Jewish college students in the US are planning to sue colleges and universities like Cornell and Harvard over allegations of turning a blind eye in the face of rampant antisemitism on campuses.
The students have sought the help of Mark Ressler of the New York City-based firm Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP. In an exclusive interview by Business Insider on Tuesday (October 31), Ressler said that the cases of antisemitism on college campuses have long been a problem, but the sabbath attack by Hamas on Israel earlier this month "poured a lot of fuel on an already raging fire."
"There has been an explosion of antisemitism on college campuses around the country and we had been looking at this issue prior to the massacre on October 7," he said.
Ressler also told the Insider that his law firm was planning to file multiple suits in the coming weeks and months against several colleges and universities - including Harvard, Cornell, New York University, MIT, and Stanford - accusing the schools of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited race discrimination by any entity receiving federal funds.
Fox Business also reported on the move on Monday (October 30).
Cornell declined to comment to the Insider on the matter, while the other schools did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Lawsuit Responds to Cases of Antisemitism, not Free Speech
Ressler also stated that the lawsuit was intended to show universities that there were attempts to notify about acts of hatred and bigotry towards Jewish students but were repeatedly ignored.
In particular, he pointed to the recent violent online threats made against Jewish students at Cornell, as well as an incident in New York City's Cooper Union where Jewish students were forced to lock themselves inside its library while a pro-Palestine rally was ongoing.
"Things are out of control on campus," Ressler added.
However, Ressler also stressed that the cases that would be filed have nothing to do with free speech rights, as enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
"This is not a free speech issue, though we anticipate the colleges will try to make it one," he further said. "It's not free speech to walk up to Jewish students on campus and say, 'F*** the Jews, Hitler was right,' and that's an incident we have at a university."
Ressler additionally observed that universities have done "great work" to have "zero tolerance" for racism, sexism, Islamophobia, and homophobia, but the same could not be said for Jewish hatred.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) told the Insider that it has received nearly a 400% increase in antisemitic incidents across the US since Hamas conducted its raid across southern Israel. There have also been 110 anti-Israel rallies on US campuses since the war began, with 27 of them including "expressions of support for terrorism."
Related Article: FBI Investigating Antisemitic Incident Inside Cornell University
