Campuses confront resurgence of anti-Israel activism after Oct. 7 anniversary

As the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks approached earlier this month, Jewish students at American universities waited with trepidation — would their memorial events be targeted by anti-Israel demonstrators? Memories of encampments and chants of “intifada” from last spring lingered in the back of their minds as they came together to mourn and reflect with campus Jewish communities.

But if the early weeks of the academic year before Oct. 7 provided tentative cause for optimism at some schools that had faced major disruptions earlier this year, that day and the week that followed reminded Jewish students that the anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric they came to fear last year are still present at many schools. In many cases, the activity has become more extreme and the language more violent, even if it is not as widespread as it was in the spring. 

At the University of California, Berkeley, more than 1,000 students staged a walkout from their classes and gathered at the main campus quad, where flyers with the words “Long Live Al-Aqsa Flood” — Hamas’ name for their Oct. 7 attacks — were distributed. A banner reading “Glory to the Resistance” was hung from a famed tower on campus. At Swarthmore College, outside Philadelphia, the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine wrote on Instagram: “Happy October 7th!” and asked followers to donate money “in honor of this glorious day and all our martyred revolutionaries.” 

Some protesters more directly targeted Jewish students and institutions. Fifteen to 20 people demonstrated outside of the University of Minnesota Hillel on Oct. 7 during a “One year of Genocide” walkout sponsored by the campus pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions group. A group of protesters at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill chanted slogans condemning Hillel. 

“There has been a lot of justification of violence, and not even just justification, but glorification,” said Julia Jassey, CEO of Jewish on Campus. “You see this coming from a number of universities where you’re having student groups saying that the violence of Oct. 7 was OK, that it was justified, that it was moralized in some way.” 

As the war in the Middle East enters its second year, the story of life for Jewish students is not one clear-cut narrative.

Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman told Jewish Insider he sees a few key differences between the spasm of hate that erupted last week and what occurred on many of the same campuses during the spring semester.

“These activities are becoming more extreme while they’re attracting fewer total students,” Lehman said. 

Hillel International, which provides support to hundreds of university Hillel houses, has also observed a change in response from university administrators: “Many more administrations adopted stronger policies, and even this week, we have seen several administrations respond more forcefully in trying to address over-the-top protest and agitation disruptions,” Lehman explained.

For instance, after anti-Israel activists at Pomona College in Southern California blockaded a campus university building — prompting some students to resort to climbing out of windows to leave — the university suspended 12 students for their role in the takeover. At other universities, such as Stanford, administrators started the school year by revamping their policies governing protest and freedom of expression, as well as their handling of discrimination complaints. 

Some students, too, appear to have tired of the divisive anti-Israel politics promoted by vocal activists on campus. Last week, the University of Michigan student government voted to restore funding to student organizations after anti-Israel activists succeeded in putting the funding on pause, in a move they said was meant to protest the war in Gaza. Upstate New York’s Binghamton University’s student government voted to overturn a resolution passed last year that expressed support for BDS. Yet at American University in Washington, D.C., 65% of students who participated in a campus referendum voted to divest from Israel. 

One constant amid the whiplash from campus to campus — and from week to week — is that Jewish students have been forced to acknowledge that their universities could at any point become Ground Zero for Israeli-Palestinian politics to erupt in chaos. Even when that doesn’t happen, a sense of anticipation lurks in the background.

“Most students came into this academic year aware that some of their peers and many people from outside of campus would be continuing to try to hijack their campus environment to advance specific political goals and objectives. With that awareness, they are less surprised by the protest activities and disruptions they’ve seen,” said Lehman. 

The other constant is that Jewish students continue to engage with the Jewish community. Oct. 7 memorials happened at universities across the country, generally without incident and with large attendance. Students report bustling Shabbat dinners and active Hillel and Chabad houses.

“Being a Jew at Columbia now is infinitely better than it was last year. I publicize antisemitism [because] the lack of loudness shouldn’t let us become complacent,” Eliana Goldin, a senior at Columbia, wrote on X last week. “The Jewish community at Columbia is thriving. We’ve just become desensitized.”

Harris speaks out against campus antisemitism

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke out against the antisemitism on American college campuses, pledging in a Friday virtual event before Yom Kippur to “do everything in my power to combat antisemitism whenever and wherever we see it.” 

“I know across the country, many Jewish parents and grandparents are worried for their children who are on college campuses, and I know many Jewish students have feared attending class in recent months,” Harris said. “When individuals participate in calls to violence and harassment against Jews, that is antisemitism, and I condemn it. When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, and when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism, and I condemn it.” 

She described a need to balance students’ legitimate freedom of speech while also fighting hate on campuses.

“In the United States of America, we can and we must ensure people can peacefully make their voices heard, while we also stand up for the rule of law and stand up against hate, and this is a priority for me,” said Harris.

Until now, Harris has said little about discrimination and hostility faced by Jewish students at U.S. universities. In September, former President Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding to universities if they don’t address antisemitism, he told the Republican Jewish Coalition. 

In July, Harris told The Nation that young pro-Palestine protesters are “showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza,” while drawing some distance from their extreme rhetoric: “There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points,” she said. “But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it.”

An NRCC video casts Sue Altman as supporting Columbia protests. The full clip tells the opposite story

On Friday morning, the National Republican Campaign Committee shared an audio clip on X that appeared to depict Sue Altman, the Democratic candidate challenging Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, endorsing antisemitic campus protests at Columbia University.

But the full clip tells a very different story, in which Altman clearly condemned the protests as antisemitic and unacceptable.

The post is the latest of Republicans’ efforts to portray Altman, a longtime progressive activist who led the Working Families Party in New Jersey, as too radical to represent the New Jersey swing district — a line of attack that has sometimes focused on questions about Altman’s record on Israel.

Based on a clip of the exchange obtained by Jewish Insider, Altman was asked at an event by a Jewish high schooler about how she would address antisemitism on college campuses and keep the Jewish community safe.

“I am extremely concerned and worried about the rise in antisemitism,” Altman said. She mentioned that she’d read a recent report by Columbia University’s antisemitism task force, which she described as “truly appalling. No student, Jewish or anything, should have to ever experience antisemitism or any kind of bias against them.”

Altman, a Columbia alumna, highlighted a Sept. 3 tweet she sent in response to that report, in which she said that “glorifying despicable acts of terror and subjecting Jewish students to harassment or intimidation does absolutely nothing to advance the interests of innocent Palestinians — nor does it advance the broader mission to secure peace.”

Altman, in the excerpt from the event posted by the NRCC said, in general terms, that “an anti-war movement is something that is honorable and part of Columbia’s history, and I’ve always respected good old protests.”

But she went on to say that at Columbia and many other schools, “what should have been an anti-war movement and a movement for [a] peace that is sustainable, which would have included returning the hostages, not just a one-sided unilateral peace had, in my opinion bled over into antisemitism.”

She said that she’s been “very disappointed and appalled” at the activity of the protesters at Columbia, describing their push to relitigate the founding of Israel and question the Jewish people’s right to a state as “a nonstarter for me.”

Altman’s campaign had, in its early days, drawn questions about her positions on Israel, given that the national Working Families Party has been a long-standing critic of the Jewish state.

Altman said at the event that she had publicly broken with the group on Israel “because I do feel as though the Israeli people have a right to defend themselves,” noting that Israel continues to face attacks by its neighbors.

The congressional candidate said she’s had conversations with local Jewish leaders about the fear that they are feeling, adding that she feels that antisemitism has long been “left unchecked and left unexamined,” going back to the time of the Holocaust and before.

She said that many in the U.S. have forgotten or glossed over the fact that the U.S. turned away Jewish refugees and turned a blind eye to the atrocities the Nazis were committing in the Holocaust, or in some cases attended pro-Nazi rallies.

“The conversation around antisemitism in our country has a long way to go, in scholarship, in popular culture, in the way we talk about the ways antisemitism affects regular people,” Altman said, arguing the U.S. hasn’t had a proper reconging with antisemitism in the way it has in recent years with racism and sexism.

“I would encourage us all, whether Republican or Democrat … or unaffiliated, to look very closely at the ways in which antisemitism exists in this country, alongside the other ills that we are more conversant around — gender and race,” Altman said.

Asked about its characterization and presentation of Altman’s remarks, the NRCC accused her of trying to disguise her record.

“Sue Altman has been trying to hide her radical past from voters this entire election cycle — from deleting tweets to a full on attempted rebrand that even leftists acknowledge,” NRCC spokesperson Savannah Viar said. “She has spent her career associating with anti-Israel activists and no number of rambling answers will cover that up.”

The NRCC has gone after Altman in the past for her ties to the WFP, for her support for former Ohio congressional candidate Nina Turner, a critic of Israel, and for taking endorsements from progressive Israel critics in Congress. Conservatives have also accused her of being slow to speak out in support of Israel and against the chaos at Columbia.

More broadly, Kean and the NRCC say Altman is trying to walk back her progressive record to win election in a swing district.

Altman fired back, “instead of recognizing an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to affirm our support for the Jewish people” at a time of heightened fear and antisemitism, “Kean and the NRCC have deceptively manipulated a recording of me to lie to voters — because their only goal is to win an election at any cost.”

Kean’s campaign reposted the NRCC video on its X account. It declined to comment.

“The insinuation that I have anything less than absolute contempt for antisemitism and hate in all its forms is disgusting,” Altman continued. “As my record clearly shows, I have and always will stand with the Jewish community — and unlike Tom Kean Jr., I’m not looking to score cheap political points by spreading dangerous and false lies.”

Columbia University’s new school year starts off with disruptive anti-Israel protests

More than 1,000 new students kicked off their freshman year at Columbia University this week. But even with all the institutional changes that took place over the summer, including the naming of a new president, several aspects at the prestigious New York school are already reminiscent of the chaos last academic year — one that was marred by occasional violent anti-Israel disruptions, amid scrutiny of university leaders for not enforcing rules that would keep Jewish students safe. 

Brian Cohen, executive director of Columbia Barnard Hillel, told Jewish Insider that he expects to see “plenty of activism again on campus, at least some of which will be highly disruptive.” 

The disruptions have already started, with a week left before classes begin. At a convocation event to welcome incoming freshmen on Sunday, about 50 members of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, wearing masks and keffiyehs and holding megaphones and drums, disrupted the event from just outside of the campus gates with chants of “Free Palestine.” 

The group, which labels itself a “student intifada,” distributed fliers around the convocation that told students they were sitting “through propaganda being delivered to you by war criminals of an administration.” A Columbia University spokesperson told JI that the NYPD was present at the protest in case it was needed. The spokesperson did not respond to a follow up question about how the university is preparing to handle larger demonstrations this year. 

CUAD, a coalition formed in 2016 that has gained renewed support since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, with at least 80 student groups at Columbia joining the coalition, also published an op-ed in the Columbia Spectator on Sunday, attempting to rally freshmen to join in on the demonstrations. CUAD “will not sit quietly and watch our campus turn into a microcosm of the settler-colonial state we are protesting, and we need your help to prevent that,” the group wrote.  

CUAD wrote that it is “working toward achieving a liberated Palestine and the end of Israeli apartheid and genocide by urging Columbia to divest all economic and academic stakes in ‘Israel.’” 

Amid an “overall spirit of excitement for the coming school year,” the demonstration was “noisy and loud,” Julia Zborovsky-Fenster, whose son is a freshman at Columbia and daughter graduated from Barnard in the spring, told JI. Zborovsky-Fenster, who was walking on campus during the demonstration, said that she has “not seen anything that has given me a very clear message as to what we can expect” from university leadership this year.

“If I was to look at move-in day and the convocation, and base my judgment only on what happened on that one day, I would say I am optimistic,” she said, noting that law enforcement was abundant on campus and the protest remained relatively small, without turning violent.  

During summer break, Columbia made leadership changes and set new guidelines that some are optimistic will protect Jewish students. 

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced her resignation on Aug. 14, months after she testified before Congress about antisemitism and her handling of the disorderly fallout of the first anti-Israel encampment in the nation. 

Days before Shafik’s resignation, in an attempt to prevent activists from occupying buildings, destroying property and engaging in the kind of physical violence that overtook Columbia’s campus last year, the school’s COO, Cas Holloway, said that campus access will now be restricted to affiliates with a valid campus ID. Holloway said that this move would “keep our community safe given reports of potential disruptions at Columbia.”

Zborovsky-Fenster said the changes could lead to an “ushering in not only of a new year but a new era with this new leadership that would show we have learned lessons from a very challenging, divisive period last year.” 

But she added that parents and students deserve more transparency than they received last year. “I would love to see specific messaging as to what the policies are, specifically how they are going to be enforced, by whom, in what timeframe and how that is going to be communicated to the student body,” she said. 

As questions remain around whether the Columbia administration will crack down on disruptions from anti-Israel groups this year, outside organizations have already started doing so. On Monday, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine announced that its Instagram page had been permanently deleted.

A spokesperson for Meta, the company that owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, told JI that the account was disabled for repeated violations of Meta’s dangerous organizations and individuals policies. According to Meta’s policies, it does “not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platforms.” 

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has also raised concern about the climate on Columbia’s campus and unwillingness of the administration to enforce its rules. Last Wednesday, the committee issued six subpoenas to Columbia University officials for documents related to the committee’s investigation into campus antisemitism. 

According to a summary of Columbia disciplinary hearings from the end of last semester that was released earlier this month by the committee, of the 40 students arrested when Columbia brought police dressed in riot gear to the campus to remove a student encampment on April 18, just two remain suspended. The remaining students are in good standing and can enroll in classes while waiting for their disciplinary hearings, although roughly half are on “disciplinary probation.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chair of the committee, said in a statement that the lack of consequences for students was “reprehensible.” 

“Following the disruptions of the last academic year, Columbia immediately began disciplinary processes, including with immediate suspensions,” a university spokesperson told JI last week. “The disciplinary process is ongoing for many students involved in these disruptions, including some of those who were arrested, and we have been working to expedite the process for this large volume of violations.”

The subpoena demands that Columbia provide, by noon on Sept. 4, all communications between the school’s leaders about antisemitism and the anti-Israel encampment since Oct. 7, all records of Board of Trustees meetings since April 17, all records of Board of Trustees meetings since Oct. 7 relating to antisemitism or Israel and any documents relating to allegations of antisemitism on Columbia’s campus since Oct. 7.

In a letter to Dr. Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, Foxx said the subpoenas were issued because “Columbia has failed to produce numerous priority items requested by the Committee, despite having months to comply and receiving repeated follow-up requests by the Committee.” Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed reporting.

Harvard administrations drafts regulations to limit disruptive protests on campus

Following months in which anti-Israel protests overwhelmed Harvard University’s campus, the school’s administration has drafted a new set of rules that would prohibit daytime and overnight camping, excessive noise, unapproved signage and chalk or paint displays on campus property, the elite college announced earlier this week in a draft document first obtained by the Harvard Crimson. 

The six-page document, which was approved by Harvard’s Office of General Counsel and the Working Group on Campus Space, comes months after illegal anti-Israel student encampments overtook the campus for several weeks in the spring. Most of the policies outlined in the new document draw on existing Harvard policies that went largely unenforced last semester. 

“Not only were most of these new policies not actually new, but have been repeatedly violated by students in an effort to harass Jews,” Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who is suing the university over its handling of campus antisemitism, told Jewish Insider. 

“These rules mean little when there is neither enforcement nor discipline for those breaking them,” said Kestenbaum, who spoke last month at the Republican National Convention about his experience with antisemitism on Harvard’s campus. 

Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, in a statement, echoed Kestenbaum’s skepticism that the school will enforce the new policies.  

“These policies, like many that have been promulgated, are fine and reasonable,” Summers said. “The issue is that the university, over the last year, has consistently failed to act and impose sanctions when policies are violated and has been slow to implement policies on behalf of Jewish student groups. That is why it is subject to multiple federal government investigations and civil suits.” 

The draft document, a copy of which has been obtained by JI, has not been finalized or broadly shared with the Harvard community. Jason Newton, a university spokesperson, emphasized to the Crimson that the university is still finishing writing the policies and the document is subject to change. “Once the document is finalized, it will be shared with the Harvard community,” he said. 

The initial document says that it is designed to “foster the well-being of community members and to preserve these resources for future generations” and warns that violations of the policy could result in punishment.

According to the draft policy, students or groups that fail to comply with the campus use guidelines “may be held financially responsible for any resulting costs incurred and may be subject to other consequences for noncompliance, including referral for discipline.”

Washington warned of Iranian influence in Gaza protests. Now what?

An unexpected announcement earlier this week from the top U.S. intelligence official that Iranian government-aligned actors are infiltrating, stoking and even funding anti-Israel protests in the U.S. raised alarm bells among members of Congress and foreign policy experts. 

But while Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, warned of Iran “becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts,” she included little in the way of a policy response, beyond urging “all Americans to remain vigilant as they engage online with accounts and actors they do not personally know.” 

After Haines’ warning, Biden administration officials speaking about the Iranian threat have been careful to combine their concerns with statements affirming activists’ right to protest and arguing that they have been doing so “in good faith.” None of them have raised concerns about the protesters’ conduct, despite remarks from President Joe Biden in May calling out violence and antisemitism at some campus protests. Nor have the administration officials who spoke publicly about the alert expressed fear that protesters may have been compromised by Iranian actors seeking to exert influence in the American democratic system.

“I want to be clear that I know Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza – this intelligence does not indicate otherwise,” Haines said. “Moreover, the freedom to express diverse views, when done peacefully, is essential to our democracy, but it is also important to warn of foreign actors who seek to exploit our debate for their own purposes.” 

This statement was echoed almost verbatim by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

“Americans across the political spectrum, acting in good faith, have sought to express their own independent views on the conflict in Gaza,” Jean-Pierre said. 

Kirby, when asked by a reporter to describe Iran’s tactics, responded with a similar comment: “I want to start by being very clear that we respect the right of peaceful protest, and we recognize that there’s a lot of passionate feelings about the war in Gaza,” Kirby said. “Many, many Americans are going out into the streets and making their opinions known, and we respect that. That’s what a democracy is all about, and I want to make it clear that we recognize those are genuine protests.” 

When Jewish Insider reached out to the White House on Thursday, asking how the Biden administration can be certain that the protests are, in fact, entirely genuine, a spokesperson declined to comment. 

But Kirby noted that “what’s really alarming” about Iran’s actions “is that the Iranians aren’t being transparent” — a point that seems to suggest it also isn’t possible to know if everything about the protests really is genuine.

The White House appears to be arguing that the extent of Iran’s influence operation is that Americans who genuinely care about the war in Gaza may have been duped by Iran without their knowledge. “Those who may have been influenced by Iranian information activities or even offers of financial assistance may not even know that it’s coming from Iran,” Kirby said. 

Two Democratic lawmakers told JI on Thursday that the news about Iran’s interference in the Gaza protests didn’t come as a shock. 

“I’m not surprised at all. It’s been very clear that they were organized. It wasn’t some kind of organic situation, and it was always mostly rooted in antisemitism. Of course that’s where it could be coming from,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said in response to Haines’ statement.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wasn’t aware of the statement ahead of time but wouldn’t dispute Haines’ assessment.

“I wouldn’t be surprised by that. If I was somebody just watching from the outside and the DNI put out a statement like that, it shouldn’t be shocking,” he told JI.

Still, no one in the Biden administration has yet spoken publicly about whether Washington will respond in any way. Questions about the funding of Gaza encampments on university campuses dogged the protests this spring. Now, the White House has acknowledged that Iranian funds are reaching American protests, but it is not offering specifics as to where Iranian money is going. 

The White House spokesperson declined to comment when asked about how Biden might respond to the Iranian influence campaign. A State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.  

Jewish Insider congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed to this report.

Jewish leaders: Harvard’s reversal of protester suspensions will lead to more antisemitism

Harvard’s decision on Tuesday to reverse the suspensions of five students for participating in the illegal anti-Israel encampments earlier this year on the Cambridge, Mass., campus was met with “disappointment” by two leaders of Harvard’s Jewish community.

“I’m disappointed in this action. I’ve heard the phrase ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ but it seems in this case that no good deed goes unreversed,” Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Divinity School who stepped down from Harvard’s antisemitism advisory committee after a short stint, told Jewish Insider. “Punishment is a lesson — reversing it is a permission.”

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads Chabad on Harvard’s campus, said the reversal was “revealing and deeply disturbing.” Zarchi added that it’s “sadly clear” the move will embolden anti-Israel demonstrators.

That may have already taken place, judging by a joint Instagram post from the Palestine Solidarity Committee, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine and the African and African American Resistance Organization. “After sustained student and faculty organizing, Harvard has caved in, showing that student intifada will always prevail,” the groups wrote on Wednesday.

The suspensions and other disciplinary charges — which included the withholding of degrees for 13 seniors because of their involvement in the encampment — were initially announced in late May ahead of graduation. Hundreds of students and faculty members walked out of Harvard’s commencement ceremony in solidarity with the punished students. 

According to the Harvard Crimson, the university informed students on Tuesday of their updated disciplinary charges, which saw the suspensions downgraded to probations of varying lengths and came as a result of the Faculty Council’s criticism of how the Harvard College Administrative Board dealt with the cases.

The most severe probation charge will last for just one semester, a drastic change from the initial punishments that required at least one student to withdraw from Harvard for three semesters. Some students who were initially placed on probation in May also had the length of their probations shortened.

A Harvard spokesperson told JI that the university does not comment on individual disciplinary cases. According to the policy outlined in the Harvard College Student Handbook, students in the disciplinary process who seek to challenge the outcome have two options: “reconsideration,” which is adjudicated by the administrative board and is for new and relevant information that was not initially made available; or  “appeals,” which is adjudicated by the Faculty Council. 

According to the handbook, “appeals” is for situations where the Administrative Board or Honor Council made a procedural error that may impact the disciplinary decision or when the punishment was determined to be inconsistent or inappropriate compared to past sanctions. 

Wolpe, along with other Harvard Jewish leaders and alumni, expressed disappointment to JI last month as well, when a six-page set of preliminary recommendations released by the university task force focused on combating antisemitism at the school fell short of their expectations. 

Dept. of Education finds Michigan, CUNY didn’t adequately investigate campus antisemitism, Islamophobia

Administrators at the University of Michigan and the City of University of New York failed to adequately investigate students’ reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia, the U.S. Department of Education announced on Monday. 

The department’s Office for Civil Rights, known as OCR, released the findings of its investigations into how both Michigan and CUNY handled antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents dating back to 2020, culminating in resolutions reached with both universities to end the investigations in exchange for the administrations promising to do more to take students’ complaints seriously. 

The agreements were the first to resolve investigations related to discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry — including antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Israel discrimination and anti-Palestinian racism — on college campuses since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel sparked a wave of antisemitism and ushered in a slew of more than 100 new investigations into potential civil rights violations. 

“There’s no question that this is a challenging moment for school communities across the country. The recent commitments made by the University of Michigan and CUNY mark a positive step forward,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights continues to hold schools accountable for compliance with civil rights standards, including by investigating allegations of discrimination or harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry and shared Palestinian or Muslim ancestry.” 

Jewish community advocates praised the department for resolving the complaints. In recent months, Jewish leaders have called on Congress to increase funding for OCR, which has been unable to hire additional attorneys to handle an immense increase in its caseloads since Oct. 7. More than twice as many shared ancestry investigations have been opened since Oct. 7 than in the previous seven years combined. 

“The findings are sobering, but not surprising. Both schools must take their obligations to protect students seriously,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a post on X. 

Investigators found that at Michigan, there was “no evidence” that the university complied with federal civil rights requirements mandating that the school assess whether 75 incidents of shared ancestry discrimination reported from late 2022 to early 2024 created a hostile environment for students. Because the university failed to determine whether Jewish and Muslim students faced a hostile environment, investigators also raised concerns that the university did not act “to end the hostile environment, remedy its effects and prevent its recurrence.” 

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon, who oversees OCR, said she was “grateful to the University of Michigan for its speedy commitment to course correct following the volatile campus conditions since October 2023.” The university pledged to review each report of discrimination from the 2023-2024 school year and to report on its progress assessing harassment over the next two years, as well as to better train employees to comply with federal civil rights guidelines.  

In a statement, Michigan President Santa Ono said the university “condemns all forms of discrimination, racism and bias in the strongest possible terms.” The agreement, Ono added, “reflects the university’s commitment to ensuring it has the tools needed to determine whether an individual’s acts or speech creates a hostile environment, and taking the affirmative measures necessary to provide a safe and supportive educational environment for all.” 

The resolution reached between CUNY and the Education Department combined nine open investigations alleging antisemitism and Islamophobia or anti-Arab discrimination at several CUNY campuses, including Hunter College, Brooklyn College and Queens College. The department specifically criticized the university for failing to investigate and address an alleged antisemitic incident that occurred in a 2021 class at Hunter College, and called on CUNY to reopen investigations into antisemitic or Islamophobic harassment. 

“The good news is that they are finally issuing resolution agreements for universities to make changes to address discrimination against Jewish students,” Ken Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which helps students file civil rights complaints against universities, said of the agreements. Adding a note of caution, Marcus, who headed OCR in the Trump administration, said he had hoped for “more specificity and detail” in the agreements. “Instead, the Education Department has kicked the can down the road, requiring [CUNY] to make some vaguely described changes to its policies.” 

