Officials at the University of California-Berkeley shared personal information on 160 students, faculty and staff with federal anti-Semitism investigators.

Officials at the University of California-Berkeley on September 4 notified about 160 students, faculty and staff that the university had shared their personal information with federal investigators looking into alleged campus anti-Semitism. Photo by John G. Mabanglo/EPA-EFE UPI

Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Officials at the University of California-Berkeley have shared personal information on 160 students, faculty and staff with the federal government amid an anti-Semitism investigation.

The Department of Education and Office of Civil Rights is investigating claims of anti-Semitism at the university and requested the information, which the U.C. Office of the President ordered staff to provide, The Daily Californian reported this week.

The Daily Californian is an independent student publication at the university and reported that the university shared the information in August and informed those affected in an email from the university's Office of Legal Affairs on Sept. 4.

"As part of its investigation, OCR required production of comprehensive documents, including files and reports related to alleged anti-Semitic incidents," the email read, as reported by The Daily Californian.

The email told respective individuals that the university included their names in reports provided by the University of California system's Office of General Counsel, as required by law.

Those whose names were provided are among some who have been accused of anti-Semitic activities at the university, affected by such activities or complained about them, SFGate, The New York Times and The Guardian reported.

Many of those accused of anti-Semitism at the university are Muslims and Palestinians, but an unnamed graduate student said such claims often arise from classroom discussions regarding Israel and the Middle East, according to The Daily Californian.

Faculty member Judith Butler is among those named and is described by The Guardian as a "feminist philosopher and queer theorist."

Butler also is a Jewish scholar who has criticized Israel's actions in its war against Hamas and asked university administrators about the information disclosed.

"We have a right to know the charges against us, to know who has made the charges and to review them and defend ourselves," Butler told The Guardian.

"But none of that has happened, which is why we're in Kafka-land," she said, while referencing German writer Franz Kafka and his published works.

"It is an enormous breach of trust," Butler added.

The Trump administration has targeted many elite universities for alleged anti-Semitism, including encampments, protests and building takeovers, and has withheld federal funding from those accused of enabling campus anti-Semitism.

The Education Department began investigating U.C.-Berkeley in February, and Republican lawmakers in July accused university Chancellor Rich Lyons those at two other universities of not effectively stopping anti-Semitism on their respective campuses, according to The New York Times.