The US Ministry of Justice announced on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into civil rights on anti -Semitism allegations at the University of California, saying that its lawyers thought there were a “potential model” of discrimination against Jewish employees of the flagship system of higher education.
The investigation would determine whether the CU “has engaged in a scheme or a practice of discrimination based on race, religion and national origin against its teachers, its staff and other employees by allowing a hostile anti -Semitic work environment to exist on its campuses,” the ministry said in a statement.
Anti -Semitism reports have increased through the UC system since October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks Israel and the War of Israel in Gaza. The decision of the ministry did not cite specific incidents on the UC campuses and did not distinguish campuses outside a brief mention of the UCLA.
“This Ministry of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, will protect civil rights and take advantage of our resources to eradicate institutional anti -Semitism in the universities of our country”, Atty. General Pamela Bondi said in the press release.
Chad Mizelle, Associate Attorneur Associate General and Chief of Cabinet of the Department, in the Declaration cited a “disturbing rise in anti -Semitism in educational establishments in California and on a national scale”.
The ministry said that it would work with the employment opportunities commission and the federal working group to combat anti-Semitism, a multi-agencies group created last month, to search for UC.
The member of the working group, Leo Terrill, who is also a principal lawyer for the unit of civil rights of the Ministry of Justice, said in a statement that the post-oct. 7 landscape led to an “epidemic of anti -Semitic incidents in the main higher education establishments in America, including in my own Alma Mater on the UCLA UC campus”.
Terrill said that “the impact on UC students has been the subject of considerable attention from the media and multiple federal surveys. But these campuses are also workplaces, and the professors and the Jewish staff employed there deserve a working environment without hostility and anti -Semitic hatred. »»
This story develops and will be updated.
California Daily Newspapers
