What do universities owe Jews under Title
VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? The answer depends on why Title VI pro
tects Jews – that is\, its legal basis for doing so. Title VI prohibits un
iversities from tolerating discrimination “on the ground of race\, color\,
and national origin.” Notably\, Title VI --unlike Title VII—does not addre
ss discrimination based on “religion.” Title VI’s disjunctive language inv
ites interpreters to disaggregate Jewishness into “race” and “religion” and
to extend the statute’s protections to Jews in their racial capacity but n
ot their religious. If this interpretive move succeeds\, universities migh
t be permitted to address anti-Jewish discrimination only when motivated by
racial antisemitism\, leaving them free to ignore such discrimination when
motivated solely by religious antisemitism.
This disaggregative appro
ach runs counter to strong precedent for the proposition that “Jewishness”
as such is a protected characteristic under federal anti-discrimination law
. As applied to Jews\, the terms “race” and “religion” serve as statutory p
laceholders for Jewishness\, which may be serviceably attached to either ca
tegory\, or both. Moreover\, this approach is sociologically inaccurate: as
an ethnoreligious phenomenon\, Jewishness cannot be meaningfully reduced t
o either ethnicity or religion. Lastly\, there are good reasons to avoid ca
tegorizing Jews as a “race” under Title VI\, as this risks reinforcing raci
alized thinking about Jews in broader society. This is playing with fire.
Robert Katz's new casebook is "Antisemitism and the Law." It serves a s a vital resource for understanding the legal history of antisemitism and legal strategies to combat it. It explores how legal systems have been wiel ded both to oppress Jews and to fight antisemitism\, offering a global and historical perspective on the intersection of law and antisemitism.
LOCATION:WCC\; 3007 Room GEO:0;0 ORGANIZER;CN="API User":MAILTO:api@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/antisemitism-and-the-law-2025- a-new-casebook-by-robert-katz/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 DTSTART:20250309T070000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR