A report by the House Education and Labor Committee found that many universities have failed to adequately discipline anti-Semitic behavior, saying the committee’s investigation revealed a wave of anti-Semitism on college campuses after the October 7 Hamas attack sparked the Israeli war.
summary of more than 100 page reportreleased Thursday, saying the “vast majority” of students accused of anti-Semitic harassment or other anti-Semitic acts on campuses faced minimal disciplinary action for the alleged violations.
The Republican-majority staff report investigated 11 schools from the elite Ivy League to the University of California system, including the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.
“This is not the end,” board spokeswoman AnnMarie Graham-Barnes told ABC News in a statement, adding, “As long as Jewish students face discrimination and harassment, the Board will continue to demand better from universities.”
Jewish students across the country described living in an atmosphere of hatred and fear after Hamas invaded Israel. At a congressional hearing in February, Tulane University’s Yasmeen Ohebsion told the committee that since the war began on Oct. 7, she had been yelled at with comments such as “F— you Jew.”
“This is the reality of being a Jewish student who wears the Star of David,” Ohebsion said.
At the same round table, a Jewish student at Columbia Eden Yadegar he said that last school year, stick-waving protesters remained on his campus. He told ABC News that he believes that ignoring Jewish students is a “characteristic” of his school’s administration.
A major finding of the extensive research indicated that the alleged chaos – including anti-Semitic harassment, large-scale disruptions and pro-Palestinian demonstrations – on college campuses could set a precedent for future behavior and violence.
The event that prompted the commission’s month-long investigation began in December on Capitol Hill, during a bombshell hearing by the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT to combat anti-Semitism.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) questions witnesses during a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on holding campus leaders accountable and combating anti-Semitism at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Dec. 5, 2023.
Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via AP Images, FILE
Elise Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, asked the president of each school if calling the Jewish genocide is hate speech on campus.
University leaders said it was a context-sensitive response that drew dozens of headlines after the once-silent commission. December 5 hearing.
Harvard President Claudine Gay speaks during a House Committee on Education hearing on Capitol Hill, Dec. 5, 2023, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP, FILE
Since then, the committee’s investigations have included several document requests – totaling more than 400,000 pages – historic subpoenas of documents and internal communications – leading to the resignations of multiple university presidents who testified publicly before Congress (Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill and President of Columbia). Minouche Shafik resigned before the start of the academic year 2024-2025).
Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik prepares to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee during a hearing on Columbia University’s response to anti-Semitism, on Capitol Hill, April 17, 2024.
Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images, FILE
The committee’s GOP chairwoman, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, said that while Jewish students have shown courage amid the scourge of alleged anti-Semitic harassment, universities failed to protect them and should be held accountable.
“Our investigation has shown that these ‘leaders’ are responsible for the chaos that violates Title VI and threatens public safety,” Foxx wrote in a statement. “It is time for the executive branch to enforce the law and for colleges and universities to restore order and ensure that all students have a safe learning environment,” he wrote.
House Education and Labor Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (RN.C.) speaks during a press conference on anti-Semitism at the U.S. Capitol on April 30, 2024.
Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images, FILE
In response to the report, an Education Department official told ABC News that the department is committed to investigating complaints of anti-Semitism and other forms of hate speech to the extent authorized by Congress. The universities named in the report are being investigated by the federal Office for Civil Rights.
The commission’s extensive investigation has four main findings:
First, he alleges that university administrators abdicated leadership and capitulated to the camp leaders. The report concluded that UCLA had enabled a “hostile environment” for Jewish students by failing to remove “anti-Semitic checkpoints” within a campus that “required passers-by to wear a specific wristband to cross them.”
Second, the commission said university leaders refused to express support for Jewish student communities and condemn anti-Semitic behavior. Harvard did not condemn Hamas in its initial response to the invasion and many schools “turned their backs” on Jewish communities on campus, according to the report.
He criticized Harvard and other universities for showing deliberate “indifference” to anti-Semitic persecution while supporting other minority groups.
Third, the schools failed to meaningfully discipline the pro-Palestinian protesters. The investigation concluded that there was little discipline regarding camps and building possessions at schools including Northwestern, Berkeley and Rutgers.
According to the report, Rutgers also punished Jewish students with “lax” treatment of anti-Semitic misconduct for exposing anti-Semitism they experienced while married.
Fourth, he said, university leaders are eager to engage in congressional oversight and disparage lawmakers. The report came after Harvard, Columbia and Penn, including presidents and committee chairs, condemned the committee’s actions. According to their findings, official notes from a Dec. 10 Harvard Board of Trustees meeting show former president Claudine Gay referring to Stefanik as a “hate purveyor” and a “Proud Boys supporter.”
Harvard is one of the schools listed in the study update steps policies and rules regarding campus use and discipline. University policy prohibits demonstrations and protests in study, teaching or private areas.
“Anti-Semitism has no place on our campus, and we have stepped up our efforts to listen, learn, support and elevate our Jewish community at the university, affirming their vital place at Harvard,” Harvard spokesman Jason Newton told ABC News.
Stefani, a Harvard student, said the universities included in the extensive study are ones to reckon with for decades to come.
“This report clearly demonstrates the moral failure of university leaders to take decisive action as well as reaffirms the personal attacks on me for continuing to hold them accountable,” Stefani said in a statement to ABC News.
“Our once ‘elite’ institutions of higher education tolerated anti-Semitic enemies and harassers and failed to condemn and adequately discipline students and faculty guilty of violations of anti-Semitic behavior,” he said.
Last spring, Foxx’s anti-Semitism investigation by the Education Committee and concurrent investigations by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson to take up the issue, turning it into a full House inquiry into the pro-railway. . -Palestinian demonstrations and taking campuses.
Much of the information in the majority’s extensive investigation has become public through its high-profile hearings, transcribed interviews and subpoenas.
Meanwhile, committee Democrats told ABC News that committee Republicans “aggressively” rejected other forms of discrimination on college campuses. “The only way to effectively combat anti-Semitism is to combat all forms of hate and discrimination,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, the committee’s top Democrat.
Rep. Scott added that the committee has not held hearings on Islamophobia, saying that “Muslim students have been exposed to hate speech and everything, discrimination, ra, schism and more.”
