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A massive sash of UCLA Jewish teachers (someone who is enthusiastically divided into Israeli wars in Gaza) has been united to sign a letter denounced a $100 million fine to settle campus anti-Semitism claims to condemn the Trump administration’s “misplaced and punitive” fines.
The letter, written by a small number of professors and signed by more than 360 people, was expected to be sent by organizers on Monday afternoon to the University of California board of directors. The government’s $584 million research grant freeze is also declining.
“Cutting off hundreds of millions of research funds will do nothing to make UCLA safer for Jews or reduce anti-Semitism around the world,” the letter states. “We will not benefit Jewish Bruins or Jews beyond campuses that have extensive access to top-notch medical facilities, groundbreaking scientific innovations and cutting-edge cultural institutions.”
The letter has a special resonance, bringing people a diverse view of the war in the Gaza Strip, its anti-Semitism nature, and its valence extension at UCLA. This was heard in the spring of 2024 by violent protests. The first anti-Semitism since Hamas attacked Israel two years ago.
Signatories include well-known professors with expertise in Israel, Jews and Nazism. The letter, entitled “Jews in the UC’s defense,” does not mention political differences in the community, but instead emphasizes its common goals.
“We urge the Trump administration to stop attempts to take away our critical research funding and other institutions aimed at saving lives and improving,” the letter said. “And I ask you to stop the misguided efforts to withhold funds in the name of a fight against anti-Semitism.”
In the interview, six signatories extending their views on Israel explained their feelings in more urgent terms. They called government actions exploitatively and manipulatively, claiming that the Trump administration sarcasmically used the anti-Semitic tragedy as an appeal to attempt to remake higher education that adheres to the president’s political stance.
One of the organizers of the letter, Professor Ariela Gross of UCLA Law School, said he aims to highlight UC’s response to Trump’s demands to the committee that will ultimately decide.
“We don’t want to back down,” she said. “And we don’t think you can negotiate with a scary person. That seems particularly important to Jewish community members. [express this]Given that this is done so ironically in our name, anti-Semitism is used as an excuse for the fig leaf of all these actions. ”
The U.S. Department of Justice, seeking a fine, declined to comment.
Ariela Gross, a professor at UCLA Schools.
(Jonathan Alcorn/Due to the era)
In addition to the $100 million penalty, the Department of Justice is seeking an additional $172 million for the claims fund of those affected by alleged civil rights violations and submissions to external monitors regarding UCLA contracts. Negotiations between the Trump administration and the University of California lawyers continue with President James B. Milicken and the Regent.
Still, UC officials call the current proposal “unacceptable,” but they are willing to negotiate. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to sue him without providing details, and UC tells Trump that he shouldn’t “bend his knees.”
Another letter organizer, UCLA professor David N. Myers, said prospects for both UC and Harvard’s cuts and dealing with Trump could set “dangerous” precedents.
Myers, a professor of Jewish history, said: “If they agree to a settlement, perhaps all subsequent institutions will do the same. What I find dangerous is not only the bankruptcy of these extraordinary institutions, but also the attempt to impose supervision and restraint on scholarships and intellectual discourse.”
How the letter was done
The letter was gathered quickly over the weekend of August 8th. Through separate conversations between Myers with Gross and Maia Ferdman, assistant director of UCLA’s Bedari Kindness Institute.
Myers said that during Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, during the time when he was not using electronic devices – he was pondering the issue. He wondered, “How can we attach a voice of protest to this proposed shakedown at the university in the name of protecting the Jews?”
After Shabbat ended at sunset on Saturday, Myers turned on his phone, where he spotted a message from Ferdman and Gross. They were thinking the same thing.
“If Jews from different political backgrounds from different corners of the university’s ecosystem gathered together and said something about this proposed fine, it was great,” said Feldman, whose institute aims to enhance research and practice of kindness.
Myers, director of the Kindness Institute, told his colleagues he would write a draft. On August 11, the letter began to circulate for signature after Ferdman and Gross provided feedback.
Zev Yaroslavsky, a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in his office at the time in 2014.
(Los Angeles Times)
Former LA County supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky was an early signer. He said the federal government’s actions “we are not going to address the issue of anti-Semitism on campus,” but they “punch a hole” in the school’s finances.
“It’s the presence of the facility, and that’s what’s at risk here,” said Yaroslavski, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Ruskin School of Public Relations.
Diverse opinions
The UCLA discrepancy climated in April 2024 at a massive camp installed at the Lois Quad. Pro-Israeli activists sparked a brawl, and the inability of law enforcement to stop it sparked intense criticism. The violence drew global headlines as campus protests raged across the nation.
Among the protesters in the camp was Jews who protested against the actions of the Israeli government, which launched punishments in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. However, Jewish voices are upset by what they described as UCLA’s tolerant approach to campus anti-Semitism.
When they discussed how the issue of anti-Semitism was being used by the Trump administration, several people who signed the letter broke.
Dov Waxman, professor of Israeli studies, said that anti-Semitism on campus is a problem but “is severely exaggerated and exaggerated to serve other political purposes and ideological agendas.”
“It can also cultivate cynicism about such exploitation manipulations, as well as the issue of anti-Semitism,” he said. “People will say, ‘Well, this is basically a udgel bug, it’s completely fine, it’s just being exploited.” ”
UCLA lecturer Beth Ribet teaches about American Nazism and white nationalism, approaching these issues from a different perspective than many other signatories.
Rivet, who called himself an “anti-Zionist Jew,” said there was anti-Semitism in UCLA. She said her most violent was the attacks on Jewish pro-Palestinian protesters in the spring of 2024.
“The debate that the Trump and UCLA administrations advocated about anti-Semitism represents a deep distortion of its actual meaning,” she said. “The anti-Semitism issues they’re explaining don’t match what we’re experiencing.”
Regarding the letter, Rivet said he captured “the naked bones that most Jews at UCLA agree.”
David Bocarsly, former student body and Jewish advocate at UCLA.
(Jonathan Alcorn/Due to the era)
Not all signatories are current or former UCLA faculty members, including David Bocallsley. He served as president of the student body in the 2012-13 academic year.
Bocallsley, executive director of California’s Jewish Public Affairs Commission, advocating for the state legislator and the Jewish community, said withholding of the research fund could reduce the safety of Jews on campus.
“Now you’re catching Jewish communities against other vulnerable communities,” he said. “Immigrants, first-generation, low-income college students will be directly harmed by this… those who need critical healthcare from the university system, those who benefit from research published by the university.”
Those who declined
The letter has been approved by hundreds of scholars with varying views on Israeli war in Gaza, but there were still some notable holdouts. Some members of the Jewish Teacher Resilience Group and the recently disbanded UCLA Task Force did not sign anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias. That reflects how much trouble is on campus.
Judea Pearl, professor at the UCLA at the Southern California Journalism Awards held at the Biltmore Los Angeles Hotel in 2024.
(Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)
Also, among the well-known UCLA Jews who decided not to sign, Judea Pearl, a professor of computer science.
Pearl was an outspoken supporter of Israel who denounced the “Zionist demon” at the university and was a co-recipient of the $1.2 million National Science Foundation, which was suspended in late July. On August 12, under a court order by a federal judge, the NSF revived the grant. It studies how to use genetic data from popular medical records to identify potential risk factors for disease.
Pearl said he approached him to sign a letter from “Jews of the Defence of the UC” but declined.
“This particular letter would sign a complaint brought by the Jewish community because it does not propose any constructive steps to address the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist cultures that have been nourished at UCLA in some sectors,” Pearl said.
Myers disagreed. He said, “I don’t believe it.” [Trump] The regime’s financial threat has something to do with the fight against anti-Semitism. It’s not the grass where this battle should be unfolded. ”
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