After Jewish students at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, were taunted with anti-Semitic slurs and pelted with fake blood, administrators encouraged them to “hide their Jewish identity to avoid being targeted,” according to a federal civil rights complaint filed against the school on Thursday.
The students said pro-Hamas activists harassed them as they celebrated the High Holiday of Sukkot, holding a demonstration next to their religious ceremony and chalking “inflammatory anti-Semitic messages” near the religious service, “including ‘Go Away Nazis.’”
In other incidents, the activists disrupted a vigil for victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks by drawing a “Zio Corner” chalk circle around it and throwing red paint at Jewish students meant to represent the “blood of martyrs,” according to the complaint. In response, Cal Poly Humboldt suggested that the students could avoid such incidents by appearing less Jewish, the complaint states.
“The message from the University to Jewish students is clear: downplay your Jewish identity on campus or hide to avoid being targeted because the University will not protect you,” states the complaint, which the Brandeis Center filed to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alongside the Anti-Defamation League and StandWithUs.