Some 30 university professors across California gave new meaning to “office hours” this week, spending the night in their campus offices in a faculty vigil against antisemitism. Their inspiration came from UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner, who started a 24/7 office sit-in nearly two weeks ago.
Since March 7, Hassner, faculty director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, has vowed to teach, eat and sleep in his cramped office until the university addresses requests that he hopes will support demoralized Jewish students and potentially quell the wave of anti-Zionist activity and antisemitism on campus since Oct. 7.
In a tangible show of support, professors at Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, UCSF and San Francisco State University, as well as colleagues at UC Berkeley, joined Tuesday night’s sleep-in, sharing photos of themselves with sleeping bags and pillows laid on floors and couches.
“I stand — or, more accurately, (try to) sleep — in solidarity with my colleague and friend, Prof. Ron Hassner,” UC Berkeley history professor Mark Brilliant said in an email to J. He brought his dog, Afikomen, to join him for the faculty vigil and rested on his office floor until midnight.
Brilliant noted that several of his Jewish students “have been on the receiving end of hateful things that no student should have to endure.”
“I urge UC Berkeley to grant Prof. Hassner’s requests, so that he can go home, and so that he and the Jewish students for whom he’s such a staunch advocate can sleep a bit more soundly.”
Hassner, meanwhile, hopes the sleep-in gains traction beyond California. He said he’s heard from professors on the East Coast who are likewise grappling with antisemitism on their campuses and are seeking a network of support.
Each day, Hassner said, scores of community members and students file into his narrow office, and his email inbox is overflowing with supportive messages from students, professors and well-wishers across the globe. His story has been reported by numerous media outlets. Actor Michael Rapaport stopped by on March 15 and met with Hassner and students, posting it his 2.1 million followers on Instagram.
“I was inspired by meeting Ron Hassner! What he’s doing is brave and needed,” Rapaport said in a separate comment to J. “I’m also appalled by what I learned about the long history of anti-Jewish behavior on the campus of UCB. I had no idea, and it’s disgusting and unacceptable.”
Hassner has gotten noticeably shaggier since turning his campus office into his temporary home. He sleeps roughly five hours a night in a sleeping bag atop a “cheapo” mattress. His goatee has grown into a nascent beard and mustache.
“Boy, would I love a shower,” Hassner told J. by phone on March 14.
Aside from the physical challenges of the sit-in, Hassner said he has enjoyed sharing with visitors the donated meals and baked goods he’s received.
“A student said to me, ‘This office is my haven on campus. This is where I feel happy. This is where I’m surrounded by friends,’” he told J.
Hassner has left a lamp illuminated in the window of his seventh-floor office, signaling to students that his door is always open to them and that a faculty member is “sleeping as bad at night as they are.”
His decision to upend his life for a cause — uncharacteristic for him, he said — came in response to an escalation in unsettling activity on his campus and what he and others see as a failure of university administrators to protect Jewish students.
Hassner set out his goals on the first day of his sit-in, sending an email to UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and Provost Benjamin Hermalin.
“If my students feel that they cannot walk safely across campus without being bullied, then I will not cross campus either,” he wrote on March 7.
I know the administration is working on this. I’m confident that the administration is trying to get something done.
He sent three requests to support Cal’s Jewish students: unblocking Sather Gate to allow access; establishing antisemitism and Islamophobia training for incoming faculty, resident advisers and leaders of registered student organizations; and issuing an apology and new invitation to Ran Bar-Yoshafat, the Israeli lawyer and reservist whose talk was disrupted on Feb. 26. Hassner also asked that the same protocol stay in place should any future speakers be interrupted by hecklers or violence.
The catalyst for Hassner’s action was a now-infamous Feb. 26 anti-Israel demonstration outside Zellerbach Playhouse that turned violent, followed by statements from the administration that did little to alleviate concerns.
Another contributing factor was an ongoing pro-Palestinian demonstration at Sather Gate, where the main arch is often blocked with anti-Israel signs and banners, and where Jewish students have reported harassment and intimidation as they walk through the side arches.
“It’s now been more than a month since that illegal barricade went up,” Hassner said on March 14. “I understand that students are extremely frustrated, extremely humiliated.”
On March 11, the Jewish campus community took action of their own. About 250 students, faculty and allies took part in a silent march from Zellerbach past Sather Gate, calling attention to two campus locations where tensions have flared.
Though there was no violence around the march, Hassner said, “I am even more worried about the next march, and I will be even more worried about the march after that.”
Christ issued a statement on Tuesday specifically about Sather Gate, saying she has “decided to post observers who can monitor and report on the situation” and is “convening a small group to re-examine the policies and procedures, and to potentially propose revisions” related to political protests on campus.
Hassner told J. the same day that he had not had any substantive conversations with administrators thus far.
“I know the administration is working on this,” he said. “An administrator told me that the issues I’m concerned about are currently the number one priority of the university. And I really believe that. I’m confident that the administration is trying to get something done.”