124 Jewish organizations signed a letter March 9 calling for the UC Board of Regents to act on a report alleging that university faculty and academic programs are contributing to antisemitism faced by students.

The report, released in February, was conducted by the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit aiming to investigate, document and report incidents of antisemitism in higher education.

In its report, the AMCHA Initiative stated that, during the 2023-25 academic years, UC Berkeley employed at least 171 faculty who publicly endorsed the UC Berkeley Faculty Statement of Solidarity with Palestinians, which called for an academic boycott of Israel.

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, co-founder and director of the AMCHA Initiative, said she opposes the use of academic boycotts as a form of protest, including the academic boycott of South Africa, which concluded in the 1990s after its stated goal of ending apartheid was achieved.

UC Office of the President spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said the UC system takes AMCHA’s report “seriously” and is currently reviewing the cited incidents.

However, campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof questioned the validity of the data and statistics provided in the report.

“While we appreciate this organization’s dedication to confronting antisemitism, it is unfortunate that no apparent effort was made to seek information directly from the campus and/or confirm information, some of which appears to have been gathered from unreliable sources,” Mogulof said in an email.

Mogulof pointed to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2026 Campus Antisemitism Report Card, released a day after the letter to the UC Regents. The report card rates the quality of campus Jewish life as “Excellent” and rated the campus administration’s response to antisemitism as “Above Expectations.”

“It’s not that it’s illegal or unacceptable or even a violation of university policies, but if they’re promoting a particular opinion or position outside of the classroom that directly affects the students that you teach, there is a question of professionalism,” Rossman-Benjamin said in reference to the statement of solidarity. “I can’t point to a particular policy, but it’s just common sense.”

The report names history professor Ussama Makdisi, the inaugural chair of the Palestinian and Arab Studies program, regarding his role as a co-author of the statement of solidarity.

Makdisi stated in an email that the report is an attack on the “principles of basic decency and academic inquiry.”

“The weaponization of false charges of antisemitism is not new,” Makdisi said in the email. “This is yet another attempt to smear, to defame, and to intimidate anyone who uplifts Palestinian history and humanity by those who deny the reality of genocide that the entire world can see.”

The AMCHA Initiative report claims that antisemitic incidents that involve the “targeting of Jewish members of the campus community for harm” rose to 101 during the 2023-25 academic years. This marks an increase of 531% from the 2021-23 academic years.

In their letter to the UC Regents, the 124 organizations affirmed the report’s recommendation to “ensure systemwide compliance” with UC Regents Policy 2301, which prohibits the “misuse of the classroom by, for example, allowing it to be used for political indoctrination.”

Mogulof added that campus is “committed” to enforcing Regents Policy 2301, as well as Regents Policy 4408, which governs “Public and Discretionary Statements by Academic Units.”

Last December, computer science lecturer Peyrin Kao was suspended without pay for allegedly violating Regents Policy 2301 by making pro-Palestinian remarks in the classroom.

“Contrary to claims in the report, we are aware of only a single instance in which questions were raised about an academic unit’s compliance with that policy,” Mogulof said in the email. “Suffice it to say that, in this one instance, the administration responded immediately to ensure the necessary changes were made.”