By Michael Sudhalter

Last year, the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed joint litigation against the Berkeley Unified School District in Northern California, alleging antisemitism.

ADL Vice President of Litigation James Pasch said the lawsuit is ongoing, but shared a harrowing example with attendees of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum’s third and final “Crucial Conversations: Challenging Antisemitism” session June 10.

A Berkeley elementary school lesson had asked students to draw what a Zionist looks like.

“There were all kinds of issues going on at Berkeley USD that led to a congressional hearing,” Pasch said. “It ranged from peer-to-peer harassment to teacher-to-student harassment.”

The 90-minute session focused on combating antisemitism, particularly through legal tools available in institutions, communities and online.

Pasch said what was once thought to be primarily a higher education problem has seeped into K-12 schools, labor unions and corporations.

Joining Pasch on the panel were Brandeis Center founder and chairman, the Honorable Kenneth L. Marcus, and Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Chief Government Affairs Officer Lisa Katz. The panel was moderated by Dr. Sara Abosch-Jacobson, the museum’s chief education officer. All panelists are attorneys.

The series was sponsored by Ronit and Haviv Ilan. Community partners included ADL Texoma, Congregation Anshai Torah, Dallas Afterschool, Greenhill School, Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, Southwest Jewish Congress, Temple Emanu-El, Temple Shalom and the Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission.

“I’m so proud of the series,” said DHHRM President and CEO Mary Pat Higgins. “I wish it wasn’t necessary. Just in the three months we’ve been doing this series, we’ve seen a horrible increase in violent antisemitism. In each of the sessions, I found things to be hopeful for and learned things that are pretty horrifying. Hopefully, we can focus on what we can all do to combat it together.”

The first portion of the event addressed recent attacks: the arson at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion during Passover in April, the murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., in May, and the assault in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month during a rally for Israeli hostages.

“We have a pattern,” Marcus said. “We are in a time of great danger. There is no particular area that’s safe. The problems that we’ve seen on campus are not just limited to the campus. Some of the ugly speech we’ve been hearing is not unrelated to the ugly conduct of which people are capable. We have to redouble our efforts to address it.”

Pasch said the ADL’s mission has always been to “educate, advocate and investigate.” Recently, litigation has become a larger priority. Since Oct. 7, 2023, more lawsuits have been filed than in the previous 110 years of ADL history combined.

“It’s very clear that our college students were bearing the brunt of antisemitism on campus,” he said. “I’m talking about Jewish students who have been violently assaulted on campus—punched in the face, with broken noses and jaws, concussed and in the hospital—for no other reason than being a Jew on campus.”

Pasch added that federal law requires universities to provide an environment where Jewish students can live, work and learn free of harassment and discrimination, and that doing so alongside protecting First Amendment rights is not only possible, but necessary.

Marcus discussed a recent settlement between the Brandeis Center and Harvard University, which remains under federal investigation for campus antisemitism. The agreement included Harvard adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, acknowledging that anti-Zionist attacks are biased and violate Harvard policies, and appointing a coordinator to monitor antisemitism issues.

“We want to expose problems and drive change,” said Marcus, who served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights from 2018 to 2020.

He said part of the strategy is following the money.

“One of the things in the Columbia case that has come out is that many of the protests were not organic, student-driven or by volunteers,” Marcus said. “They were put together by outside, paid professional organizations that mapped out in meticulous detail what should be done.”

Katz, a native New Yorker and former town supervisor in Westchester County, said Columbia University has become “a cesspool of antisemitism with an administration that’s not doing anything about it.”

She regularly hosts summits with mayors, law enforcement and other officials across the U.S. to educate them about antisemitism. One recent youth summit drew 1,000 teenagers.

Katz had planned to meet with 30 Colorado mayors the week of the Boulder attack, but the gathering turned into an “emergency summit” that drew officials from as far away as Oklahoma.

“Some people are waking up to realize antisemitism in the United States is worse than we thought it was,” Katz said. “It’s incumbent upon all law enforcement to be trained in the modern symbols of antisemitism. We’re seeing red triangles on buildings all of a sudden. More cities are adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism. You can’t fight something until you define what it is. Fill in the blank with any other marginalized group and people would be up in arms. But when it’s the Jews, nobody says anything. I am starting to see that shift a little bit.”

All panelists emphasized the need to fight antisemitism from both the far left and the far right.

They also stressed the importance of collaboration.

Pasch pointed to a new partnership between the ADL and the National Urban League. Katz said she is leading a summer trip to Israel with 30 African American mayors.

She added that young people must develop critical thinking skills to avoid relying solely on 20- or 30-second clips on TikTok and Instagram.

“The algorithm is not set up to speak against antisemitism, and I think it’s done that way on purpose,” Katz said. “These companies must be held accountable for what’s on their sites.”

Pasch said litigation against social media companies is possible but takes time.

Marcus said he is encouraged by Jewish teens and college students who are standing up for their identity.

“There are a significant number of leaders among people in the Jewish community still in their teens and 20s,” he said.

Pasch agreed.

“I’m heartened by the action I’ve seen from young people,” he said. “It’s an incredibly tough moment that’s been hoisted upon them. Teenagers shouldn’t be in a position where they have to defend their identity to their classmates. We want to leave this world a better, safer and more inclusive America for the next generation of Jews—so that nobody is kicked out of a coffeehouse for wearing a Star of David.”