UCLA to pay $6.13M to resolve campus antisemitism lawsuit, $2.33M of that to Jewish charities

The University of California Los Angeles agreed to pay $6.13 million to resolve an antisemitism facilitation lawsuit by students and a professor, a "stunning about-face" for the publicly funded university, "believed to be the largest private settlement in campus antisemitism cases," according to the plaintiffs' lawyers at religious liberty law firm Becket.

It referred to a settlement that's not posted in the court docket for the monetary figure, which is not listed in the public consent judgment and permanent injunction approved by U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi that closes the case. Becket told Just the News the settlement doesn't need to be docketed.

It provided the 22-page settlement upon request, and Just the News made a searchable version. The UCLA-hosted version, which the university does not appear to have publicized, cannot be searched.

The four plaintiffs are each getting $50,000, their lawyers $3.6 million for fees and costs, and $2.33 million to be split by several Jewish charities and organizations: Hillel at UCLA, Academic Engagement Network, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federation Los Angeles—Campus Impact Network, Chabad of UCLA, The Film Collaborative, Inc. "for the purpose of producing the short film Lost Alone," Jewish Graduate Organization and Orthodox Union—Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus.

UCLA also agreed to pay itself $320,000 "dedicated solely to supporting the UCLA Initiative to Combat Antisemitism."

The consent judgment prohibits top officials "from offering any of UCLA’s ordinarily available programs, activities, or
campus areas to students, faculty, and/or staff if the Enjoined Parties know the ordinarily available programs, activities, or campus areas are not fully and equally accessible to Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff."

They are "prohibited from knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff from
ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and/or campus areas, whether as a result of a de-escalation strategy or otherwise."

The injunction will be in force for 15 years, subject to extension if "the Enjoined Parties are unable to demonstrate that violations are unlikely to recur in the absence of a decree extending the Termination Date."

"Campus administrators across the country willingly bent the knee to antisemites during the encampments,” Becket President Mark Rienzi said. "They are now on notice: treating Jews like second-class citizens is wrong, illegal, and very costly."

UCLA launched the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism this spring but sought to have the "Jew Exclusion Zone" case dismissed last fall, arguing officials had "no blueprint for how to respond to a protest encampment" and they used de-escalation in the context of "tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving" situations.