Pro-Israel speaker receives cease and desist from Board of Trustees 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story had misquoted Uduak Joe-Ntuk, stating “I reject all accusations of semitism.”. instead of “I reject all accusations of antisemitism.”

A self-described Zionist received a cease and desist notice, via email, on Aug. 6 on behalf of the LBCC Board of Trustees to “refrain from making any further knowingly false and defamatory statements alleging that any Board of Trustee members are antisemitic” during public meetings, which he claims he’s never done.

Al Barlevy has been attending Board of Trustees meetings since December 2024 to “counter” pro-Palestinian speakers and was surprised to receive the cease and desist, which was signed by lawyer Vincent Ewing. 

“In order for the attorney to do something on behalf of the board, the board has to discuss it and vote on it. … I know that my name never appeared on the board agenda. So I don’t know if one of the board members asked the attorney to send it to me to try and intimidate me or if they violated the Brown Act and three board members met outside of a publicly noticed meeting, … whether it be a serial meeting or an actual meeting, I don’t know,” Barlevy said. 

^{The cease and desist letter sent to Al Barlevy, a self-described Zionist, requests him to stop making statements that allege LBCC trustees to be antisemitic. Barlevy claims he has never called any member antisemitic, but has only countered pro-Palestinian speakers who make public comments at the Board of Trustee meetings, which he has attended regularly. Photo courtesy of Al Barlevy.}

Barlevy says that he had never made direct claims of antisemitism towards the Board of Trustees, only speaking against pro-Palestinian speakers who made public comments at the meetings. 

“The only thing that could even come close to accusing them of antisemitism is that (after Trustee Uduak Joe-Ntuk concluded the June meeting) by saying ‘I reject all accusations of antisemitism.’ So I leveraged that and in theJuly meeting I said, ‘it’s great that you’re rejecting accusations of antisemitism. Now let’s see you do something about these antisemites who come to speak in front of the board. That’s not an accusation of antisemitism in my book,” Barlevy said.

The Viking News reached out to trustees Ntuk, Sunny Zia and Director of Communications Stacey Toda for an in-person meeting with any of the trustees, Superintendent President Mike Munoz or herself and received no answer regarding how the cease and desist was decided upon because “legal matters must be addressed through formal, written statements rather than live interviews,” but sent an emailed statement from LBCC.

“The Long Beach Community College District routinely communicates with community members regarding decorum and compliance with the Brown Act. As a matter of policy, we do not discuss individual correspondence or legal communications. The District remains committed to civil discourse and respectful public participation,” the statement read.

When asked about his initial reaction, Barlevy said that he thought the letter was “laughable.”

“The cease and desist letter tells me how the First Amendment gives me the right to speak in front of the college, and it’s very broadly construed and then it says ‘but you cannot call board members antisemites’ and like, I’m not aware that the Constitution has an exception for calling officials antisemites so, I was, I thought it read like it was written by a buffoon,” Barlevy said.

Barlevy has continued to regularly attend board meetings since the receipt of the letter.