American University has been rocked with a federal civil rights complaint alleging it has discriminated against Jewish students by condoning rising antisemitism on its D.C. campus.
The Brandeis Center for Human Rights filed the complaint with the U.S. Education Department on behalf of Jewish students on AU’s campus who have experienced “persistent and threatening anti-Semitic rhetoric and conduct,” according to the complaint.
“Jewish students have been shunned and marginalized in classrooms by their peers and faculty,” read the complaint filed with the department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Anti-Israel protests have interfered with these students’ ability to attend classes or move about the campus freely. Posters of innocent men, women, and children being held hostage by the terrorist group Hamas, are continually torn down by anti-Israel students.”
One of the most egregious examples cited involved one of AU’s professors, who devoted classroom time to the sharing of photos of anti-Israel marches projected onto a large screen. The professor even praised the anti-Israel protests.
One of the photos showed a Star of David in a trash can with the caption, “Keep the world clean.”
The professor then stared at a Jewish student in the class conspicuously, causing many of the other classmates to turn around and glare as well. The Jewish student left the class in tears, according to the complaint.
In another incident, one student screamed at a Jewish classmate and accused the individual of “genocide.”
“I do not want to sit on the same side of the room as this Zionist… You have blood on your hands. You are responsible for genocide,” the student said.
Neither the professor nor the administration addressed the conduct, the complaint said.
The complaint said AU even harassed the victims of antisemitism instead of helping them.
Several Jewish students were subjected to a disciplinary hearing for using their mobile phones to record individuals tearing down posters of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas following the October 7 invasion.
The Jewish students said they filmed others taking down the posters because when they first reported the infraction to university officials, they were told the school required documentation to investigate.
Instead, the university launched a probe of the Jewish students for harassment and disorderly conduct, and threatened them with disciplinary action when they supplied the evidence of vandalism, the complaint alleges.
Some of the Jewish students were even told their study abroad programs could be revoked, the complaint said, while the vandals have not been punished.
“Shamefully AU has repeatedly chosen to turn a blind eye to the anti-Semitism snowballing on its campus,” said Brandeis Center founder and chairman Kenneth Marcus.
Julia Jassey, co-founder and CEO of Jewish on Campus, said, “Jewish students deserve consistent support from their university administrators, not harassment for standing up against anti-Semitism.”
Matt Bennett, AU’s VP of communications, said, “We take these issues and any concerns in AU’s Jewish community seriously, and we review and address them. We will cooperate with any inquiries regarding our work to combat antisemitism.
“American University supports the safety, well-being, and sense of belonging for our Jewish students, a community which has been and remains an important part of the fabric of our university… While we have made progress in combating antisemitism, we know we have more work to do.”
The Department of Education had no immediate comment.
The department is currently investigating Brandeis Center complaints filed with the feds against Brooklyn College, Wellesley, SUNY New Paltz, the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Illinois.
The department is also looking into discrimination claims involving Rutgers University, Stanford, University of California Los Angeles, University of California San Diego, University of Washington — Seattle and Whitman College in Washington State as well as Harvard, Cornell, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania.