rules for months,” Solomon said. “They have created a climate on campus which is deeply hostile and menacing to many of us.”

Other students reported troubling encounters with protesters, too.

concerns about the protest, which is being allowed to proceed by the university administration. The academic year ends on May 10.

Etched in chalk on a wall below the encampment on April 28 was the phrase “Avenge the Martyrs,” scrawled next to two inverted red triangles. The symbols have been used by Hamas in propaganda videos to mark Israeli military targets. Since Oct. 7, the triangles have become popular internet shorthand, like a meme or emoji, that “in certain cases can signify support for violent Palestinian resistance against Israel,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Jewish, who are enjoying a good old Berkeley protest in the good old Berkeley tradition,” said Hassner. Not mincing words, he added: “And many of them are violent, genocidal maniacs.”

By April 24, the “Free Palestine Camp” at Cal had grown to about 70 tents from just a handful two days prior.

“It’s been a rapid expansion,” an unnamed organizer from the UC Berkeley Divest Coalition, which has been running the encampment, told J. The student wished to remain anonymous, as many pro-Palestinian demonstrators have, for fear of repercussions for their activism.

A large printed banner, roughly 30 feet wide, hung above the steps of Sproul Plaza that said “Victory to the resistance!” and

“They have created a climate on campus which is deeply hostile and menacing to many of us.”

Daniel Solomon, UC

doctoral student in history

included the same inverted red triangles. They were printed on a banner at Sather Gate, the university’s main entrance, too.

Daniel Solomon, a Jewish doctoral student in history, described a disturbing visit to the encampment on April 28. He walked near the camp while recording on his phone. Demonstrators approached him, holding a Palestinian flag over his camera lens to block it. They engaged in a heated and, at times, head-scratching, conversation recorded on video. A demonstrator told Solomon that Zionists should “go back to Europe.” When asked whether he knew what had happened to the Jews of Europe, the protester replied, nonchalantly, “The Europeans freakin’ got em.”

Noah Cohen, a third-year law student, was punched in the face by a non-student demonstrator on campus on April 26. The demonstrator had told Cohen he could not film during a Muslim prayer session on Sproul Plaza. Cohen replied that it was his right to do so. The demonstrator, who called herself Jay, followed Cohen as he sought an administrator or police to intervene. Cohen could not find one, and when Cohen began walking back to the protest, Jay grabbed his backpack and swung at him, he said, grazing the left side of his face. The incident is partially captured in a chaotic cell phone video.

Asked whether he thought the protests were peaceful, Cohen said, “It’s peaceful until you don’t comply.”

“It’s peaceful if you follow everything these random people are telling you to do. It was peaceful for me until I wanted to film. And then it wasn’t peaceful,” he added. “And if someone wanted to walk into the entrance of California Hall with an Israeli flag on their back, it definitely would not be peaceful.”

Dan Mogulof, a university spokesperson, told J. that campus police were “definitely investigating” the reported assault and that Chancellor Carol Christ had personally reached out to Cohen after the incident to ensure he is able to “access whatever supportive services he might need.”

Mogulof also said that Cal has increased university “monitors” on Sproul Plaza in response to that incident and was offering escorts to those who feel unsafe traversing the plaza.

In general, UC Berkeley has taken a hands-off approach to the encampment, while certain other prestigious, well-known universities have not. Police have conducted mass arrests of more than 1,500 people since April 18, CNN reported, at Columbia, NYU, Princeton, Yale, USC, UT-Austin and other campuses across the country.

Many at Cal remember the ugly confrontations between police and student protesters in 2011, when officers used violence to break up an Occupy Wall Street encampment, drawing allegations of police brutality.

“We’ve seen on our campus in the distant past, or not so distant past, that utilizing law enforcement can have unintended consequences that can make matters worse, and can blow back to the detriment of the wider community,” Mogulof said. “We are prioritizing students’ academic interests and have committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure the protest does not disrupt the university’s operations.”

Among the protesters’ demands are that Berkeley divest financially from companies linked to Israel and enforce an “academic boycott” of the country. The university has pointed out that its endowment is controlled by the University of California Regents. On the question of a boycott, Cal leadership,

continued on page 19

What’s happening at Gaza tent protests spreading on NorCal campuses?

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including the chancellor, have stated their opposition on multiple occasions.

Stanford University

Students pitched tents and established a so-called “People’s University for Palestine” on April 25 at Stanford’s White Plaza.

About 20 tents popped up outside the student union over the course of the next few days, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, describing a somewhat convivial atmosphere where students shared meals, played music and conducted learning sessions.

Stanford has taken a different approach to the encampment than Cal. The day after the tent city sprang up, Stanford told students they would be subject to disciplinary action, or even arrest, if they did not disperse.

“We want to be clear with students who are involved in these activities that, while we understand their perspectives on an important global issue, violations of university policy will not be overlooked,” according to a statement signed by President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez.

“Tents and overnight camping pose multiple safety challenges, including the need for 24-hour security,” the statement said. “The tents themselves can also pose safety hazards, as was discussed in winter quarter.”

Apparent calls for violence and other harsh language have concerned a number of Jewish students on campus, according to Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, director of Stanford Hillel. Videos show protesters holding signs reading “No peace on stolen land” and “Stanford kills children.” A widely shared photo showed a demonstrator wearing a Hamas headband — drawing an outpouring of criticism on X (Twitter).

