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Two Jewish mental health professionals at the Stanfords Campus Counseling Clinic have filed complaints of discrimination in the workplace after what they call severe and persistent anti-Jewish harassment from colleagues.
Dr Ronald Albucher, psychiatrist and associate professor in the faculty of medicine, and Sheila Levin, therapist specializing in eating disorders, describe being pressured to join a white affinity group by members of the staff of the Diversity program, equity and inclusion, being told they are privileged and having anti-Semitic incidents downplayed.
The university has inadequately responded to their concerns, voiced over the course of a year, according to Albucher and Levin, creating a hostile and unwelcoming environment for Jewish employees working for Stanfords’ psychological counseling and services office ( CAPS).
Released publicly on Tuesday, the complaints filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Californias Department of Fair Employment and Housing allege violations of state and federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Representing Albucher and Levin are attorneys at the Louis D. Brandeis Center, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization that focuses on Jewish civil rights issues on college campuses.
The problems started in November 2019, say Albucher and Levin, when CAPS employees were invited to participate in weekly seminars hosted by the clinic’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, formed earlier that year. The DCI program is facilitated by fellow psychologists and mental health professionals within CAPS.
Most Stanford programs and departments have internal DEI programs, as do universities in the Bay Area and nationwide. According to the program’s webpage, the initiative aims to help Stanfords’ office of psychological services provide care rooted in cultural humility and values of social justice.
At CAPS, we are strongly committed to focusing diversity, equity and inclusion not only in the services we provide, but within the multiple systems we inhabit, the description says.
Albucher said he was excited and supportive of the DCI program at first. As a psychiatrist working on a campus like Stanford, where people from all over the world come to study, teach and research, it only increases his knowledge base about other cultures and religions, he said. to J.
But once the DCI programming began, his perspective deteriorated.
Ahead of their first meeting, CAPS staff were invited to read White Fragility, The New York Times 2018 bestseller by Robin DiAngelo. Albucher said she was not interested in the mission as an introduction to DCI training because she is deeply pessimistic about race relations in the United States, and she maintains that all white people are fragile on race issues, no matter what. ‘he is coming.
When he expressed this point of view, according to the complaint, several CAPS colleagues verbally harassed and intimidated him. In an initial meeting, he was reprimanded, the complaint says, for not reading the book, thereby co-opting the meeting because other attendees had to explain the book to him.
When I spoke, probably five or six people jumped on me, he told J.
Albucher, a member of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco and specializing in anxiety disorders and the treatment of college students, is the former director of the CAPS program, which he led from 2008 to 2018.
To discuss “white fragility,” the complaint says, DCI members have divided CAPS staff by race, which makes it easier to deal with white staff. [their] reaction to that. The group was later named Whiteness Accountability Group / Book Club.
The complaint describes racially separate affinity groups that separated CAPS staff members on the basis of race or perceived race. One of these groups was for white staff and another group was for staff of colored minorities.
No affinity group has ever been created for members of ancestral Jewish identity, he continues. As a result, there was no room in the DCI program for Dr. Albucher and Ms. Levin to safely express their lived Jewish experience.
Albucher said he was deeply uncomfortable with white-only discussion groups and refused to join them, although he continued to attend DCI seminars.
As a Jewish homosexual, I have my own perception of white supremacy and the history of this country, he said. My family had to deal with white supremacy, he said, adding that he had family members who died during the Holocaust.
Levin also did not want to join the white group only, telling a DCI member that as a Jewish person she felt no affinity with white identity, according to the complaint. She said the person responded that this is the direction the clinic is heading and that they need to participate if they want to be part of a collegial environment.
Albucher and Levin allege a pattern of anti-Jewish bias within the DCI program. The complaint cites a DCI seminar on May 20, 2020 in which concerns about anti-Semitism were downplayed following a racist and anti-Semitic Zoombombing incident four days earlier, when the N word and swastikas were shared at a student government meeting.
