UC Berkeley pledges to expand antisemitism education to all new students

By Teresa Watanabe Los Angeles Times

6 months ago

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of Sproul Hall during a planned protest at Universit ... — Pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of Sproul Hall during a planned protest at University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, California, on Monday, April 22, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/TNS)

Pro-Palestinian students disrupted the MSU Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, June 28, 2024, as Trustee Sandy Pierce was talking about the university’s endowment. The board listened to the protesters for a few minutes, then left the room for several minutes before returning to resume the meeting. (Kim Kozlowski/The Detroit News/TNS)

A pro-Palestinian activist speaks during a march near University of Pittsburgh Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Rally goers organized in part by Pitt students gathered for a pro-Palestine rally that started with a few speakers, followed by a march from University of Pittsburgh to Carnegie Mellon University and back. (Sebastian Foltz/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

LOS ANGELES — UC Berkeley will expand antisemitism education to all incoming students beginning this fall, after pro-Palestinian protests fueled anxieties among many Jewish campus members, Chancellor Carol Christ announced this past week.

For the first time, the campus will provide a five-year funding commitment to widen the educational effort, which began on a much smaller scale in 2019, to all new students, leaders of official student organizations and residential assistants.

Berkeley will also strengthen the Center for Jewish Studies with a new designation that will allow it to have its own endowed chairs and faculty members and launch faculty searches. A new Israel Studies minor, which has been in the works for years, will begin this fall.

The new programs will aim to counter the “deeply disturbing” rise in antisemitism at Berkeley and elsewhere since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel, Christ said in a letter to members of her advisory committee on Jewish student life and campus climate.

“I understand and acknowledge that many members of our Jewish community felt deeply disturbed, even unsafe, due to the presence and persistence of expression that was reasonably perceived to be antisemitic,” Christ wrote. “You can be confident that there is no complacency among campus leadership on these issues.”

In other developments this past week:

— Michigan State University Board of Trustees was in the middle of its regular board meeting on Friday, approving a 2.7 percent tuition increase, when pro-Palestinians protesters disrupted the board’s business and demanded the university end its investments linked to Israel.

— University of Pittsburgh Police have charged a man with rioting and aggravated assault in connection to the pro-Palestinian encampment on Pitt’s campus earlier this month, the third protester to be charged by university police. Cole Florkewicz, 24, of Pittsburgh, has also been charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing the law, according to court documents.

— In the wake of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses nationwide, the University of Central Florida this past week banned camping on its grounds and limited the duration of protests. The UCF Board of Trustees approved the ban as part of an update to university regulations regarding “university facilities; events and protests.”