“If the OCR’s regional office had not been overruled, it likely would have formed the basis for a finding of discrimination against Irvine in 2006, 2007, or 2008, when continuing problems revealed the depth of the problem there.”

Special thanks to Ken  Marcus for sending this article to the OCITF and for mentioning the OCITF in his upcoming new book.

Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America:  Adapted from Upcoming New Book Published by Cambridge University Press

By Kenneth L. Marcus IJCR Quad

Director, Initiative to Combat Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism in America’s Educational Systems

When the U.S. Office for Civil Rights closed its landmark anti-Semitism investigation of the University of California at Irvine, Irvine officials proclaimed that their institution had been fully exonerated. For example, Irvine’s law school dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, insisted that “The Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education did a thorough investigation and concluded that there was no basis for finding that there was a hostile or intimidating environment for Jewish students on campus at the University of California, Irvine.” It should have been clear to Chemerinsky that he was, at the least, overstating his case because OCR had dismissed several of the Zionist Organization of America’s claims on technical grounds such as the statute of limitations. In fairness to Chemerinsky, however, he may not have understood just how misleading his characterization turns out to have been.