In a landmark victory for civil rights, UCLA has been forced to reckon with its complicity in fostering antisemitism. Recently, the university agreed to a $6.13 million settlement and a permanent federal court order barring it from excluding Jews from campus. This isn’t just a win for Jewish students at UCLA, it’s a wake-up call for universities nationwide: tolerating antisemitism isn’t just immoral, it’s illegal and costly.  

When I began law school at UCLA, I never imagined I’d end up suing its leadership to defend my basic rights. As an Orthodox Jew and the descendant of Holocaust survivors, my faith is central to who I am. I keep kosher, wear a kippah, observe Jewish holidays, and pray daily. But after Hamas’s horrific attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, my visible Jewish identity made me a target on campus.  

In the spring of 2024, as pro-Hamas protests swept across the country, UCLA became ground zero for antisemitic hostility. Protesters erected an encampment on Royce Quad, the heart of campus, creating what can only be described as a “Jew Exclusion Zone.” Masked agitators set up checkpoints, blocked sidewalks, and demanded pledges of allegiance to their cause. Swastikas abounded. Jewish students were harassed, denied passage, and even physically threatened for wearing symbols like the Star of David. Chants of “Death to the Jews” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” echoed through the quad. In the months leading up to the Jew Exclusion Zone, agitators smashed a piñata of Benjamin Netanyahu while chanting “beat that f—-ng Jew” through a megaphone.  

Rather than protect its Jewish students, UCLA enabled the mob. The administration provided barricades, stationed security to enforce the checkpoints, and stood by as Jewish students were shoved, mocked, and excluded. Even UCLA’s own Task Force to Combat Antisemitism condemned the university’s actions as “structural antisemitism” and a violation of First Amendment rights.  

For me, the impact was deeply personal. Royce Quad was more than a campus thoroughfare—it was where I studied, called my wife on breaks from studying, and brought my kids to play. Suddenly, I was forced to choose between being a student and being a Jew.  

With the help of dedicated lawyers at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Clement & Murphy, and Davis Polk, I joined two other students and a professor in suing UCLA in federal court. In August 2024, Judge Mark C. Scarsi issued a sweeping order barring the university from facilitating antisemitic exclusion, calling it “so abhorrent” and “so unimaginable”. But UCLA fought back, denying responsibility and even questioning whether Jewish students had been harmed.  

At the end of July, after more than a year of legal battles, UCLA finally surrendered. The university accepted judgment resolving our claims under civil rights laws, the First Amendment, and even the Ku Klux Klan Act. It agreed to make permanent Judge Scarsi’s order prohibiting exclusion of Jewish faculty and students and pay $6.13 million — like the 613 commandments in the Torah.  

The fallout didn’t stop there. The same day as the final judgment, the Justice Department announced its public determination that UCLA had violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by “acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

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That conclusion reflects my own experience and that of countless other Jewish students who saw UCLA facilitate rampant antisemitism on its campus. This victory does more than protect Jews on the UCLA campus; it’s a message to universities across the country. As antisemitism surges on campuses, administrators must understand that turning a blind eye to hate has serious consequences. The judgment against UCLA is a step toward accountability, but the fight against antisemitism is far from over. 

I pray this case marks the beginning of a new era, where universities uphold the dignity and rights of their Jewish communities. For the sake of future generations, it’s time for America’s campuses to live up to their promises of inclusion and equality for all.   

Yitzchok Frankel is a father of four and recent graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.