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The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it had launched a civil rights investigation into anti-Semitism allegations at the University of California. Lawyers believe there is a “potential pattern” for Jewish employees in the state’s higher education system.
The survey will determine whether UC is engaged in patterns or practices of discrimination based on race, religion, and national origins against professors, staff and other employees.
Reports of anti-Semitism have been rising throughout the UC system since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza. The department’s decision did not cite any particular incidents on the UC campus and did not select the campus other than a brief mention of UCLA.
“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and use our resources to eradicate institutional anti-Semitism at our country’s universities,” Atty said. General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
In a statement, Chad Mizzell, acting assistant attorney general and chief of staff for the department, cited “the disturbing rise of anti-Semitism in educational institutions across California and across the country.”
The department said it will work with the Employment Opportunity Committee and the Federal Task Force to investigate UC to combat anti-Semitism, a multi-institutional group established last month.
The latter Octo said in a statement, Leo Terrill, a task force member who is also a senior adviser to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Unit. The 7 Landscape led to “an outbreak of anti-Semitism incidents at American institutions of higher education, including my own alma mater on UC’s UCLA campus.”
Terrill said, “The impact on UC students has been subject to considerable media attention and multiple federal investigations. However, these campuses are also workplaces, and the Jewish faculty and staff employed there deserve a working environment free of anti-Semitic hostility and hatred.”
This story has been developed and updated.
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