Unfortunately, UC Santa Cruz has continued to endorse antisemitism in the 16 months since my previous blog post on the subject. In this post, I’ll report on a few examples from this most recent period.

Since I've posted multiple times on antisemitism, I figured it'd be good to define what it is and what it isn't. Much of my definition is derived from the definition proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and subsequently adopted or endorsed by many countries and organizations. The United States State Department uses this definition, and it has been endorsed by the European Union as well as other countries around the world.

What is antisemitism?

The IHRA definition of antisemitism, as posted on the US State Department web site, lists the following as examples of antisemitism in public life:

  • Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.
  • Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.
  • Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
  • Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust
  • Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
  • Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
  • Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
  • Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
  • Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
  • Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
  • Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

I've highlighted, in bold, some of the more egregious examples that I've personally witnessed at UC Santa Cruz over the past year. But before I described them, I'll go into a bit more detail on one of the more controversial questions: is anti-Zionism antisemitism?

Anti-Zionism is antisemitism

At its most basic, anti-Zionism is the belief that Israel must not exist as a Jewish state. Period. This is clearly antisemitism according to the definition above, for two reasons.

First, denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination is, itself, explicitly antisemitism.

But what about the people, like Zohran Mamdani, who say that they oppose all ethnostates? Mamdani has said "I’m not comfortable supporting any state that has a hierarchy of citizenship on the basis of religion or anything else." But does that apply to all such states, including Saudi Arabia (Sunni Islam) and Iran (Shiite Islam)? What about England, whose official religion is the Anglican Church? Or Costa Rica and Monaco, both formally Catholic? Has Mamdani come out against them? Equally important, Israel doesn't give preference to its Jewish citizens over Muslim, Christian, or Bahai citizens. Yes, Israel gives immigration preference to Jews, but other countries give preferences based on descent too. For example, people of Lithuanian descent may claim Lithuanian nationality. In such cases, people who oppose ethnostates typically only oppose the Jewish ethnostate, while giving Christian and Muslim ethnostates a pass. In other words, they're applying double standards to Israel.

Antisemitism at UC Santa Cruz: an update

I wrote about antisemitism in Santa Cruz in Spring 2024, including details about antisemitism at UC Santa Cruz. Sadly, antisemitism on campus has become more prevalent since then.

The most blatant example of antisemitic behavior is the encampment at UC Santa Cruz in late Spring 2024. The encampment was nominally pro-Palestinian, but featured slogans that were clearly antisemitic, including accusations of genocide against Israel. Equally concerning, encampment residents harassed Jewish students and other Jews. This wasn’t based on religious observance (which would be bad enough), but was rather based on affiliation with the Jewish people and unwillingness to denounce Israel as a racist colonial endeavor.

The mere existence of the encampment would have been concerning enough, but the university’s response to it was shameful. Rather than shut down an encampment that filled Quarry Plaza at the center of campus and impeded access for everyone, they let it continue for weeks. When they finally decided to evict it, the encampment moved to the based of campus, blocking access to the entire campus for several weeks. This marks the campus administration as having antisemitic leanings as well: there’s no question that an encampment by an anti-black group would have been shut down immediately and students disciplined. If it’s a protest against Jews that’s illegally blocking the campus entrance, it can go on for weeks.

The climate on campus was so bad that, when Hillel held a vigil for the hostages on October 7, 2024, the campus requested that they move the vigil off-campus for their own safety. Hillel wouldn’t disclose the location publicly, making it available only to those who RSVPed. The vigil was non-violent — I was there — and made no mention of Palestinians other than to ask that they release the hostages. In contrast, an anti-Israel protest marched from downtown Santa Cruz to Quarry Plaza in the center of campus.

Jews shouldn’t have to hold meetings in secret because of antisemitism. Worse, the campus administration shouldn’t be urging them to do so for their own safety — they should be defending the rights of Jews to assemble peaceably on campus, just as they would (and do!) defend the rights of others to do so. Failing to do so shows cowardice in the face of ongoing antisemitism at UC Santa Cruz.