Jewish students head to court to stop UCLA’s antisemitic encampments UCLA students ask court to bar university from allowing exclusion of Jews from campus

UPDATE: New time for the hearing will be approximately 1 p.m. PT 

WASHINGTON – Three Jewish students will be in federal court next week to stop the University of California, Los Angeles, from allowing and assisting antisemitic encampments that bar Jewish students from accessing the heart of campus. In Frankel v. Regents of the University of California, Becket and co-counsel Clement & Murphy PLLC filed a lawsuit against UCLA after it helped a group of activists as they set up an encampment where they harassed Jewish students and stopped them from accessing classes, the library, and other critical parts of campus. UCLA reinforced these zones—both by providing metal barriers and by sending away Jewish students—while taking no effective action to ensure safe passage for Jewish students.  

On June 24, three current UCLA students asked the court to put an immediate stop to UCLA’s actions so that they could return to class free from fear that they would be harassed and excluded for being Jewish. UCLA then doubled down, disavowing any obligation to protect its Jewish students, and claimed—despite the numerous encampments that have continued on UCLA’s campus—that the students have nothing to fear when classes begin again. In response, the students pointed out to the court that the May encampment was hardly an isolated incident. Rather, it merely demonstrated the unchecked antisemitism that ran rampant both before and after those appalling events took place. Given that UCLA has now admitted to the court that it set up barricades reinforcing the encampment and follows a policy prohibiting calling the police “preemptively,” it could not be clearer that “[w]hen activists discriminate against and threaten Jews, UCLA protects the activists, not their Jewish victims.” 

Yitzchok Frankel is a law student and father of four who faced antisemitic harassment last semester simply for wearing a kippah and who was forced to abandon his regular routes through campus because of the Jew Exclusion Zone. Frankel detailed how UCLA’s continued failures have forced him to cancel plans on campus with his family and to forgo opportunities to mentor incoming Jewish students on campus during orientation week. Eden Shemuelian, another law student, has also had to avoid using campus facilities and participating in law school orientation events because of UCLA’s continuing failures to ensure the safety and equal access of Jewish students. With the beginning of the fall semester looming, the students will ask the court to ensure that Jews will never again face such antisemitic bigotry at UCLA.  

What: 
Oral Argument in Frankel v. Regents of the University of California

Arguing before the court: 
Mark Rienzi, president and CEO at Becket  

When: 
Monday, July 29, 2024, at approximately 1 p.m. PT 

Where: 
U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
350 W 1st Street, Courtroom 7C, 7th Floor,
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Becket attorneys will be available for comment following the hearing.  

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket attorney, contact Ryan Colby at  media@becketlaw.org  or 202-349-7219.