Masked UCSB Staff Member Allegedly Incited Anti-Semitic Mob Targeting Jewish Student Leader

By The Author | Thursday, 11 December 2025

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that a University of California, Santa Barbara staff member, disguised in a mask, helped inflame a hostile mob of anti-Israel demonstrators against Jewish student leader Tessa Veksler.

The complaint states that the university repeatedly ignored the student’s pleas for protection as harassment escalated. Veksler, 23, is a Manhattan resident who recently graduated with degrees in political science and communications.

Veksler became the target of a sustained antisemitic campaign after publicly condemning the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis. According to the lawsuit, tensions peaked in February 2024 when Veksler — then serving as the school’s student body president — approached a large group of masked anti-Israel protesters in an effort to diffuse tensions.

“She believed she was making progress until a UCSB representative — defendant Doe 1, and also wearing a mask — joined the meeting and began harassing Tessa and purposefully inciting the crowd’s antisemitic animus toward her,” the filing stated.

The staff member allegedly disrupted Veksler, egged on the demonstrators, and contributed directly to the crowd’s aggression. This confrontation was only one episode in what Veksler describes as months of unchecked hostility during the 2023–24 academic year — harassment she says university officials failed to meaningfully address.

A first-generation American, Veksler says the harassment began immediately after she criticized Hamas’ attack, which also resulted in the kidnapping of 250 people and sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. Her social media post condemning the massacre prompted accusations that she was “supporting genocide,” according to the suit.

The filing alleges an organized effort to intimidate her: posters appeared across campus labeling her a “Zionist” and demanding her resignation. Some were plastered near the university’s Multicultural Center — an area Veksler frequently passed on her way to her office, and which was supposed to serve as a welcoming space for all students, including Jewish students.

Messages included: “AS president is racist Zionist,” “Get these Zionists out of office,” and a threatening warning: “You can run but you can’t hide Tessa Veksler.” One flyer even displayed her personal phone number. Students also called her a “Zionist dog,” the lawsuit states.

The complaint further alleges that the university’s official Multicultural Center Instagram account posted an image of one of the hostile flyers.

“All of these threats and this harassment took place under the watchful eye of the University and its administrators. But UCSB did nothing, despite its elaborate anti-discrimination policy and Tessa’s repeated pleas for help,” the lawsuit says.

The school essentially “abandoned Tessa to the antisemitic mob, discarded its own written policy intended to prevent that harassment, and allowed and facilitated an insidious injustice to continue unabated,” according to the complaint.

UCSB eventually issued a statement on February 26, 2024, condemning harassment related to Middle East tensions but did not mention Veksler by name. By then, the lawsuit claims the sustained threats had taken a severe psychological toll, leading to panic attacks and post-traumatic stress. During final exams, Veksler avoided campus entirely.

She is now seeking unspecified damages from UCSB and 20 university staffers and representatives, alleging violations of her civil rights and a failure to protect both her safety and her freedom of speech.