Chancellor Julio Frenk shared a campus message with the Bruin Community.
Dear Bruin Community:
After the announcement of my appointment as UCLA’s chancellor last June — and before I officially started in January — there was a transition period during which I visited our campus every month, met with members of our Bruin community and began immersing myself in the life of this university. I learned a great deal about our community’s hopes and aspirations. Throughout these conversations, I heard one point time and time again: We must double down on the efforts to combat antisemitism in our Bruin community.
Antisemitism has a distinct and troubling history, characterized by its persistence across time and space, its adaptability to different contexts and its horrific expression in the Holocaust. Antisemitism not only threatens Jewish communities; it also corrodes the bonds of mutual respect that safeguard the dignity — and ensure the safety — of all members of a society. Addressing antisemitism in its unique forms is therefore an essential requirement if we are to make progress toward our broader commitment to combat hatred and injustice in all its manifestations.
Antisemitism has no place in our society — and no place at UCLA. It threatens the mission of academia and is antithetical to the values that define the very essence of a university. Everyone deserves the right to learn, teach, work and live in a community that is free from discrimination and bigotry. With honest reflection, it is clear that while we have made progress in addressing antisemitism, we have more to do in our shared goal of eradicating it in its entirety.
To this end, I am announcing an Initiative to Combat Antisemitism that will mobilize our broad community and propel our efforts in this area. Distinguished Professor Stuart Gabriel of the UCLA Anderson School of Management will lead an action group that will bring together members of our Bruin community and civic leaders from diverse backgrounds, faiths and perspectives. This will be a standing initiative — reporting directly to me — and will have the support it requires to achieve our goals.
Through this initiative, UCLA will implement recommendations of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, which was chaired by Professor Gabriel. These recommendations include: enhancing relevant training and education, improving the complaint system, assuring enforcement of current and new laws and policies, and cooperating with stakeholders. I want to thank the members of the Task Force for their valuable work. And I want to thank Professor Gabriel for agreeing to take the next step, translating recommendations into action.
In the coming months, we will launch other initiatives across UCLA to move us from polarization to pluralism.
UCLA is at an inflection point. Building on past efforts and lessons, we must now push ourselves to extinguish antisemitism, completely and definitively. The principles on which UCLA was founded — and which we continue to advance — point us toward a clear course of action: We must persevere in our fight to end hate, however it manifests itself. This is an opportunity for UCLA to rise to the challenge of being an exemplary university.
Let’s work together, stay connected and remember: We are One UCLA.
Julio Frenk
Chancellor