“The ‘pro-peace’ party at Stanford is wearing Hamas headbands,” wrote Luke Schumacher, a Stanford law student. “Stop gaslighting – stop telling us these protests are about peace & justice.”

Kirschner said that “students, like everybody, have the

“I’m just curious, when the semester ends, how many folks are going to go home and how many won’t.”

Marc Dollinger, head of Jewish studies at SFSU

right to peaceful protest.” She noted that the encampment contains a “small number” of quite vocal Jewish students but that the “vast majority” of Jewish students want little to do with it.

“The places where we are running into real problems are when [protesters] are in violation of university policies,” like camping overnight, she said. “And when the things that are said create an environment that is alienating and deeply othering to Jewish and Israeli students.”

Kirschner pointed to a double standard, saying that in her view, “the ways in which the language around these protests so quickly slides into antisemitism and a kind of anti-Israel bias” would not be tolerated if directed toward any other group.

Despite the warning of disciplinary action, protesting students stayed put as of April 30. Deputies with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office visited the camp earlier but made no arrests, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

San Francisco State University

At SFSU, a campus that’s seen its share of controversy over strident displays of anti-Zionism and allegations of antisemitism, tents began to go up midday on April 29, a week after UC Berkeley’s.

The encampment coincided with a rally against Israel.

“I’m surprised that it took us this long,” said Marc Dollinger, head of Jewish studies at the university. “I thought we’d be one of the first in the country.”

Dollinger was at the protest to keep track of what was happening, he said, with an eye to protecting his students.

5,900 undergraduates attend the school, which has a relatively small Jewish population of about 150 students, according to estimates from Hillel International. There is not a Hillel house for the campus.

A confrontational group of protesters, whom the university said included people unaffiliated with the university, sent the campus into a weekslong lockdown after they occupied two campus buildings on April 22 and barricaded themselves inside.

The protest completely upended the university, scuttling in-person classes and events and moving all learning online.

He said the encampment, which had grown to six tents and two shade structures when he was there, seemed well organized and “well disciplined,” with people in reflective vests helping to wrangle the crowd. By May 1, the encampment had grown to more than 70 tents.

Students were shouting a number of chants, some of which Dollinger said he found harmless — but not all, including a call for intifada and revolution. The message “glory to the martyrs” was etched in chalk on a walking path.

“I’m just curious, when the semester ends, how many folks are going to go home and how many won’t,” he said.

University of San Francisco

At the University of San Francisco, a private Jesuit university, a handful of tents sprang up on the vibrant green grass of the school’s central lawn on April 29.

Video on social media showed a student rally among the tents proclaiming a “people’s university” and voicing calls for an end to the “financial, political and cultural support for the Israeli genocide.”

On Instagram, the students said they “stand in solidarity with the Palestinians as they fight for their liberation from Israeli, American and Western oppression” and requested that the university end “Israeli occupation-affiliated” endowments and academic partnerships.

University spokesperson Kellie Samson told J. that the university is “engaged in conversation” with those protesting.

“The USF administration expects to continue these critical conversations,” she said. “Our students have a right to peacefully protest as well as a responsibility to abide by the university’s code of conduct.”

Cal Poly Humboldt

The most dramatic and violent pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel campus protests in Northern California in recent weeks took place on the Arcata campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, formerly Humboldt State. According to its website, about

“The safety, health, and wellbeing of our students is paramount as the situation has become increasingly complex,” according to a statement emailed April 24 to J. from director of news and information Aileen Yoo. “There are unidentified non-students with unknown intentions, in Siemens Hall. This creates an unpredictable environment.”

Protesters’ demands included that Humboldt “disclose all holdings and collaborations” with what demonstrators referred to as “the Zionist entity” and “cut all ties with Israeli universities,” according to Humboldt for Palestine, a group that said it supports the protest but did not organize it.

Video captured April 23 by Humboldt County freelance journalist Ryan Hutson showed a throng of young people standing face to face with police, who were wearing protective gear, as officers attempted to enter a building barricaded with desks and chairs. The protesters screamed, “We are not afraid of you!” and other chants.

In a mass of bodies, they attempted to block police from entering the building. Police pushed back using their protective shields, as protesters hurled objects at officers. One protester began thwacking police with an empty five-gallon jug. Police fought back with batons, striking demonstrators, before eventually retreating.

Police were able to “restore order” in the early morning hours of April 30, according to the university. Thirty-one people were arrested “without incident, and there were no injuries” during the 2:30 a.m. raid of two campus buildings, Siemens Hall and Nelson Hall East.

“The University supports free speech through open dialogue that is respectful and constructive,” the university said in an April 24 statement. “That does not include behavior that involves destroying and damaging property, and disrupting students, faculty, and staff from learning, teaching, and working.”

Cal State Sacramento

Tents sprang up at Cal State Sacramento on April 29, according to social media posts and the Sacramento Bee. According to a statement sent to J. by university spokesperson Lanaya Lewis, Sac State’s Division of Student Affairs has given permission for the protest camp to remain until May 1.

“If they are still present, the university will reassess at that time,” according to the statement.

