Purpose & Mission
The Jewish Faculty Resilience Group (JFrg) is a community of UCLA Jewish and non-Jewish faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and staff dedicated to supporting the Jewish community on campus. Our organization maintains an apolitical and non-partisan stance. We are proud to have members with diverse political perspectives, encompassing a broad spectrum of views. We are united by our goals to strengthen the Jewish community, build allyship, and counter antisemitism at UCLA.
We believe in peace and co-existence. We mourn the suffering, death, and/or destruction of all innocent civilians, including Israelis and Palestinians.
Mission:
To mobilize to effectively identify and counter antisemitism at UCLA.
To support the health, wellbeing, and safety of Jewish faculty, staff, students, and allies on campus, and Jewish people around the world, including the State of Israel.
To champion authentic representations of Jewish history, culture, and religion, including that Jews constitute a diverse, multi-racial, ethnoreligious people indigenous to the land of Israel.
To promote Zionism, defined as the Jewish people's national self-determination movement that advocates for their right to a sovereign country located in their ancestral homeland, the State of Israel.
To recommend constructive solutions to the UC leadership to help them make UCLA a welcoming and safe space to live, work, and learn for everyone, including Jews.
To take necessary and appropriate follow-up steps when campus antisemitism has not been taken seriously.
Current Activities
JFrg at UCLA's AIR on Campus Program, with faculty and volunteers meticulously gathering detailed reports of antisemitic and Civil Rights violations on campus, offering caring and empathic support during and after the reporting process.
JFrg's Evidence Team carefully catalogues and reports antisemitism and anti-Zionism at UCLA.
On Friday, May 3, 2024 JFrg leadership personally met with Comgressional Investigators in Washington DC, presented evidence and examples of escalating antisemitsm and discrimination, the UCLA administration's associated permissive attitude, as well as its recurrent equivocation, including the pairing of antisemitism with islamophobia. Per the investigator for the U.S. House Committee on Education, JFrg's intensive and meticulous evidence-gathering and cataloguing have been "invaluable", as the Committee prepares for UCLA's May 23, 2024 hearing on antisemitism.
Open letter to UCLA Chancellor & UC President urging swifter and more consistent condemnation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Here is Chancellor Block's response.
Recommending and advocating UCLA Chancellor Search Advisory Committee criteria.
Liaising with Jewish students, UC leaders, Hillel, Chabad, ADL, StandWithUs, Academic Engagement Network (AEN), Project Shema, and other organizations
Offering UCLA student support groups and support groups for California Jewish faculty & staff support groups
UCLA Faculty Solidarity Mission to Israel & Delegation Bios: Feb 18 through 22, 2024.
JFrg at UCLA's Jewish Faculty-Student Alliance: Developing community, support, and faculty cooperation with Jewish students. Interested students can sign up here.
Public Advocacy before the UC Regents: We regularly mobilize Jewish faculty teams to present public comments at UC Regents meetings on topics relevant to our mission. Unity, Dignity, Professionalism, truth, and Clarity are our simple methods of persuasion.
Promoting awareness, education, and training on Jewish history, identity, and antisemitism.
Building Allyship. Social and professional networking of Jewish and non-Jewish faculty, staff, and allies
JFrg in the News & On The Web: