UC Berkeley to act on antisemitism after $1M Brandeis Center settlement

The University of California, Berkeley, will pay $1 million and change its anti-Semitism policy after settling a lawsuit with the Brandeis Center. The $1 million penalty will be used to reimburse the Brandeis Center for outside attorneys’ fees.

Under the settlement, UC Berkeley must prohibit discrimination and harassment based on an individual’s actual or perceived religion, common ancestry, common ethnicity, and/or national or ethnic origin, particularly Jewish or Israeli. The university also agreed to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. However, in a statement released by UC Berkeley after the settlement, the university said it had an “existing practice” of considering the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in its reviews of anti-Semitism allegations.

The university will also clarify on its Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) website that “bans on Zionists have historically been used by certain individuals and institutions as a pretext to exclude Jews,” according to the agreement. This involves checking whether Zionism or the term “Zionists” is used as a “proxy” for Jews or Israelis.

“This agreement reflects UC Berkeley’s long-standing values ​​and goals to combat abhorrent anti-Semitic expressions, harassment and discrimination when they occur on the Berkeley campus,” UC Berkeley said in a statement.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment during a demonstration in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024 in Berkeley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The university also noted that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recently rated Jewish life at UC Berkeley “excellent” in its report on anti-Semitism on campus. The ADL gave UC Berkeley a “B” grade on its 2026 report card, showing improvement from the “C” it received in 2025 and the “D” grade it received in 2024.

“What happened at Berkeley is a cautionary tale. Universities, unions, corporations and political parties cannot create an anti-Zionist exception to their codes of conduct. They cannot silence American Jews under the guise of advancing their own political agendas. As we have seen time and time again, if anti-Semitic intolerance is not addressed, whether or not it is masked as anti-Zionism, it will only continue to fester. develop,” said Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus, president of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. assistant secretary of education who headed the Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement.

Paul Eckles, senior legal counsel at the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told Fox News Digital that the settlement marked a “major step” in the fight against anti-Semitism, but that it “is not the finish line.”

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2023, alleged widespread anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students at UC Berkeley following the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7. The suit described several stories of student experiences with anti-Semitic harassment at UC Berkeley.

A UC Berkeley student, draped in an Israeli flag, was attacked by two protesters who hit him in the head with a metal water bottle, according to the lawsuit. In another case, a Jewish graduate student was the victim of a break-in and was left a note saying “Fuck Jews, liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.” The lawsuit also points out that “many Jewish students are afraid to go to class.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters carry signs as they march past Sather Gate on the UC Berkeley campus, April 22, 2024 in Berkeley, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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There were also instances where protesters blocked Jewish students, spat on them and used ethnic slurs, including “dirty Zionist,” the lawsuit says. He noted that students were often targeted if rioters knew they were Jewish or if they wore Stars of David or yarmulkes.

Eckles praised Jewish students who came forward to recount their experiences of anti-Semitic harassment, but their complaints were ignored.

“I think it was the power of their stories and the clear impact that real, tangible anti-Semitism had on them and their experience at the school that ultimately paved the way for a settlement and convinced UC Berkeley to adopt the settlement’s reforms,” Eckles said.

The experiences of two Jewish professors were also included in the suit. In one case, a Jewish professor received an email “calling for his gassing and murder,” according to the lawsuit. The other Jewish professor was vandalized with graffiti calling him a terrorist.

The lawsuit also mentions an instance that occurred on February 26, 2024, in which a group of students known as Bears for Palestine managed to shut down a conference organized by Jewish students. The speaker was Ran Bar Yoshafat, a reservist and lawyer for the Israel Defense Forces. As the “violent crowd” broke up the event, a rioter spat on a Jewish student and called him a “dirty Jew,” according to the lawsuit.

Against a backdrop of tents, painted signs and flyers supporting the Palestinians surround Sproul Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where pro-Palestinian supporters have set up tents and a perimeter of barriers, photographed May 4, 2024 in Berkeley, California. (Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images)

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Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at combating anti-Semitism. Additionally, in February 2025, the Department of Justice formed a task force specifically focused on combating anti-Semitism. Senior Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell was named to lead the task force.