In a landmark victory for civil rights, UCLA has been forced to reckon with its complicity in fostering antisemitism. Recently, the university agreed to a $6.13 million settlement and a permanent federal court order barring it from excluding Jews from campus. This isn’t just a win for Jewish students at UCLA, it’s a wake-up call for universities nationwide: tolerating antisemitism isn’t just immoral, it’s illegal and costly.
When I began law school at UCLA, I never imagined I’d end up suing its leadership to defend my basic rights. As an Orthodox Jew and the descendant of Holocaust survivors, my faith is central to who I am. I keep kosher, wear a kippah, observe Jewish holidays, and pray daily. But after Hamas’s horrific attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, my visible Jewish identity made me a target on campus.