Despite two physical attacks on Jewish students, UC Berkeley doesn’t plan to dismantle tent city

GABE STUTMAN | J. STAFF

UC Berkeley administrators are standing by their decision to take a hands-off approach to the tent encampment at Sproul Plaza despite two attacks that have rattled pro-Israel Jewish students and left a pro-Israel activist injured.

Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for the university, told J. on May 3 that while “we are ready to change our stance at any time,” the university does not plan to take any drastic steps — such as dismantling the camp — in response to the violent incidents.

The response from Cal highlights the university’s reluctance to get in the middle of anti-Israel protests and its wish to avoid the harsh media spotlight shone on campuses like UCLA, Columbia, University of Texas at Austin and others that have sent in police in riot gear to use force and break up tent encampments in recent weeks.

Such a scene would be deeply discordant with Cal’s identity as a bastion of free speech and a university welcoming of protests of all sorts. The campus felt that friction in 2011 when officers arrested demonstrators camping amid the Occupy Wall Street protests.

“We don’t believe we’ve come to the point where we need to take the sort of actions that have led to utter chaos and calamity for the entire community — actions that we’ve seen at other universities,” Mogulof said.

Mogulof has repeatedly told J. that the university is focusing on two top priorities. The first is to avoid what he called the “disruption of campus operations, which include teaching, learning and research,” and the second is ensuring the “physical safety of the campus community” and responding to “isolated or individual acts of violence, harassment or discrimination.”

Yet two violent outbursts against Jews at or near Sproul Plaza, have increased scrutiny on the university even as the semester nears its end. Finals begin Monday.

The first incident occurred on April 26, when a Jewish law student, Noah Cohen, was blocked by a protester from

recording the Sproul Plaza scene on his cell phone, was followed as he sought out an administrator or police officer and then was punched in the face as he attempted to walk back into the protest area. The incident is partially captured in a chaotic cell phone video obtained by J. and posted online.

In an interview with J., Cohen described the protest as “dystopian,” saying Sproul Plaza had become a place where dissenting viewpoints are not allowed and can invite violence.

“There’s not freedom of movement if your message doesn’t comply to what they want it to be,” he said.

According to another video recorded on May 1, a man in a T-shirt and green pants punched Ilan Sinelnikov, a pro-Israel activist, in the head multiple times during a scuffle over an Israeli flag. The alleged assailant wasn’t wearing a medical mask, unlike most of the protesters who wear masks or garments over their faces.

Sinelnikov, who was visiting from Florida, is president of the pro-Israel group Students Supporting Israel (SSI).

A group of about 10 students affiliated with SSI’s Berkeley chapterwalked to Sproul Plaza that evening, Sinelnikov said,

with three Israeli flags to “show that we are here — that there are Zionist students on this campus, and they’re not going anywhere.” He said they sang Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, and chanted “Bring them home!” in reference to the 133 hostages who are still held by Hamas in Gaza.

A cell phone video recorded by a Cal undergraduate named Atara, who asked J. not to publish her last name to maintain her privacy, shows someone shouting “Go back to Europe!” before a man grabs her Israeli flag.

The video shows Sinelnikov attempting to wrestle the flag back. At that point, the man in the green pants comes from Sinelnikov’s left and delivers three hard punches at his head and face. One of the punches split his lip; another connected with his head. He was treated and given a concussion test by paramedics at the campus police station.

“I felt that if we gave them the flag, they might go and burn it,” said Sinelnikov, whose parents emigrated in 1989 from the Soviet Union to Israel, where he was born.

Both Sinelnikov and Atara said they encountered antisemitism during the incident — that someone in the crowd shouted “Talmudic devils!” Atara said she also heard people shout “Death to Zionists!” “Intifada!” and some say “failed experiments, failed experiments.”

“I had never seen anything like this before,” Sinelnikov said. “It was very much hate speech, and hostile to begin with,” Atara said. “We literally were standing there. We said, ‘This is our right. This is free speech.’”

Cohen said that the encampment, which is on a main campus thoroughfare, has raised questions among the Berkeley Jewish community about whether it creates a hostile environment, particularly for those who support Israel. He described the rhetoric coming from the tent camp as “hateful.”

“Have they seized a building? No,” he said. “But are Jewish students comfortable walking through that part of campus?”

UC Berkeley is offering escorts to students who feel uncomfortable traversing the plaza, and the university said it is increasing faculty monitors in the protest area.

Mogulof said both attacks are under investigation by university police. The University of California Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. n

What’s happening at Gaza tent protests spreading on NorCal campuses?

continued from page 16

Sonoma State University

At Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, tents went up April 26.

According to the Press Democrat, antisemitic chalk messages were found on the campus, prompting a response from university President Mike Lee.

“Sonoma State University draws the line at depictions of intolerance and hate on our premises,” he said in a statement sent to J. “They poison our atmosphere.”

University spokesperson Jeff Keating told J. in an email:

“Some of the messages written in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the encampment were disturbing and anti-Semitic in nature. Students in the encampment removed them sometime Sunday night/Monday morning.”

Ryan England, a Sonoma student and president of the campus chapter of the Jewish fraternity AEPi, told J. that one message, which AEPi posted about on social media, was at the school’s Holocaust memorial site and stated “is not real.”

