The University of California Los Angeles agreed Tuesday to pay more than $6 million to resolve antisemitism claims brought by Jewish students and faculty, abandoning its year-long court battle a week after Columbia University settled its antisemitism dispute with the Trump administration for $221 million.
Under the settlement, UCLA agreed to make permanent last year’s court order prohibiting the university from allowing Jewish students and faculty to be excluded from areas of campus, as well as to pay out $6.13 million in damages and charitable contributions.
The university said it will also distribute $320,000 to its Initiative to Combat Antisemitism, an effort launched in March by UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, bringing the total payout to $6.45 million.
The agreement, which must still be approved by a federal judge, would remain in effect for 15 years.
“We are pleased with the terms of today’s settlement,” said the joint statement released Tuesday from the parties involved in the lawsuit. “The injunction and other terms UCLA has agreed to demonstrate real progress in the fight against antisemitism.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the public-interest law firm representing the three Jewish students and one medical school professor, called the university’s decision to settle the case a “stunning about-face.”
The consent agreement and permanent injunction filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California brings to a close one of the most shocking campus antisemitism cases to follow the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israeli civilians.
Jewish students and faculty said they were blocked from accessing vast swaths of campus by the sprawling anti-Israel encampment, forcing them to endure harassment and take longer routes to classes, meetings and study sessions, according to the lawsuit filed in June 2024.
The complaint said that UCLA officials enforced the “Jew Exclusion Zone” by telling campus police to stand down even as protesters refused entry to anyone who refused to disavow Israel.
U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi ordered university officials to end the blockade in a sweeping directive that became a rallying cry against the explosion of antisemitic activity on U.S. campuses.
“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” said Judge Scarsi in his preliminary injunction last Aug. 13. “This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith.”
⚡UCLA settles lawsuit with Jewish students over antisemitism on campus.
UCLA will pay each of the plaintiffs $50,000, and will cover their legal fees. The school will also contribute $2.33 million to several organizations fighting antisemitism on college campuses.
— @GSDeutch… pic.twitter.com/XW9PrdbN5i
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) July 29, 2025
Becket said the settlement is “believed to be the largest private settlement in campus antisemitism cases.”
That said, the $6 million figure is far less than the $221 million that Columbia agreed to pay over three years to resolve federal civil-rights complaints in a deal with the Trump administration.
Yitzchok Frankel, the lead UCLA plaintiff and a recent graduate of UCLA Law School, said he faced antisemitic harassment while being forced to alter his route to class.
“When antisemites were terrorizing Jews and excluding them from campus, UCLA chose to protect the thugs and help keep Jews out,” said Mr. Frankel, a father of four. “That was shameful, and it is sad that my own school defended those actions for more than a year. But today’s court judgment brings justice back to our campus and ensures Jews will be safe and be treated equally once again.”
The court settlement includes $2.33 million in contributions to eight organizations that support the UCLA Jewish community: Hillel at UCLA, Academic Engagement Network, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Chabad of UCLA, the Film Collaborative Inc., Jewish Graduate Organization, and Orthodox Union – Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus.
“This reflects the university’s deep commitment to fostering a safe, secure, and inclusive environment for all members of our community and ensuring that there is no room for antisemitism anywhere on UC’s campuses,” said the University of California “Frankel Settlement Fact Sheet.”
The four plaintiffs will each receive $50,000. In addition to Mr. Frankel, they are UCLA student Joshua Ghayoum; UCLA School of Law graduate Eden Shemuelian, and Dr. Kamran Shamsa, a cardiologist at UCLA Health.
Under the terms, the university is “prohibited from knowingly allowing or facilitating the exclusion of Jewish students, faculty, and/or staff from ordinarily available portions of UCLA’s programs, activities, and/or campus areas, whether as a result of a de-escalation strategy or otherwise.”
In October, the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias at UCLA released a report that found that the tent-and-plywood encampment erected in April 2024 on the quad in front of Royce Hall violated numerous rules, including those banning overnight camping and vandalism.
The protesters escalated by using human chains to block students wearing Stars of David or kippahs, as well as those refusing to denounce Zionism.
“Hence as a practical matter, the encampment’s denial of passage and access to certain parts of campus to ‘supporters of Israel’ ended up targeting Jews,” said the report. “Banning supporters of Israel (or ‘Zionists’) from parts of campus open to all constitutes de facto discrimination against a protected class.”
The agreed-upon order “appropriately recognizes that it is discriminatory—and antisemitic—to prevent Jews from accessing public spaces because of their religious beliefs about Israel,” said Becket.
“Campus administrators across the country willingly bent the knee to antisemites during the encampments,” said Becket President Mark Rienzi. “They are now on notice: treating Jews like second-class citizens is wrong, illegal, and very costly. UCLA should be commended for accepting judgment against that misbehavior and setting the precedent that allowing mistreatment of Jews violates the Constitution and civil rights laws. Students across the country are safer for it.”
