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A center that focuses on fighting purposeful discrimination of Jewish students established a new chapter at the UCLA School of Law Oct. 15, making it one of the first collegiate branches in the country.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, founded in 2011, aims to protect the rights of Jewish students, professors and staff through legal education and research, said Kenneth Marcus, the president and general counsel of the Brandeis Center.
Marcus said that UCLA became one of the inaugural chapters because some law students expressed interest in the legal implications of violations in human and civil rights.
While chapter officials said they have not faced direct anti-Semitism at UCLA, Marcus said he established the center to address anti-Semitism on university campuses across the country through legal processes. The national center focuses on providing research materials, public policy information and legal advocacy to Jewish college students.
While recognizing the constitutional right of free speech, Marcus said the center tries to discourage speech that infringes on the welfare of another person though research and legal assistance.
The Brandeis Center uses the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in higher education based on race, color or national origin, as the basis for its research and prosecute anti-Semitic actions, Marcus said.
Shuki Greer, the president of the UCLA chapter and a law student, said the chapter plans to put on panels and meetings to inform students about laws that protect citizens from discrimination.
Greer said that while he has not seen any direct anti-Semitic actions at UCLA, he hopes the chapter will become a fully functioning legal service that will guide Jewish students through the investigation and prosecution of any potential anti-Semitic actions on the UCLA campus, if a need arises.
Danielle Skornik, a law student and vice president of the UCLA chapter, said that she has not seen any direct anti-Semitism on campus, but hopes to learn the meaning and implications of the phrase “anti-Semitism” through her involvement with the Brandeis Center.
Greer said he hopes that UCLA’s chapter will inspire law students at other universities to start their own Brandeis Center chapters. American University Washington College of Law also established a Brandeis Center chapter earlier this fall.
Correction: Danielle Skornik is the vice president of the Brandeis Center at UCLA.