England’s fraternity had booked a spot to set up a table for a fundraising project where the tent encampment went up

but decided to move to a different spot, he said. “We kept to our business, doing our own thing,” he said.

England said people came from the encampment to rally where he and the other fraternity tables were, chanting and holding signs, including those equating Zionism with fascism. It upset some Jewish and non-Jewish students, he said.

“Everyone was pretty shocked and a lot of people were in tears,” he said. But he added that campus staff came by to check on the Jewish fraternity table and thanked them for remaining civil. n

‘Shiva-worthy’: Berkeley prof starts sit-in to force action against campus antisemitism

EMMA GOSS | J. STAFF

UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner hauled a suitcase, pillow and sleeping bag into his campus office the evening of March 7 and began converting the small room into his temporary home.

Hassner, faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, began an open-ended “sit-in protest” over what he and many others in Cal’s Jewish community see as the failure of university administrators to protect Jewish students. A wave of anti-Zionist activity — and antisemitic intimidation — began on campus after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, including mob violence on Feb. 26 at Zellerbach Playhouse, where an Israeli speaker was slated to appear.

Hassner intends to eat, sleep and teach from his office until the university administration addresses a series of requests he issued in a letter Thursday to UC Chancellor Carol Christ and Provost Benjamin Hermalin.

“If my students feel that they cannot walk safely across campus without being bullied, then I will not cross campus either,” he wrote.

In the meantime, Hassner will leave a lamp illuminated in the window of his 7th-floor office, an announcement to students walking down Bancroft Avenue that his door is always open to them and that a faculty member is “sleeping as bad at night as they are.”

“I’m thinking that maybe by doing this — giving the students some hope, showing them that someone cares, the door’s open, there’s a light in the window, please come by, let’s talk — I can avert the next disaster,” said Hassner, who has worked at Cal for 20 years.

The next disaster, he fears, could come as soon as Monday morning when an ad-hoc group of Jewish students has planned a “Liberate the Gate” march from Zellerbach Playhouse to Sather Gate, where anti-Zionist protesters have been stationed for nearly a month and have blocked the gate’s main entryway.

“I’m so sorely afraid,” Hassner said of what might happen Monday. “It makes me want to cry.”

Asked to comment on Hassner’s sit-in, a Berkeley spokesperson emailed a statement to J. on Friday, noting that Cal “remains committed to fostering an environment conducive to robust free speech and in which all members of its community feel that they may engage in campus life without fear of harassment. The administration is committed to confronting antisemitism and holds Professor Hassner in great esteem and it is in conversation with him about his concerns.”

Hassner also took a public stance in the days following the Oct. 7 massacre when Hamas called for a global “day of jihad” on Oct. 13. Hassner released a joint-statement on Oct. 12 with Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley lecturer on Middle Eastern languages and cultures and the founder of the anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine, calling on all students to remain peaceful.

By midday Friday, Hassner said he’d heard from eight colleagues who have decided to support his sit-in so far by moving their courses out of the classroom and onto Zoom.

In a way, Hassner said, it’s as if he’s sitting shiva — mourning the loss of Jewish student safety on campus. Like a mourner, he anticipates that his family, students and other supporters will bring him meals while he remains in his office. And like those in mourning, he won’t bathe. He’s using a hall bathroom with a sink and toilet but does not have access to a shower.

The situation at Berkeley, he said, is “shiva-worthy.”

“If the university can’t get its grip around this, we are doomed,” he said. “Jewish students will stop coming to this campus.”

Hassner remains hopeful that his protest will elicit a response from administrators. Among his requests to Christ and Hermalin is unblocking the primary entryway of Sather Gate, the main entrance to campus, which has been cordoned off by anti-Zionist protesters in recent weeks.

His second request comes in response to

the mob violence at Zellerbach, which forced speaker Ran Bar-Yoshafat, an Israeli lawyer and reservist who served in Gaza after Oct. 7, to cancel his talk on campus and deliver it at UC Berkeley’s Chabad instead.

Hassner has also requested that administrators apologize and invite Bar-Yoshafat back to campus — and to follow such protocol if any future speakers are interrupted by hecklers or violence.

Finally, Hassner has called for antisemitism and Islamophobia training for incoming faculty, resident advisers and leaders of registered student organizations.

“My ask is quite modest,” he said. “Nonetheless, I expect to be in this office for a while.”

On Thursday evening, Hassner’s wife and 15-year-old daughter stopped by to check on him. His 18-year-old son was on the way with a “cheapo” mattress, Hassner said.

Several of Hassner’s students also dropped by. Before deciding on where to order takeout for dinner, one student produced a box of glazed donuts to tide everyone over.

Hassner informed his War in the Middle East class, an upper-level political science course, on Thursday afternoon about the sit-in. He plans to teach that class, which has more than 100 students, over Zoom. A smaller seminar will meet in his office.

Eli Glickman, a junior studying political science, was among those visiting Hassner’s office.

“I think it’s nice to see people like Ron sticking their necks out for students and showing that they care and they’re listening, even if the administration — which I have a great amount of respect for — is not always the best at showing everybody that they’re listening,” Glickman said.

“This strikes me as one of those times where they should be clearly delineating their position,” he added.

“And they’re not.”

Until they do, Hassner plans to stay in his office, with one light always on.

Asked to comment on Hassner’s sit-in, a Berkeley spokesperson emailed a statement to J. on Friday, noting that Cal “remains committed to fostering an environment conducive to robust free speech and in which all members of its community feel that they may engage in campus life without fear of harassment. The administration is committed to confronting antisemitism and holds Professor Hassner in great esteem and it is in conversation with him about his concerns.”

Hassner also took a public stance in the days following the Oct. 7 massacre when Hamas called for a global “day of jihad” on Oct. 13. Hassner released a joint-statement on Oct. 12 with Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley lecturer on Middle Eastern languages and cultures and the founder of the anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine, calling on all students to remain peaceful.

By midday Friday, Hassner said he’d heard from eight colleagues who have decided to support his sit-in so far by moving their courses out of the classroom and onto Zoom.

In a way, Hassner said, it’s as if he’s sitting shiva — mourning the loss of Jewish student safety on campus. Like a mourner, he anticipates that his family, students and other supporters will bring him meals while he remains in his office. And like those in mourning, he won’t bathe. He’s using a hall bathroom with a sink and toilet but does not have access to a shower.

The situation at Berkeley, he said, is “shiva-worthy.”

“If the university can’t get its grip around this, we are doomed,” he said. “Jewish students will stop coming to this campus.” n

One-week update: UC Berkeley professor sees no end to his sit-in against antisemitism

EMMA GOSS | J. STAFF

UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner has gotten noticeably shaggier since turning his campus office into his temporary home a week ago. He sleeps roughly five hours a night in a sleeping bag atop a “cheapo” mattress. His goatee has grown into a nascent beard and mustache.

“Boy, would I love a shower,” Hassner told J. on Thursday by phone.

Hassner, faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, jokes about being disheveled, but the reason is decidedly serious.

On March 7, he began an open-ended “sit-in protest,” vowing to teach, eat and sleep in his cramped office until the university administration meets a series of requests related to a wave of anti-Zionist activity and antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7 that has many Jewish students feeling anxious and upset.

More than 100 students and community members file into Hassner’s narrow office each day to meet with him, he said, and his email inbox is overflowing with supportive messages from students, professors and well-wishers across the globe. His story has been reported by numerous media outlets. Actor Michael Rapaport stopped by on Friday and met with Hassner and students, posting it on his Instagram with 2.1 million followers.

“I was inspired by meeting Ron Hassner! What he’s doing is brave and needed,” Rapaport said in a separate comment to J. “I’m also appalled by what I learned about the long history of anti-Jewish behavior on the campus of UCB. I had no idea, and it’s disgusting and unacceptable.”

Despite the physical challenges of

the sit-in, Hassner said he enjoys sharing the donated meals and baked goods he’s received with the students and others who visit him.

“A student yesterday said to me, ‘This office is my haven on campus. This is where I feel happy. This is where I’m surrounded by friends,’” he told J. Hassner’s decision to upend his life for a cause — uncharacteristic for him, he said — came in response to escalating events on his campus and what he and others see as a failure of university administrators to protect Jewish students.

An anti-Israel demonstration on Feb. 26 outside Zellerbach Playhouse turned violent when protesters shut down a visiting Israeli speaker, pounding on the outside glass until it broke, entering the theater and forcing the speaker and audience to flee through an underground hallway.

For much of the past month, a daily anti-Israel demonstration has blocked access through the main arch of Sather Gate, and Jewish students have reported harassment and intimidation as they walk through the side arches.

On Monday, about 250 Jewish students, faculty and allies responded with a silent march from Zellerbach past Sather Gate, calling attention to two campus locations where tensions have flared.

Though Hassner is relieved that there was no violence around the silent march, he said that protesters remain present at Sather and that Jewish students still feel unsafe and fear harassment when walking through the gate.

“It’s now been more than a month since that illegal barricade went up,” he said. “I understand that students are extremely frustrated, extremely humiliated, and I am even more worried about the next march, and I will be even more worried about the march after that.”

When Hassner began his office sit-in, he emailed UC Chancellor Carol Christ and Provost Benjamin Hermalin with three

requests to support Cal’s Jewish students: unblocking Sather Gate to allow student access; establishing antisemitism and Islamophobia training for incoming faculty, resident advisers and leaders of registered student organizations; and issuing an apology and new invitation to Ran Bar-Yoshafat, the Israeli lawyer and reservist whose talk at Zellerbach was disrupted on Feb. 26. Hassner also asked that the protocol be in place should any future speakers be interrupted by hecklers or violence.

“If my students feel that they cannot walk safely across campus without being bullied,” he wrote to them, “then I will not cross campus either.”

A week after presenting the administration with his requests, Hassner told J. he has not had any conversations with administrators, though his colleagues have.

“I know the administration is working on this,” Hassner said. “I’m confident that the administration is trying to get something done.”

On Friday afternoon, one of Hassner’s requests may have been fulfilled. The pro-Israel student group Tikvah announced that Bar-Yoshafat is set to return and speak on campus Monday, without publicizing the location.

Meanwhile, Hassner said that a dozen Berkeley colleagues have decided to show support for his sit-in by moving their courses out of the classroom and onto Zoom.

He’s also heard from professors across other University of California campuses, as well as from East Coast universities, who say they’re facing similar issues of antisemitism on their campuses and are seeking a network of support. Hassner hopes that others will join him by sleeping in their offices for one night as a “campus vigil across the United States.”

“I’m trying now to up the ante a little and say it’s cool that you’re teaching by Zoom, but please take a selfie of yourself on the office couch with a blanket and a pillow,” Hassner said, “so that other colleagues around the country see that there’s a real groundswell of anger at this antisemitic outrage.” n

It’s over: UC Berkeley professor ends his sit-in protest

J. STAFF

UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner has left the building.

Two weeks after starting a round-theclock vigil in his office, Hassner announced on March 21 that he was ending his sit-in protest and getting ready to head home. His intent was to call attention to antisemitism on campus and pressure the university to address it forcefully, and on both counts he said he achieved his goals.

Hassner had taught, ate and slept in his cramped office since March 7. He said it was important to support demoralized Jewish students and push the university to quell the wave of anti-Zionist activity and antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7.

What is the first thing he plans to do when he gets home?

“Hug my kids and shower,” he told J. in an email. “Maybe not in that order :).”

Below is the letter that Hassner emailed to Jewish students at Cal on March 21 with the subject line: “Free at Last.”

n n n

Dear students,

Yesterday evening, towards the end of my 13th day in the office, I received an unexpected phone call from Chancellor [Carol] Christ. Several minutes later, I received another phone call from Provost [Benjamin] Hermalin. They called to accept all the requests I had made in my letter to them two weeks earlier, without exception, and to answer any questions I might have about how my requests would be implemented. After consulting with student leaders and colleagues, and sleeping on it for one more night, I have started packing my bags so that I can go back home to my family.

I made three requests in my March 7 letter to Christ and Hermalin. First, I asked that “all students, even the ones wearing Stars of David, should be free to pass through [Sather Gate] unobstructed. The right of protestors to express their views must be defended. It does not extend to blocking or threatening fellow students.”

To that end, the school has now posted observers from the Division of Student Affairs to monitor bullying at the gate. These are not the passive yellow-vested security personnel who have stood around Sproul in prior weeks. The Student Affairs representatives are there to actively document bullying, abuse, blocking, or intrusion on personal space. They are wearing blue lanyards around their neck with a blue badge that says “Observer.” They will be at the gate whenever protestors are there (which happens less and less these days).

The protestors who are haranguing

students at the gate are hiding behind masks because they are afraid that campus will hold them accountable for their actions. The goal of the observers is to do just that. If you experience any incident of harassment, please approach Student Affairs staff and draw their attention to the incident. If necessary, they will call the police.

My second request was that Chancellor Christ reaffirm her proud stance to “uphold this university’s venerable free speech tradition” by inviting back any speaker whose

instituting such training.

It is my belief that campus leaders would have fulfilled all these requests of their own accord even in the absence of my sleep-in. Everyone at our university knows that anti-Semitism, sometimes cowering behind a thin mask of “anti-Zionism,” is a real concern, on this and on all U.S. campuses. Our leadership is as annoyed by the nuisance of the blockade at Sather Gate as are all students by now (especially students with disabilities). At best, our sleep-in reinforced the university’s

talk has been interrupted or canceled. The chancellor did so gladly and confidently.

The speaker who was attacked by a violent mob three weeks ago spoke to an even larger crowd this Monday. After students invited him to return to Berkeley, the university invested heavily in protecting his person, the venue for the talk, the audience attending, and the talk itself. This came at significant cost and effort, but the university will not hesitate doing so, again and again, whenever necessary, for any future speaker, be they Palestinian or Israeli, Jew or Muslim, Republican or Democrat, etc.

Only those who lack good arguments fear speech. Mobs cannot be permitted to muzzle ideas by threats and heckling, let alone by violence against students and university property, as happened three weeks ago.

The third reason for my sleep-in was the absence of mandatory Islamophobia and anti-Semitism training on campus. Chancellor Christ has committed to funding and

determination to act and accelerated the process somewhat.

I say “our” sleep-in, because this protest would have been easy to ignore had it not been for the combined effort of the entire campus Jewish community. Some 80-100 guests came to my office every day to eat, drink, chat, meet friends, and discuss anti-Semitism and free speech. Students, parents, alumni, community members, rabbis, administrators, and colleagues dropped by with food and encouragement. Jewish and non-Jewish students, pro-Israel and even some anti-Israel students spent hours around my coffee table, late into the night, to talk about their identity and their politics. Many hundreds sent messages of encouragement and gifts for students from around the U.S. and the world. The light in my window gets no credit for that accomplishment. You do. In good Berkeley tradition, our effort also shines a light for other California campuses. On Tuesday, 33 of my colleagues across

California spent the night in their offices in solidarity with Berkeley students and in protest of anti-Semitism. They posted images of their sleep-ins on social media. Many of these sleep-ins took place on campuses where Jewish faculty had been reluctant to stand up for their rights and their safety. You showed them how to rally, celebrate their Judaism, and hold their heads high. The sleep-in movement against anti-Semitism is now spreading eastward across the U.S.

