Brandeis Center and Anti-Defamation League sue Pomona College over antisemitism Title IV violation

On Thursday, May 9, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced they filed two federal complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, suing both Occidental and Pomona College on grounds of rising antisemitism on their campuses since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Joined by the law firm of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, the Brandeis Center and ADL are filing a lawsuit against Pomona for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the college permitted “severe discrimination and harassment of Jewish students.”

They write they are filing the suit on “behalf of current and former Jewish and Israeli students at Pomona College,” and are calling on the court to demand that Pomona adopt 17 proposed remedies to “heal current wounds” and “prevent further damage.”

“The hostile environment on campus forces Jewish and Israeli students to conceal their identities and precludes them from participating in Pomona’s social, educational, and extracurricular activities unless they disavow their Jewish ancestral and ethnic heritage connected to Israel,” they wrote in the complaint.

They claim that although Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr and the school’s administration have been aware of this, they have been unable to address it “promptly and effectively” despite “recent laudable efforts,” likely referring to Starr authorizing a call to the Claremont police during a protest calling for the university’s divestment from “the apartheid system within the state of Israel,” which resulted in the arrests of 20 5C students on April 5.

They attributed Starr’s inability to adequately manage the prejudice to “the strong opposition she has experienced from pro-Hamas students and faculty … coupled with the complexity of the school structure, and the unremittingly hostile environment on campus.”

“The situation at Pomona is serious and ongoing, and we are receiving reports of new antisemitic acts of discrimination and harassment every day,” the complaint reads. “Jewish and pro-Israel students on Pomona’s campus are frightened and alone.”

Throughout the statement, they assert that Pomona administration has consistently failed to enforce their demonstration policy against protests calling for the liberation of Palestine, all of which they refer to as “disruptive.” The complaint also echoes language used by Starr since November arguing the students concealing their identities with masks poses a severe danger to the safety of the community.

In addition to the protests themselves, the complaint names several incidents of violence and harassment against Jewish community members over the course of the academic year by members of groups such as Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Claremont Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

They specifically describe an encounter in October where a few Jewish students joined by Claremont Hillel Executive Director Bethany Slater were confronted by members of SJP and JVP while attempting to put up approved posters about the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. 

“The SJP and JVP students then trailed the Jewish students and the Jewish staff member, obstructed their paths, stepped on one of the Jewish students’ feet, verbally harassed and yelled at them …, ripped down the posters they had put up, and tore up at least three-hundred of their pre-approved flyers,” they wrote. “As the students ripped down images of innocent hostages, the Executive Director of Hillel calmly told the protestors, ‘Excuse me, that is approved, you are not allowed to remove that flier.’ One angry SJP or JVP student responded, ‘you can dig it out of the trash where it belongs.’”

The complaint stated no action was taken by administration because they said since students were masked they were therefore unidentifiable. They also said this was despite one of the Jewish students having video of the event, which campus security allegedly refused to view.

Further, according to the complaint, they attempted to put up their remaining 250 fliers, but were again stopped by another student. After two hours almost all of the posters had been ripped down.

The claims of harassment were furthered in a second incident on the same day where a student, who had his phone out while walking passed by a rally while going to the “campus store,” was allegedly falsely accused of recording the rally by a “female SJP or JVP supporter” who then “aggressively pushed him into a wall.”

“Two other SJP and JVP members – at least one of whom was much bigger and taller than the Jewish student – then followed this same Jewish student into the campus store and questioned him in an intimidating manner about why he was there,” they wrote. “Since this assault, this Jewish student has dealt with ongoing psychological trauma, including nightmares and bouts of anxiety.”

They explained when reporting the incident later, the student was unable to identify his assailants because everyone at the protest was wearing all black and masks. Campus security was also absent from the event.

Ultimately, the complaint stated Pomona’s response to both of these actions was understated, ineffective and unacceptable.

“It took President Starr five days to respond to these incidents,” they wrote. “President Starr released a statement … [that] broadly acknowledged that ‘[b]bullying and intimidation are against our policies and counter to our values’ but failed to directly address and condemn the harassment and intimidation the Jewish students and the Executive Director of Hillel experienced on October 20. Nor did President Starr address the use of physical violence against the Jewish student in the campus store.”

SJP and JVP responded to these allegations in a joint statement via correspondence with TSL on May 20.

“SJP and JVP remain steadfast in our commitment to Palestinian Liberation, and operate under the crucial understanding that nobody is free until everybody’s free,” they wrote. “We do not condone any perpetrators of racism, bigotry or violence and do not welcome or acknowledge them as a part of our movement or coalition. We also reject the dangerous conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, the latter being a movement that rejects all forms of oppression, including antisemitism. SJP and JVP firmly believe that Jewish and Palestinian liberation are deeply intertwined. Never again means never again for anyone. There are no exceptions.”

Pomona administration’s inaction is further described in the suit through evidence labeled “Exhibit A,” an attached email chain between an anonymous student in Claremont Haverim, a 5C club for Jewish and Israeli students, and Pomona Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Avis Hinkson and Associate Dean of Students & Dean of Campus Life Josh Eisenberg.

In the email, they call on Pomona administration to respond to two acts of antisemitism at the 5Cs: the Claremont Student Workers Alliance (CSWA) allegedly blocking students with “‘Zionist sounding name[s]’ from viewing or following its page,” and Claremont SJP allegedly creating a “blacklist” of professors who teach classes on Judaism and antisemitism for students to boycott.

According to the complaint, despite initial replies from both deans in November, there has been no follow up from administration since.

CSWA did not respond for comment.

