Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate

Committee Purpose

The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate (CACJSLCC), established in 2015, is comprised of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, and community members. The committee provides a vehicle and an infrastructure for the support of Jewish students, Jewish and Israel studies, and Jewish life on the Berkeley campus.

The committee has three central charges:

  1. To act as the primary resource and advocate for Jewish students in regard to campus climate, serving as a point of contact for students and advising the Chancellor on maintaining an inclusive and welcoming environment.
  2. To constantly review the current status of infrastructure and support for Jewish life at Berkeley and make recommendations for improvement.
  3. For the committee, and particularly its faculty members, to work with the Chancellor to explore how we can strengthen and enrich our academic programs in Jewish and Israel studies.

The Committee maintains this public-facing website as a central resource for sharing information, updates, and opportunities for engagement with the campus community.

Committee Background

Since its founding, the CACJSLCC has played a vital role in lifting up the voices of a wide range of Jewish students, staff, and faculty at Berkeley. Its members include leaders and representatives not only from Berkeley’s three major academic centers in Jewish and Israel Studies – the Center for Jewish Studies, the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, and the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life – but also entities like Berkeley Hillel and Berkeley Student Chabad. The committee helped support efforts like the Antisemitism Education Initiative (AEI) and the Berkeley Bridging Fellowship (BBF), which seek to improve the climate and conversations on our campus around questions of antisemitism, Israel and Palestine, and related issues. The CACJSLCC aims to represent the full spectrum of Jews at Berkeley and to address major issues that arise on our campus.

In all of its work, the CACJSLCC considers both the Jewish community and the wider campus. While we advocate principally for the particular needs, concerns, and interests of Jewish students, staff, and faculty at Berkeley, our leaders and members also regularly work to build coalitions and open dialogues with various other entities on campus in order to think about how to benefit the broadest coalition of stakeholders possible.

Contact the Committee / Student Inquiries

Students are encouraged to contact the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate with questions, concerns, or feedback. In accordance with University commitments, students may make inquiries to the Committee regarding the impacts of UC Berkeley’s course offerings relating to Jews, Jewish history, antisemitism, and related topics. The Committee welcomes student perspectives and may use this input to inform its recommendations and ongoing work. Please contact Ethan Benjamin Katz <ebkatz@berkeley.edu>. 

Committee Updates and Ongoing Work

The Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate provides regular updates to the campus community regarding its activities, initiatives, and recommendations. These updates are intended to promote transparency and keep students, faculty, staff, and community members informed about efforts to support Jewish life and improve campus climate.

Recent and ongoing work includes:

Additional updates will be posted on this page as the Committee’s work progresses.

Resources & Support Services

Reporting Forms

  • For reports of Protected Category discrimination and harassment, please submit a report to the Office of Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD).
  • For violations of the UC Berkeley Code of Conduct, please submit a report to the Center for Student Conduct by using the Incident Report Form.
  • For University staff support to address prevention and intervention for harm and violence on campus, and for overall support to students experiencing or causing distress in the campus community, please submit a Care Report through the Center for Support and Intervention
  • If you have been doxxed (a tactic where personal information like names and addresses of an individual is shared on the internet as a way to enable and intensify harassment of that individual) for exercising your speech rights some remedies may be available. The Chancellor’s Office may be able to write a reference letter of support for students about whom false information is published. Learn more about how to respond to doxxing. Doxxing by members of the university community that targets a protected category should be reported to OPHD.

Support Jewish Life & Scholarship at Berkeley

These campus and community organizations contribute to Jewish life, scholarship, and student support at UC Berkeley.