During the first years of the 21st century, the virus of anti-Semitism was unleashed with a vengeance in Irvine, California. There, on the campus of the University of California at Irvine, Jewish students were physically and verbally harassed, threatened, shoved, stalked, and targeted by rock-throwing groups and individuals. Jewish property was defaced with swastikas, and a Holocaust memorial was vandalized. Signs were posted on campus showing a Star of David dripping with blood. Jews were chastised for arrogance by public speakers whose appearance at the institution was subsidized by the university. They were called \u201cdirty Jew\u201d\u009d and \u201cfucking Jew,\u201d\u009d told to \u201cgo back to Russia\u201d\u009d and \u201cburn in hell,\u201d\u009d and heard other students and visitors to the campus urge one another to \u201cslaughter the Jews.\u201d\u009d One Jewish student who wore a pin bearing the flags of the United States and Israel was told to \u201ctake off that pin or we\u2019ll beat your ass.\u201d\u009d Another was told, \u201cJewish students are the plague of mankind\u201d\u009d and \u201cJews should be finished off in the ovens.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
When complaints were lodged over these incidents, which took place in 2003 and 2004, the university responded either with relative indifference or with little urgency. But when the federal government was asked in 2004 to intervene to deal with incidents that its own investigators had determined to be clear-cut violations of the civil rights of Irvine\u2019s Jewish students, the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights failed to prosecute a single case. Indeed, it has finally become clear that the current policy of the office charged with enforcing civil rights at American universities involves treating anti-Jewish bias as being unworthy of attention\u201d\u201da state of affairs in stark contrast to the agency\u2019s quite justified alacrity in responding to virtually every other possible case of discrimination. While one cannot identify the motive for this astonishing double standard with complete certainty, the justification for it involves an unwillingness to treat Jews as a distinct group beyond considerations of religious adherence.<\/p>\n
Faced with the demand to address anti-Semitic actions verified by its own investigators, the federal government passed on prosecution because it was unable to define the group that was the victim of the assault. Washington found itself unable to answer the question \u201cWho is a Jew?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n