What happens next here? First of all, tomorrow Chabad has invited all students who are still on campus for a celebratory Shabbat. If you’d like to join me, I’ll be walking to Chabad from my office at 7:30 p.m. It will be nice to walk together, if you like.

Second: My mattress, blanket and pillows stay at the office. Should the climate on campus deteriorate, and anti-Semitism escalate again, I will not hesitate to lock myself back up. I will look to you, the students, to tell me whether I need to resume my protest.

Third: My office remains a home for all students, regardless of identity and politics. In addition to office hours, I will open my doors every Thursday at 6 p.m. to eat and drink with all who come seeking good company and good debate. I will do so as long as students wish.

I’ll end with some fantastic news, worthy of celebration. For the last two years, faculty and staff of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies have worked tirelessly to create an opportunity for students to signal their competency in Israel Studies. Yesterday, [UC Berkeley] announced that all colleges on this campus will offer a minor in Israel Studies, starting this fall!

I view this as one of our biggest and most lasting accomplishments in making Berkeley a destination for students interested in Israel, and in changing the campus experience for students once they arrive here. The minor reflects the rich and multidisciplinary nature of the academic field of Israel Studies, drawing on the social sciences and humanities as well as law, business, science and technology. It will offer students an opportunity, not available on many campuses, to integrate rigorous engagement with Israel explicitly into their core studies, and recognize and signal the importance of that work with a Berkeley degree.

Attacks and intimidation of students on U.S. campuses are designed to drive some students away. The new minor in Israel Studies will do the opposite. It will attract students from all backgrounds to our campus precisely because we are the greatest campus in the country for studying the complexities of Judaism and Israel in an inclusive and rigorous manner.

Yashar Koach! – Ron n

Anti-Israel protester disrupts Berkeley law dean’s backyard dinner, refuses to leave, scuffle ensues

MAYA MIRSKY | J. STAFF

What was meant to be a congratulatory spring dinner for graduating students at the home of UC Berkeley’s law school dean turned confrontational on April 9 when a pro-Palestinian protester stood up with a microphone and began making a speech.

Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife, law school professor Catherine Fisk, were hosting the event for third-year law students in their backyard and asked the protester, who was a student and one of the registered guests, to leave.

According to a statement released by Chemerinsky, around 60 students signed up to attend and were eating dinner when the disruption occurred.

“While guests were eating, a woman stood up with a microphone, stood on the top step in the yard, and began a speech, including about the plight of the Palestinians,” Chemerinsky said in the statement. “My wife and I immediately approached her and asked her to stop and leave. The woman continued. When she continued, there was an attempt to take away her microphone. Repeatedly, we said to her that you are a guest in our home, please stop and leave. About 10 students were clearly with her and ultimately left as a group.”

Video has circulated on social media that shows a woman identified as Malak Afaneh, who is a Berkeley law student and co-president of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine. She is also a law clerkat the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The student group had called for a boycott of Chemerinsky’s dinner with a disturbing cartoon that showed the law school dean holding a fork and knife covered in blood.

“No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves,” it read.

In the video clip, which shows 20 seconds of the incident, Afaneh is standing with a microphone and reading from her phone. Fisk approaches and grabs at her phone and the mic while putting her arm around her shoulder in what appears to be an attempt to move her aside.

“Leave,” Fisk says. “This is not your house. This is my house.”

Chemerinsky also intervenes. “Please leave our house,” he says loudly. “You are guests in our house.”

According to one student present at the event, the video doesn’t paint the whole picture. A Jewish third-year law student who was at the dinner said that the protesters, including Afaneh, were speaking and disrupting the event for quite a while before things escalated. They were at first politely asked to leave by Chemerinsky and Fisk, the student said. The video shows only the end of the incident, after the protesters had been speaking there for three or four minutes, he said.

“I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda,” he said.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ also weighed in on the disruption.

“I am appalled and deeply disturbed by what occurred at Dean Chemerinsky’s home last night,” Christ said in a statement sent to J. “I have been in touch with him to offer my support and sympathy. While our support for Free Speech is unwavering, we cannot condone using a social occasion at a person’s private residence as a platform for protest.”

“They did not leave when they were asked the first 20 or 30 times,” he said. The student added that they finally left after Fisk said that while she was reluctant to call the police, she would do so if needed.

I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home and use this social occasion for their political agenda.

He said students at the dinner were already on edge, as they expected some kind of protest — but outside, on the public sidewalk. Instead, it was in front of them.

“We mostly stared in a combination of awkwardness and disbelief,” he said. “I think people weren’t quite sure how they should respond.”

Another student who was present said she was not entirely surprised that something like this happened, considering that one of the tables had students she knew to be part of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine. She told J. that she felt bad for Chemerinsky and Fisk.

“They’re just such good people and kind people, and don’t deserve this,” she said.

Both students requested anonymity over concerns about potential repercussions for them.

The Instagram posts calling for a boycott of the event and depicting Chemerinsky included a caption that read, “This dinner is the prime example of a normalization PR event that hopes to distract students from Dean Chem’s complicity and support for the genocide of the Palestinian peoples.”

“I never thought I would see such blatant antisemitism,” Chemerinsky said in his statement, “with an image that invokes the horrible antisemitic trope of blood libel and that attacks me for no apparent reason other than I am Jewish.”