At the follow-up meeting, the complaint says, DCI committee members addressed racist and anti-black content but did not mention anti-Semitism or swastikas.
When Albucher asked about the omission, he was told the committee decided to omit any mention of anti-Semitism so as not to dominate the discussion of anti-Black racism, the complaint says. When he brought it up again, he was accused of trying to derail the conversation.
DCI committee members justified the omission of anti-Semitism, according to the complaint, by insisting that unlike other minority groups, Jews can hide behind their white identities. During the meeting, Albucher and Levin say they have been subjected to anti-Jewish stereotypes, such as Jews are wealthy and powerful business owners.
Levin was too intimidated to speak, according to the record, fearing that she would face similar hostility and harassment on the basis of her Jewish identity and race.
After this meeting, Albucher decided that he would no longer attend DCI seminars.
If you train your professionals to reject, ignore or deny anti-Semitism, what impact does this have on the quality of care?
On May 30, 2020, Levin emailed a DCI official asking how she could support the program. According to the complaint, the person responded that as a Cis Jewish and White woman, you have immense power and privileges. It is important to understand how you are part of the systemic racism and oppression that takes place in this country.
On June 24, 2020, the complaint alleges that during a seminar that Levin attended, attendees lamented that the group was made up of privileged people, especially whites, posing as whites and Jews.
In August, Levin and Albucher informed Stanfords’ human resources department of the hostile climate they were experiencing in the DCI program, according to the complaint, and the human resources department attempted to facilitate a mediation session between the parties. Neither Albucher nor Levin felt satisfied with the outcome, and in the fall of 2020 Levin stopped participating in the White Affinity Group due to the continued hostility she experienced over her race and identity. ethnically Jewish, according to the complaint.
On January 8 of this year, according to the complaint, Levin was again subjected to a hostile environment when, at a seminar for future psychology students as CAPS interns, a host from the DCI program said the program would explore how Jews are linked to white supremacy and will address anti-Semitism. Another DCI representative said she “takes an anti-Zionist approach to social justice”.
Albucher and Levin first filed complaints with the US Department of Education in the spring. The ministry transferred the complaints to the employment office.
The complaints come as Stanford grapples with other reports of anti-Jewish prejudice. On June 8, Hillel’s director at Stanford, Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, sent an email to his mailing list describing an alarming amount of incidents online and in person resulting in large part from anti-Israel animosity. amidst the violence in Israel and Gaza. One Jewish student was told, Don’t talk to me if you’re Jewish, while another was told by a classmate, I won’t talk to you, Nazi, Kirschner wrote.
Stanford has opened an investigation into complaints of discrimination in the workplace; Alyza Lewin is senior counsel representing Levin and Albucher.
The university responded to a request for comment from J. on Monday, via an email from spokesperson Dee Mostofi.
We are deeply committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment free from harassment and discrimination of any kind. We value and respect the dignity of every member of our community.
The complaints, which Lewin says will be resolved amicably, require Stanford to comply with the law by taking concrete steps to eliminate the hostile environment for Jews at CAPS, including establishing a task force to provide information on how to respond. anti-Semitism on campus and how to meet the clinical needs of Jewish students. Albucher and Levin are calling for a comprehensive program on anti-Semitism for CAPS staff, a public statement condemning anti-Semitism, monetary compensation and other remedies.
Lewin said the Brandeis Centers’ push to pursue the claims goes beyond how Levin and Albucher were treated.
Our concern is that this department trains therapists who provide mental health care to students on campus, she said of the CAPS program, which employs around 30 therapists. Our concern is that if you train your professionals to reject anti-Semitism, or to ignore or deny it, what impact does this have on the quality of care?
Albucher said it worries him that it appears politics is infused into healthcare.
How will they work clinically with Jewish students? We need to improve our skills in mental health, he said. It is clear that these people will put politics ahead of science.
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