Downtown-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has teamed up with a handful of other organizations nationwide to offer legal protection services to university students experiencing antisemitism.
The Campus Antisemitism Legal Line, or CALL, is a free legal protection helpline for Jewish students. The team running the helpline will coordinate volunteer lawyers from Gibson Dunn, Morgan Lewis & Bockius and other firms to provide assistance to students who claim to have experienced hate attacks that may require legal action.
The action comes in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel by Hamas operatives who invaded from the Gaza Strip, massacring more than 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals and provoking an ongoing war between the two parties. The coalition cited a significant rise in antisemitic attacks and incidents as the reason for forming.
“There is no place for antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia or hate of any kind in a just and humane society,” Gibson Dunn managing partner Barbara Becker said in a statement. “We believe it is our responsibility and privilege to provide free legal services to communities in need, and this collaboration will serve that mission and help keep students safe.”
Other organizations involved in the CALL service include Hillel International, the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. A variety of Jewish campus organizations have offered support to the group, and CALL is actively seeking additional volunteer attorneys, firms and companies to join in the effort.
A recent Hillel International survey indicated that 56% of polled Jewish students feel unsafe on their college campuses, and 25% of respondents said there has been violence or hateful acts on their campuses since Oct. 7. The ADL Center on Extremism, meanwhile, has reported a significant increase of reported harassment, vandalism and assault targeting Jewish people, businesses and institutions over the same period of time from last year.
“We don’t need a cancel culture on campus. We need a consequences culture,” said ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt in a statement. “No longer will anyone be able to harass Jewish students with impunity, and no longer will a university or school be able to just look the other way.”
