Anti-Defamation League Files Federal Civil Rights Complaint Against UMass–Amherst

An Israeli flag positioned next to posters of Israeli hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks stands near a pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT in Boston, Mass., on April 29, 2024. Courtesy of Alice Giordano

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Massachusetts–Amherst (UMass–Amherst), alleging that the state college has condoned and, at times, fostered a violent, anti-Semitic climate on campus.

“UMass–Amherst has permitted numerous anti-Semitic incidents to occur on campus with impunity. While we do not have information demonstrating that all the incidents were reported, they all are widely known on campus, and speak to the climate of anti-Semitic harassment that has become commonplace at UMass–Amherst,” the complaint states.

The ADL complaint also charges UMass Amherst with permitting “genocidal chants and rhetoric to permeate campus” and allowing anti-Semitic student groups to interrupt classroom and other activities on campus.

“UMass–Amherst has engaged in deliberate indifference towards the antisemitism currently festering on its campus,” the complaint asserts.

The university did not respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times about the ADL civil rights complaint by press time.

The 60-page complaint includes screenshots of several anti-Jewish sentiments and ethnic slurs that a UMass–Amherst student allegedly posted on social media.

One of the more vulgar messages allegedly posted by the student boasts about using the Israeli flag as toilet paper. Some posts mock and insult the physical characteristics of Jewish people.

The complaint follows one filed against UMass–Amherst last month alleging that the college condoned an anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab environment.

It was filed by the group Palestine Legal, which is funded by the Tides Center, a liberal-leaning lobby group with ties to George Soros, Black Lives Matter, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A few weeks later, on April 25, Palestine Legal filed a similar complaint against Columbia University.

Both UMass–Amherst and Columbia University are among 85 schools listed by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) as under federal investigation for what it calls “shared ancestry investigations.”

OCR is responsible for investigating Title VI discrimination complaints.

Last month, the ADL issued a “Campus Antisemitism Report Card“ and found that the majority of U.S. colleges were not taking basic steps to protect Jewish students on campus.

The global anti-hate group filed its complaint against UMass–Amherst in partnership with The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Washington-based civil rights law firm Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak, and the Boston criminal justice law firm Libby Hoopes Brooks & Mulvey.

The complaint against UMass–Amherst outlined several other allegedly anti-Semitic incidents at the college.