UCLA to pay more than $6 million to settle antisemitic complaints

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 30, 2025 / 16:09 pm (CNA).

The University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) has agreed to a permanent court order forbidding campus antisemitism and a $6.13 million settlement after a number of discrimination complaints were filed against the school by Jewish students.

In June 2024, three students sued UCLA after the school “allowed a group of activists to set up barricades in the center of campus” to block Jewish students from accessing “critical educational infrastructure,” according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court. The suit was managed in part by the religious liberty law firm Becket.

UCLA agreed to the payout on July 28 after fighting the lawsuit for over a year. 

Some of the millions will be allocated to the defendants that brought the case forward, while more than $2 million of the funds will be donated to organizations that combat antisemitism on campus including the campus Hillel chapter, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Jewish Federation Los Angeles. 

“We are pleased with the terms of today’s settlement. The injunction and other terms UCLA has agreed to demonstrate real progress in the fight against antisemitism,” the plaintiffs said in a July 28 statement.

“When antisemites were terrorizing Jews and excluding them from campus, UCLA chose to protect the thugs and help keep Jews out,” said Yitzchok Frankel, a recent UCLA law graduate and plaintiff in the case. “That was shameful, and it is sad that my own school defended those actions for more than a year.”

“But today’s court judgment brings justice back to our campus and ensures Jews will be safe and be treated equally once again.”

According to the case, the actions in the lawsuit started after Hamas launched its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Protests broke out on campus as activists reportedly chanted antisemitic threats including “death to the Jews.” The university’s chancellor at the time, Gene Block, in a May 23, 2024, House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing, admitted UCLA was not “immune to the disturbing rise of antisemitism that has occurred across our country” following the Oct. 7 attack.

The following spring, the actions continued with what became known as a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus that prevented Jewish students from accessing “the heart of campus, including classroom buildings and the main undergraduate library.”

To enter the area, a person had to make a statement “pledging their allegiance to the activists’ views,” according to the lawsuit. UCLA’s administration knew about the extreme actions but “did nothing to stop it.”

For a full week, UCLA failed to clear the area and ordered campus police to stand down and allow the encampment to stay. The administration even stationed security staff around the area to keep students from attempting to enter the area blocked by the protestors. 

Last summer, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi barred the university from continuing to facilitate antisemitic exclusion on campus. The agreed judgment this week will officially bring the lawsuit to a close and make Scarsi’s previous decision permanent.

“Campus administrators across the country willingly bent the knee to antisemites during the encampments,” Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and an attorney for the students, said this week.

“They are now on notice: Treating Jews like second-class citizens is wrong, illegal, and very costly. UCLA should be commended for accepting judgment against that misbehavior and setting the precedent that allowing mistreatment of Jews violates the Constitution and civil rights laws. Students across the country are safer for it.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/265665/ucla-to-pay-more-than-6-dollars-million-to-settle-antisemitic-complaints