Antisemitism in the United States Colleges
Note:This article is the Executive Summary of a 325 page report by the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee), led by Chairwoman Virginia Foxx. The report was published on October 31, 2024. The full report can be downloaded in PDF format
On October 7, 2023, a terrorist attack orchestrated by Hamas resulted in the murder of nearly 1,200 people in Israel, including more than 40 American citizens. In the aftermath of that horrific event, American institutions of higher education were upended by an epidemic of hate, violence, and harassment targeting Jewish students.
For nearly a year, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee), led by Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, has conducted a wide-reaching and intensive investigation into this explosion of campus antisemitism. In December 2023, the Committee’s hearing on campus antisemitism revealed stunning failures of leadership and character at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and prompted a national reckoning when the three school presidents shockingly refused to unequivocally state that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their institutions’ codes of conduct. In subsequent hearings, the Committee called leaders from Columbia University, Rutgers University, Northwestern University, and the University of California, Los Angeles to account for their dramatic failures in confronting antisemitism on their campuses.
The Committee’s investigation has been unprecedented in its depth and scope. For the first time in its 157-year history, the Committee issued subpoenas to post-secondary institutions for obstructionist, dilatory responses to document requests made in furtherance of the Committee’s consideration of potential legislative solutions to address campus antisemitism. The Committee has collected more than 400,000 pages of documents over the course of its investigation. Now, the Committee is releasing key findings in this report.
Information obtained by the Committee reveals a stunning lack of accountability by university leaders for students engaging in antisemitic harassment, assault, trespass, and destruction of school property. At every school investigated by the Committee, the overwhelming majority of students facing disciplinary action for antisemitic harassment or other violations of policy received only minimal discipline. At some schools, such as Columbia and Harvard, radical faculty members worked to prevent disciplinary action from being taken against students who violated official policies and even the law.
Around the country, extremist antisemitic encampments were allowed to form in direct contravention of institutional policy and the law. At Columbia, students who engaged in the criminal takeover of a university building were allowed to evade accountability. At Northwestern, radical faculty members were put in charge of negotiating with their own ideological allies in that campus’ encampment, leading to a stunning capitulation to the encampment leaders’ demands. At Rutgers, protesters faced no consequences for an encampment that disrupted exams for more than 1,000 students. UCLA’s leadership was unwilling to directly confront a violent, antisemitic encampment, even when antisemitic checkpoints denied Jewish students access to areas of campus.
These individual incidents and others that this report highlights are evidence of a broader environment on these campuses that is hostile to Jewish students. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), universities that receive federal funds have an obligation to prevent and address hostile environments based on race, color, or national origin (including a hostile environment against religious groups based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics). Instead of fulfilling these legal obligations, in numerous cases, university leaders turned their backs on their campuses’ Jewish communities, intentionally withholding support in a time of need. And while university leaders publicly projected a commitment toward combating antisemitism and respect for congressional efforts on the subject, in their private communications they viewed antisemitism as a PR issue rather than a campus problem.
The findings in this report are based on documents produced to the Committee, as well as hearing testimony and transcribed interviews of university leaders and advisors.
Press Release of the Congresswoman Elise Stefanik on the Education and the Workforce Committee’s historic report regarding antisemitism on college campuses.
"After the historic Congressional hearing with failed university presidents last December heard and viewed around the world, I have led the fight to combat and condemn antisemitism on college campuses. I am grateful for Chairwoman Foxx's leadership in the sweeping investigation that has revealed details of the absolute failures of universities to hold antisemitic students and faculty accountable.
This report clearly shows the moral bankruptcy of university leaders to take decisive action and even confirms personal attacks against me for pursuing their accountability. Our once "elite" higher education institutions conceded to hostile, antisemitic agitators and failed to condemn and properly discipline students and faculty that were guilty of antisemitic conduct violations. These universities are in for a reckoning for decades to come that will shatter their ivory towers," said Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.
"For over a year, Republican Committee members have been united behind one goal: ensure Jewish students have the same safe and uninterrupted learning environment of any other student, and I am grateful to Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for the role she has played in our investigation. The explosion of antisemitism on college campuses has exposed the moral rot at many of our so-called elite institutions, and the Committee has rightly demanded accountability from those who allowed it to grow. Now, it is time for the executive branch to step up, enforce the laws, and protect Jewish students from the abhorrent harassment and discrimination they've experienced for simply trying to receive an education," said Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC).
The Committee's investigation included: Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Columbia University, Barnard College, Rutgers University, Northwestern University, George Washington University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, Los Angeles.
Key Findings of the Report:
- Universities showed negligence in responding to student encampments
- University leaders chose not to support Jewish students in the face of antisemitic hate
- Universities failed to impose discipline for antisemitic conduct
- University leaders expressed hostility to Congressional oversight
Stefanik has repeatedly advocated for the protection of Jewish students on campus and the need to hold higher education accountable for enabling antisemitism.