UC Berkeley has struggled over the past year with public hostility toward Jews. The administration’s response has left some people — from students to faculty to alumni — frustrated and alarmed.
A group of graduates concerned about the campus climate decided to band together and this fall launched the Cal Jewish Alumni Network, the first such group at UC Berkeley.
“That’s what I want to do, to try to protect the environment at Cal for Jewish kids,” said Connie Unger, who graduated with a business degree in 1977 and is helping organize the network.
Hannah Schlacter, a network co-founder who earned her MBA from Cal earlier this year, has been an outspoken critic of the university’s handling of incidents such as the violent anti-Israel protest outside of Cal’s Zellerbach Playhouse on Feb. 26.
Schlacter testified at a Feb. 29 hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Jewish students “feel completely isolated, vulnerable and alone,” she told members of Congress. “Instead of providing a safe environment, Berkeley tells Jews to stay away from campus.”
Schlacter, a former member of Cal’s Haas School of Business Jewish student group, wants to keep working to change the tone on campus.
“I thought there was an opportunity to better leverage the alumni voice,” she told J.
Unger was already involved with a different alumni network. She and her husband, Richard Unger, have been active in Olden Bears, a play on Golden Bears, the nickname for Cal’s athletic teams. “I was realizing this morning that I could be Hannah’s grandmother,” Unger said with a laugh, speaking about Schlacter.
Olden Bears happens to have a lot of Jewish members, Unger said. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and the global spike in hatred toward Jews, antisemitism became a big theme at its meetings.
“One guest speaker … brought up the fact that there was not a Jewish alumni organization at Cal,” she said. “And I thought that was something I might be really interested in working on.”
The new group already has about 200 members, Schlacter said. Organizers hope to reach 1,000 members by year’s end and 3,000 by spring. Philanthropist Doug Goldman is the founding president of the group, Schlacter told J., adding that the alumni network is “tremendously lucky to have Doug be a part of our work.”
In helping set up the group, Schlacter said the group’s co-founders spoke with other such networks, including the Stanford alumni who set up their own Jewish network in 2022.
The Cal Jewish Alumni Network plans to host in-person and online events and organize alumni to advocate with the administration on behalf of Jewish students. The group is in the process of becoming part of the Cal Alumni Association, which provides staffing and infrastructure support for more than 50 chapters, including about a dozen based on ethnicity, race or nationality.
The Jewish group will have multiple focuses, Schlacter said.
“Advocacy for safety and inclusion is paramount,” she said.
According to the group’s FAQ, “CJAN is concerned by any exclusion of Jews on UC Berkeley’s campus. We seek to address this issue, which includes but is not limited to: antisemitic speech, harassment, and discrimination; physical violence targeting Jews; exclusion or bias toward Jews and Israelis; and anti-Zionist hatred, discrimination, or singling out of students for connections to Israel.”
But the group won’t stop there.
“We want to also emphasize Jewish celebration and Jewish life,” Schlacter said. “This positive camaraderie is equally important to that advocacy.”
The network’s co-founders are also aware they need to find the right approach to improve the campus climate.
“We can’t be a bulldozer,” Schlacter said. “We don’t get to come in and assert power and influence just because we’re alumni.”
Stuart Bernstein, a Cal alum and a network co-founder, told J. in an email that he sees this as an opportunity for Jewish alumni to make change more efficiently.
“Discussions within the Berkeley community have been fragmented, with too many disparate groups attempting to communicate and mobilize through various channels, diluting the overall impact,” said Bernstein, who has served on several UC Berkeley boards, including the Haas School of Business board alongside two other network co-founders, Jerry Weintraub and Goldman, and Cal’s Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate.
Goldman, a noted Jewish philanthropist and major donor to Cal, said in an e-mail to J. that once they’d realized there was no Jewish alumni group, setting one up was a “no-brainer” and praised Chancellor Rich Lyons for his support.
“We, along with the thousands of Jewish alumni, now have a direct path to assist us in making Cal Berkeley a truly welcoming college campus for all its Jewish students, let alone its faculty and staff,” he said.
Graduates can sign up here. Members don’t have to be affiliated with a synagogue or organized group. Membership is free.
“Whether your personal definition is based upon religion, culture, heritage, geographic origin, and/or shared ancestry, if you are a UC Berkeley alum who considers yourself Jewish, we hope you will join us,” states the group’s FAQ.
Unger said she’d never been one for affinity groups before this.
“I don’t join women’s groups and I don’t join Jewish groups,” she said. “But what happened on Oct. 7, obviously, and the aftermath of it, the rise of antisemitism, caused me to change.”
Bernstein said he hopes the network can become a bridge between students and alumni and offer students mentorship and advice.
“This network will not only provide support during challenging times,” he said, “but also celebrate the vibrant Jewish identity within the Berkeley community.”