Universities Must Protect Jewish Students With Same ‘Rigor and Vigor’ as Other Groups, CAM Official Says at DC Forum

Colleges and universities must protect Jewish students with the same “rigor and vigor” they do other targeted groups, Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) President of U.S. Affairs Alyza Lewin told an international conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

“One of the challenges though is that schools don’t seem to recognize the Jews’ shared ancestry and ethnicity,” Lewin noted in her remarks at the GW Program on Extremism’s “Challenging Extremism, Antisemitism, and Hate: From the Middle East to U.S. Colleges” forum. “Title VI of the Civil Rights Act does not include religion as a protected category. For a very long time, I think schools viewed Jews as just a faith, as just a religious group, defined only by religious belief and practice.”

Lewin joined a panel discussion on the topic of “Policy in Action: Confronting Antisemitism through Campus Policy and Community Partnerships,” moderated by GW Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Colette Coleman.

“What has happened over the last couple of decades is Jews who recognize and define their Jewishness as being part of a people indigenous to Judea, with roots in the ancestral Land of Israel, are branded as Zionists, treated as pariahs, and because it was not addressed for years on campuses, this hate has escalated,” Lewin said.

“Jewish students on campus today have a choice — they either shed or disavow their history and their heritage in order to be accepted or they have to come inside the Jewish bubble and join Hillel or Chabad, because they are not accepted as full as full Jews, celebrating their history and heritage, in the broader community,” she emphasized.

CAM Founder Adam Beren also participated in Tuesday’s conference, and led a discussion with former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

Other featured speakers at the all-day event included: The George Washington University President Ellen Granberg, GW Program on Extremism Director Lorenzo Vidino, Director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative (ARI) Dr. Omar Mohammed, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. Senator (R-TX) Ted Cruz, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, U.S. Department of Commerce General Counsel Pierre Gentin, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League H.E. Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al-Issa, and Senior Adviser to His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco and CAM Global Advisory Board Member H.E. André Azoulay.