After a Jewish religious object was stolen from the Sukkot celebration one night, administrators reportedly advised Jewish students to limit their religious observance to the daytime to avoid being targeted.
The Trump administration opened an investigation into anti-Semitism at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, after anti-Israel activists allegedly pelted their Jewish classmates with fake blood, and administrators encouraged the students to “hide their Jewish identity to avoid being targeted.”
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched the investigation in response to a civil rights complaint from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law, the legal advocacy group said on Tuesday.
Jewish students at Cal Poly have accused administrators of ignoring anti-Jewish attacks and allowing an atmosphere of anti-Semitism to spread on campus, the Washington Free Beacon reported in March.
According to the Brandeis Center complaint, pro-Hamas protesters disrupted a vigil for victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks by drawing a “Zio Corner” chalk circle around attendees and throwing red paint at Jewish students meant to represent the “blood of martyrs.”
Activists also held a demonstration adjacent to a religious ceremony for the Jewish High Holiday of Sukkot and wrote chalk messages directed at the Jewish students that said, “Go Away Nazis.”
After a Jewish religious object was stolen from the Sukkot celebration one night, administrators reportedly advised Jewish students to limit their religious observance to the daytime to avoid being targeted.
“By telling Jewish students who complained of anti-Semitism to hide evidence of their Jewish identity, the university not only dismissed the Jewish students’ concerns, it also shirked its responsibility to take prompt and effective action to address anti-Semitic incidents on its campus,” the Brandeis Center complaint reads.
The probe is part of a broader Trump administration effort to crack down on campus anti-Semitism and racial discrimination.
The General Services Administration on Tuesday instructed federal agencies to cut all remaining funding to Harvard University, noting the school’s allegedly “discriminatory” practices, including “anti-Semitic action that suggests the institution has a disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students.”
The Department of Education’s OCR announced in March that it would also open investigations into anti-Semitism at American University, Yale University, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Brandeis Center chairman Kenneth L. Marcus, the former head of the Department of Education’s OCR, welcomed the investigation.
“Not only did the Cal Poly administration refuse to prosecute brazen, violent acts of anti-Semitism, but they allowed their students to be victimized over and over, offering them nothing but a callous disregard for their continued harassment,” Marcus told the Free Beacon.
“We hope this investigation will force Cal Poly to stop sweeping anti-Semitism under the rug, and it will serve as a sign to all universities: Indifference to bigotry and hatred will not be tolerated.”
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