NEW YORK — Last year, anti-Israel protests rocked Columbia University in New York City, with student activists, Jewish groups, the university administration, police and members of Congress all drawn into the fray.
Behind the scenes, a more subtle battle was taking place, as both pro- and anti-Israel groups battered the university, and each other, with lawsuits.
A student suspended by the university after saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” sued Columbia over the decision. A Jewish student filed a lawsuit after he was punished for using a prank spray at a protest.
New York’s branch of the ACLU sued Columbia for suspending anti-Israel student groups. Meanwhile, five other students sued anti-Israel activists for damages related to the protest encampment on campus.
A new, first-of-its-kind initiative at New York City’s Touro University aims to train future lawyers for those battles. Last semester, Touro opened its first antisemitism legal course and in the spring semester will launch its first legal clinic on the topic. Touro is a Jewish university with around 19,000 students.
The initiative is led by Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfelder, the director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, a nonprofit focused on using legal tools and education to combat antisemitism. The program is part of the group’s long-term plan to use the law to combat antisemitism, Goldfelder said. The efforts will serve as a counterpoint to focused, decades-long efforts by Israel’s adversaries, he said.
“We need to execute on 20-year plans,” Goldfelder said in an interview. “One of those 20-year plans is training the next generation of people who can be professional Jewish advocates. Right now, there’s nowhere in the country where people can go if they want to become a Jewish civil rights lawyer.”
The undergraduate course last semester filled its 18 slots minutes after it was opened, Goldfelder said. Both Jewish and non-Jewish students participated.
“If you look at the landscape of American society, as well as higher education, in general there’s a need to train appropriate advocates to fight antisemitism and bias,” Rabbi Moshe Krupka, Touro’s executive vice president, said in an interview. “We felt the particular responsibility to do something meaningful for all of our students, not just the Jewish students, but all of our students that care about protecting the notion of truth and advocating responsibly.”
The course, titled “Antisemitism and the Law,” aims to educate students on “how the law can be used to define and defend against hate while allowing for legitimate discourse and disagreement,” according to the course listing. The course examines the limits of protected speech and when offensive actions cross the line into harassment or discrimination, through the lens of antisemitism.
The syllabus starts with studying definitions of antisemitism and moves into topics such as monitoring antisemitism, hate crimes, religious freedom, group libel, defamation and international law.
October 7 and its aftermath inspired many of the students to take the course, Goldfelder said.
Touro University Cross River Campus in Manhattan, October 1, 2023. (GTFletch – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)
“They took the course because they were shocked. They could not believe what they were seeing around them,” he said.
For the spring semester, Touro is hosting NJAC’s first legal clinic on antisemitism for around eight students. A legal clinic differs from a course by giving participants hands-on experience on actual cases, under the supervision of a professor who is an expert on the topic. The antisemitism course serves as a precursor to the clinic.
Goldfelder said his group is working on a “franchise model” for the training course and is talking to other universities, including non-Jewish institutions, about setting up similar programs, using Touro as the template.
“This is meant to train people to be advocates for fair play, for honesty, truth, and we look at this as an opportunity to fight the horrors of antisemitism and all forms of bias,” Krupka said.
Organizers hope the students go on to fill positions at advocacy groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, Brandeis Center, Lawfare Project and StandWithUs.
“I think this is the type of initiative that’s much needed,” said Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project.
“It’s about time the Jewish community started to benefit from the same types of legal clinics that have been so useful and helpful for other minority communities,” said Filitti, who is not connected to the Touro program.
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