Chemerinsky lamented the disruption of what was meant to be a welcoming, positive evening.

Chemerinsky has largely been supportive of the rights of his students to voice their criticisms of Israel.

He spoke out against trucks sent by the right-leaning Jewish organization Accuracy in Media that drove around UC Berkeley in February displaying the names and photos of people that the organization accused of holding antisemitic views.

Chemerinsky has also defended the right of law school clubs to bar Zionist speakers, although he disagreed with the policy.

In a 2022 op-ed in J., Chemerinsky wrote about the student groups at Berkeley’s law school that had changed their bylaws to condemn Israel. “It is crucial that I stress that students have the right to take a position on this, like all issues, even if I disagree with them or find their views offensive,” he wrote at the time.

In that op-ed, however, he expressed concerns that the updated bylaws also included a pledge to ban Zionist speakers.

“It is very troubling to broadly exclude a particular viewpoint from being expressed,” he said. “Indeed, taken literally, this would mean that I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel, though I condemn many of its policies.”

His views on free speech were broad enough to include the posters targeting his Tuesday night dinner.

“I felt that though deeply offensive, they were speech protected by the First Amendment,” he said in his statement. However, he drew the line at protests at his home.

“The dinners will go forward on Wednesday and Thursday,” he wrote. “I hope that there will be no disruptions; my home is not a forum for free speech. But we will have security present. Any student who disrupts will be reported to student conduct and a violation of the student conduct code is reported to the Bar.” n

UC Berkeley opens probe into law professor over confrontation with anti-Israel student

LEA LOEB | J. STAFF

More than a month after anti-Israel protesters began blocking the main arch of UC UC Berkeley has opened a Title IX civil rights investigation after an April 9 confrontation between a professor and a Muslim law student at the professor’s home, the Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Tuesday.

The investigation follows a complaint that Malak Afaneh, who is active in pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests at Cal, filed with the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination after the incident. The office focuses on compliance with policies related to sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, religion and other federally protected categories.

On April 9, Afaneh stood up with a wireless microphone she brought and began making a speechabout the war in Gaza and the holiday of Ramadan at the home of law professor Catherine Fisk and law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky. In a video that went viral online, Fisk is seen trying to grab Afaneh’s microphone and cell phone and wrapping her arm around Afaneh’s shoulder while repeatedly telling her to leave.

Fisk and Chemerinsky were hosting an invitation-only dinner for third-year law students in their backyard. Afaneh, a graduating law student, was a guest.

The incident has sparked controversy and raised concerns about freedom of speech, discrimination and campus tensions. On April 10, Afaneh released a statement on Instagram along with a clip of the viral video alleging that she had been attacked. She alleged that Fisk had pulled on her neck, chest, shirt and hijab and that Fisk had attempted to remove her not only for her pro-Palestinian beliefs, but because she is Muslim.

“I was not attacked solely for speaking out about the genocide of the Palestinian people…I was attacked because I, as a visibly Muslim, hijab wearing, kuffiyeh repping, Arabic speaking, woman was deemed as a threat that deserved being traumatized and assaulted simply for carrying the identities I do,” she wrote. “I was attacked because we live in a world where Zionist administration and the world as a whole views Palestinian bodies as constructed to die, while white ones are expected to live.”

However, another, longer video revealed more nuance about the incident. Toward the end of the nearly three-minute video, Fisk tells Afaneh, “We agree with you about

what’s going on in Palestine.”

In an email sent to J. on Tuesday, Chemerinsky said that Cal’s investigation into Afaneh’s complaint is a standard response. Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, also said that in the days leading up to her protest, Afaneh was involved in posting a cartoon, widely considered to evoke an antisemitic blood libel, in public areas on campus and

“It

is disturbing that the student who posted a blatantly antisemitic flyer and then deliberately disrupted a dinner party at my home, and refused to cease the disruption or leave when asked repeatedly to do so, then had the audacity to file a complaint with the campus that she was mistreated. ”

that he and Fisk had asked Afaneh to leave many times.

“It is disturbing that the student who posted a blatantly antisemitic flyer and then deliberately disrupted a dinner party at my home, and refused to cease the disruption or leave when asked repeatedly

to do so, then had the audacity to file a complaint with the campus that she was mistreated. The campus responded, as its routine, by saying it would investigate the complaint. It is no more than that. By campus policy such investigations are confidential,” Chemerinsky said in his email

that he also copied to Fisk.

The investigation was reported earlier by NBC News, which published an excerpt purportedly taken from the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination’s response to Afaneh.

“It was reported that on April 9, 2024, during a dinner for UC Berkeley Law School students, held at Respondent’s off-campus residence, Respondent physically grabbed you, attempted to forcibly take your cell phone and microphone from your hand, and asked you to leave a University event when you began to speak in support of Palestine and about Ramadan,” the office wrote, according to NBC.

Afaneh is co-president of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the groups responsible for high-profile anti-Israel demonstrations on campus including a monthslong blockade of the main section of UC Berkeley’s Sather Gate. She is also a law clerk at CAIR and one of the leaders of the current encampment protest at the university.

Fisk and Afaneh did not immediately respond to requests for comment. University spokesperson Dan Mogulof declined to comment, citing personnel issues that the university cannot legally discuss. n

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