Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) announced that they are launching the Combating Antisemitism on College Campuses Caucus during a visit to Vanderbilt University on Tuesday.

The announcement was made during an event with Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and the leaders of the University of Kentucky, University of Texas at Austin, Dartmouth College, the University of Alabama and Washington University in St. Louis. 

The event, with an audience of Vanderbilt students, faculty, staff and local community members, was focused on highlighting some of the campuses that have, in the view of the organizers, successfully navigated the post-Oct. 7 environment on college campuses, balancing freedom of speech and expression with protecting Jewish students.

“Since October 7th, Jewish students on too many campuses have been harassed, intimidated, and made to feel like strangers in their own school,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “That’s why Elise and I are teaming up to launch this caucus to hold universities accountable, back up the schools getting it right, like Vanderbilt, and make sure every Jewish kid can have a college experience without fear of discrimination or violence.”

Stefanik, who is retiring at the end of the congressional term, said she has “been proud to be the leader in Congress on combatting antisemitism and anti-Americanism at our colleges and universities.”

“I am proud to launch this bipartisan Congressional Caucus with my friend and colleague Representative Josh Gottheimer who has been a leading partner and legislator with whom I have worked on this critical issue. We are committed to saving American higher education for the next generation,” she continued.

Stefanik became nationally known for her questioning of university leaders during a congressional hearing about whether calls for the genocide of Jews constituted prohibited harassment on their campuses, and recently published a book about antisemitism on college campuses. The new task force is an outgrowth of that work that has become a focus for Stefanik in recent years.

The caucus, according to the release, aims to serve as a bipartisan forum to coordinate oversight of campus antisemitism; pressure institutions to protect their Jewish communities and  enforce existing campus policies; advance legislation on campus antisemitism including the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the HEAL Act and the anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act; and to elevate schools that have been effective in protecting Jewish students and sharing best practices.

The House already has a broad bipartisan task force on combating antisemitism,  which recently helped launch the bipartisan and bicameral Jewish American Security Act.

The new caucus aims to supplement, not stand in place of, the existing task force, by taking a targeted focus, including bringing campus leaders to Capitol Hill and visiting college campuses.

Gottheimer and Stefanik have not yet recruited others to join the task force.

Should Democrats retake the House, the Trump administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism are likely to face further scrutiny, as previewed by a recent announcement by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) that he plans to probe the administration’s campus antisemitism investigations, describing the investigations of Harvard, Brown and Columbia Universities as essentially fraudulent.