Later, they go into detail on Pomona’s canceled “Harry Potter Dinner” at Frary Dining Hall, citing Starr’s statement on the event, in which she claimed she had video evidence of protestors physically restraining students from entering the dining hall. Protesters at the event adamantly asserted that their conduct was completely peaceful and it was actually a student trying to enter Frary who kneed a sitting protester in the face and broke another’s sunglasses. In the months since, no video has materialized from Pomona administration or campus security.

For the spring semester, they described the disruption of tours by members of Pomona Divest from Apartheid, who aren’t named in the complaint but led the action.

“Anti-Israel organizations … surrounded and menaced the tour groups, yelled at them about ‘genocide’ and ‘divestment’ through bullhorns,” they wrote in the complaint. “One prospective student was so devastated and traumatized by this harassing conduct that she started to tremble and sob, and she and her family left the tour early. This prospective student and her family heard Pomona’s message loud and clear: Jewish families and Jewish students are not welcome at Pomona.”

The complaint claims these actions have led to a “hostile environment” for Jewish students on campus, citing the ways in which students around the country have been affected by a rise in criticisms of the Israeli government.

“The incidents have had the net effect of promoting the marginalization and alienation of Jewish students in many ways,” section V of the complaint reads. “Some Jewish students have transferred to other schools; others have tried to study abroad or study remotely since October 7. Others have had to refrain from participating in certain educational and/or extracurricular activities, including attending certain dining halls or cafés, areas on campus, or events. For yet others, it has meant seeking mental health counseling for the trauma they have endured.”

In damages, the Brandeis Center and ADL are seeking Pomona to adopt 17 remedies including issuing a public apology to its Jewish community, providing official statements condemning antisemitism as well as supporting students’ right to “express their identification with Judaism, Jewish heritage and culture, and Israel openly on campus” and to institute new campus policies to combat antisemitism.

They also call on the school to review antisemitic bias in administration and in its curriculum, require ASPC senators to undergo antisemitism training, form a “Committee on Jewish Life” made of students and faculty and hire an external consultant to assess their work on combating discrimination.

On May 11, Pomona communications director Mark Kendall released the college’s official statement to TSL via email responding to the complaint.

“Pomona College is committed to confronting antisemitism in a sustained and comprehensive manner,” they wrote. “We will continue to enforce our policies, promote safety and actively challenge this destructive form of hate.”

Since Oct. 7, Starr has consistently discussed antisemitism in response to student protests — often receiving criticism for her interpretation of the term — including in a Feb. 16 statement where she claimed February’s referendum vote for disclosure on and divestment from “the apartheid system in the state of Israel” raised “the specter of antisemitism.”

Additionally, on May 9, Hinkson sent an email to the Pomona community addressing the use of certain slogans on signs put up on the Gaza solidarity encampment on Marston Quad. 

In the email, she specifically cites “from the river to the sea,” a divisive phrase that some Jewish people and many in the pro-Israel camp view as antisemetic, representing a call for the total elimination of the Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. However, for many Palestinians and people supporting them, they view the slogan as calling for an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid over Gaza, and equality for all those who live between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

Hinkson also references signs with the word “intifada,” an Arabic word literally translated to “shaking off.” Similarly, while some see it as a call for a civil uprising against Israeli occupation and violence towards Palestinians, others claim it again calls for globalized violence against Jewish people.

Hinkson explained that although these phrases “may be protected speech under the First Amendment, the college likewise has the right to condemn their use and how they affect members of our community.”

“We view this language as hostile to those who identify with Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, whether through national origin, religion or shared ancestry,” Hinkson wrote. “We reject hate in all its forms, and affected members of our community can find resources on our shared ancestry web.”

In an Instagram post on May 10, Claremont JVP disavowed Hinkson’s message, claiming it promoted dangerous rhetoric by conflating the safety of Jewish students to the state of Israel. They stated that this has been an ongoing pattern by Pomona administration motivated by the school’s Board of Trustees and “Zionist organizations like the ADL and the Brandeis Center.”

“Continuing to use Jewish students as a political shield for the state of Israel will endanger us as well as our Palestinian and SWANA classmates,” the post reads.

In the post, they clarified this point by quoting a letter they sent to 7C presidents last November.

“Conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism casts unjust suspicion of antisemitism onto Palestinians as well as Arabs and Muslims, playing on racialized stereotypes and putting these groups at risk of harm,” the Nov. 15 letter reads.

The letter additionally tracked the potential harm in conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

“Insidiously, this also makes Jews feel less safe … by diverting community resources that might otherwise respond to actual incidents of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination when they occur,” they wrote.

JVP’s May 10 post additionally quoted a Jewish 5C student, one of the 20 arrested on April 5, who spoke to this point further.

“I am fed up with the way that the college has continued to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism,” they said according to JVP. “I am fed up with the weaponization of grief and trauma of my people to justify genocide.”

Starr herself wrote on the importance of separating Jewish students from the state of Israel in a Dec. 1 statement titled, “Update on Addressing Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Shared Ancestry Discrimination.” In the statement, Starr condemns the targeting of Jewish students out of disagreement toward Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza as an antisemetic act, putting forward potential disciplinary action.

“In the realm of antisemitism, examples of such speech may include making dehumanizing or demonizing allegations about Jews or holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel – for example, perpetuating the idea that if a Jewish person supports Israel, they are supporting the killing of infants and children,” Starr wrote. “The College wants to make clear that while, depending on circumstances, such speech may not constitute a conduct violation, it is something we will not ignore.”

Though they have not yet released a statement directly responding to the lawsuit, JVP have remained consistent in criticizing the conflation of Jewish people with the actions of the Israeli government. 

“By presenting Jewish students as collectively linked to the state of Israel, Pomona College administrators are publicly tying us to a genocidal state,” Claremont JVP wrote in their May 10 post. “This puts us in grave danger. We reject the dangerous conflation of Jews with the state of Israel. Not in our name! Free Palestine!”