The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has launched a probe into allegations of antisemitism at the University of Vermont, a school spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.
The complaint, filed last fall by the advocacy organization Jewish on Campus and the nonprofit Jewish civil rights watchdog Louis D. Brandeis Center, claims that the UVM administration failed to act on reports of targeted harassment of Jewish students. The incidents cited in the complaint include vandalism at the UVM Hillel building and derogatory social media posts by a teaching assistant, who encouraged others to cyberbully pro-Israel Jewish students and wrote, in a Twitter thread last April, about reducing the grades of Zionist Jews, a faction within Judaism that identifies Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. “is it unethical for me, a TA, to not give zionists credit for participation???” read one of the teaching assistant’s tweets, whose name was redacted in the complaint. “i feel like its good and funny, -5 points for going on birthright in 2018, -10 for posting a pic with a tank in the Golan heights, -2 just cuz i hate ur vibe in general.”
The complaint also alleges that two UVM student groups discriminated against Zionist Jews. In May 2021, UVM Empowering Survivors, which had just staged a mass walkout in protest of the administration’s handling of sexual violence on campus, wrote in an Instagram post that “if you don’t support Palestinian liberation you don’t support survivors.”
The post continued: “we follow the same policy with zionists that we follow with those trolling or harassing others: blocked.”
Around the same time, according to the complaint, the newly formed UVM Revolutionary Socialist Union book club declared, in its first social media post, that no “racism, racial chauvinism, predatory behavior, homophobia, transphobia, Zionism, or bigotry and hate speech of any kind will be tolerated.”
“For many Jews, including many Jewish students at UVM, Zionism is an integral component of Jewish ethnic identity,” the complaint states. “Harassing, marginalizing, demonizing, and excluding these Jewish students on the basis of the Zionist component of their Jewish identity is just as unlawful and discriminatory as attacking a Jewish student for observing the Sabbath or keeping kosher.” By failing to intervene, the complaint contends, UVM has violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in educational institutions that receive federal funding.
“UVM is legally obligated to protect these students from the anti-Semitic harassment that has marginalized and excluded them on the basis of their Jewish identity,” the complaint reads. “This harassment has denied the students an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of UVM’s educational and extra-curricular offerings.”
In a statement, a spokesperson said UVM plans to cooperate with the investigation and “is looking forward to providing the agency with a full response to the underlying allegations, each of which was reported to the university in 2021 and investigated by campus officials.”
In their own statement, UVM Hillel leaders offered support for the university’s Jewish students.
“We know from our colleagues across the country that antisemitism and anti-Israel activity have risen to unprecedented levels with the return to in-person campus activity,” the statement read. “We take seriously our responsibility to work with our university partners to ensure incidents of bias are addressed, and that university leaders swiftly identify and publicly condemn antisemitism, bias, and hate in any form.
“Our campus and our community should be a safe space for all students – including Jewish students.”
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