Ten Jewish UCLA faculty members signed onto an amicus brief Tuesday supporting the UC’s motion to dismiss a Department of Justice lawsuit alleging that the university fostered a hostile workplace for Jewish and Israeli faculty.
The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that UCLA allowed antisemitic protests on its campus following political party and militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. The DOJ claimed in the lawsuit that the spring 2024 Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA excluded Jewish people and featured antisemitic posters and chants. Organizers set up the encampment to demand the University divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military.
The UC Board of Regents filed a motion to dismiss the DOJ’s lawsuit Oct. 26. The UC said in the motion that although some employees experienced antisemitism on UCLA’s campus following the protests, the university has taken actions to address alleged discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students and faculty.
[Related: UC asks judge to dismiss DOJ lawsuit alleging UCLA allowed antisemitism]
The faculty members said in the brief that antisemitism at UCLA is not pervasive enough to warrant federal intervention.
“A flare-up of antisemitic incidents during a turbulent moment does not establish pervasive antisemitism warranting immediate judicial and executive oversight,” said Rebecca Marcyes, an attorney for the amici curiae, in the brief.
The DOJ also launched an initial investigation into the UC in March 2025 over allegations that the University allowed the antisemitic treatment of its employees. The DOJ claimed that the UC violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sex, race, color, national origin and religion.
UCLA Media Relations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the amicus brief. The UC Office of the President directed the Daily Bruin to UCLA Media Relations.
The Israeli military has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians since it began its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023 in response to Hamas’ attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Organizers for the encampment have denied it was antisemitic, arguing that the demonstration included Jewish people and that participants celebrated Jewish holidays, including by hosting a Seder and a Shabbat dinner.
Marcyes cited UCLA’s swift reaction to alleged antisemitism on and around campus – including when pro-Palestine demonstrators vandalized UC Regent Jay Sures’ Brentwood home in February 2025 – as reasoning for the federal government to dismiss the lawsuit. Protesters put red handprints on Sures’ garage door and demanded the university divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military.
“In February 2025, when members of two student groups harassed a Jewish Regent and his family at home, UCLA acted swiftly,” Marcyes said. “Chancellor Frenk issued a video condemning violence against the UCLA community and announcing the groups’ interim suspension pending review.”
Within the six months following Oct. 7, 2023, then-interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt established the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, which analyzed survey responses from more than 400 Jewish and Israeli community members in its October 2024 report, Marcyes said. The 2024 report recommended that the university provide relevant training, overhaul its discrimination reporting system and clarify and enforce rules in a consistent and timely manner.
Marcyes argued in the brief that UCLA’s corrective steps since Oct. 7, 2023, demonstrate the institution is moving in the right direction. The faculty who signed onto the brief believe federal involvement is “highly premature,” she added.
“The university’s response to the encampments was imperfect, as UCLA acknowledged when it declined to appeal the injunction issued in August 2024,” Marcyes said. “But establishing that antisemitism pervades a campus as decentralized as UCLA requires more than Plaintiffs have alleged.”