In a statement, William C. Thompson Jr., the CUNY board of trustees chairman, promised the university would work closely with the Education Department. “We look forward to working with the Office of Civil Rights to ensure that all members of our community feel safe and included in the CUNY mission of equal access and opportunity,” said Thompson. 

That both agreements included mentions of both antisemitism and Islamophobia — even though the two OCR complaints against Michigan only referred to antisemitism — reflects a common Biden administration practice of linking the two forms of hatred, even when the incidents are not connected. 

“We all want universities to provide equal protection for all of their students, including Jewish and non-Jewish students alike. But it’s unusual for the agency to address claims by one group by insisting that multiple groups be treated in a different way,” said Marcus. “When women come forward and say that an institution is discriminating against women, the agency doesn’t come up with an order saying that both women and men need to be treated better in the future.” 

House committee approves bill making changes to campus antisemitism investigation procedures

The House Education and Workforce Committee voted 25-15 on Thursday to advance the Civil Rights Protection Act, a bill that places new requirements on universities and the Department of Education relating to investigating complaints of discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion or shared ancestry under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Lawmakers supporting the bill said it was aimed at addressing rising antisemitism on college campuses. 

Democrats, arguing that the bill, which was introduced last Friday, had been moved too hastily and adds onerous new requirements on the Department of Education, voted nearly unanimously against the legislation. Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) was the only Democrat who supported it.

The bill, led by Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), would require schools receiving federal funding to make public and distribute to students and their families their procedures for investigating complaints of discrimination and information on how to file complaints with both the school and Department of Education.

Schools would also have to designate an employee to coordinate efforts to comply with Title VI and implement procedures for timely communication with and notifications for complainants.

Any school that does not comply with these provisions for two consecutive years would become ineligible to receive aid for at least the next two years.

The bill would additionally change Department of Education procedures such that cases under investigation would not be closed or delayed if they become the subject of a lawsuit or a complaint with another agency. 

It would also require the Department of Education to brief and provide monthly reports to Congress on the number of complaints it has received and how it is addressing them.

Chavez-DeRemer said the recent rise in campus antisemitism has “exposed a dire need for transparency and common sense standards for these institutions to follow when addressing discrimination.”

The committee approved by a voice vote an amendment from Manning that would require the Office of Civil Rights to launch a campaign to ensure that students and schools are aware of legal protections against antisemitism on campuses.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), the committee’s ranking member, said that the Office of Civil Rights has a backlog of 11,000 pending cases, and that the changes to Department of Education procedures could exacerbate that backlog and further slow down resolutions of cases. But_, he said, he was willing to work on improving the bill.

The committee rejected along party lines an amendment from Scott that called for a significant increase in funding for the Office of Civil Rights to $280 million — double the administration’s budget request — to address the new requirements.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee’s chair, highlighted that the proposal well exceeded the administration’s own stated needs, and would be symbolic given that the committee does not control funding for the Department.

It also rejected, again on party lines, an amendment from Manning that pushed for additional funding to implement the legislation’s new requirements, without providing a specific funding request.

Manning proposed, but ultimately withdrew, an amendment requiring the secretary of education to designate an official at the department to lead efforts to combat campus antisemitism. The provision is also included in her Countering Antisemitism Act.

Chavez-DeRemer highlighted the Orthodox Union as a particularly important backer of the bill.

“The introduction of The Civil Rights Protection Act comes at an important time, following a surge of antisemitic protests on college campuses across the nation,” Nathan Diament, the executive director of public policy at the OU, said in a statement. “This is a critical step toward protecting Jewish students and reinforcing the values that define our country. This bill represents a crucial turning point in our fight to vindicate the rights of Jewish students to live and study without fear of discrimination or hostility at their chosen university. ”

The Committee also voted unanimously to pass a bill extending the Never Again Education Act’s Holocaust education programming through 2030, past its current expiration in 2025. The bill incorporates elements of the HEAL Act, ordering a study by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum of Holocaust education programs across the country.

The education committee voted 23-16 for the Transparency in Reporting Adversarial Contributions to Education (TRACE) Act, which would require public schools to notify parents about foreign funding in elementary and secondary schools.

It would allow parents to review and make copies of materials funded by foreign countries and require schools to inform parents, when asked, how many personnel are compensated by a foreign country, what donations they have received, what agreements exist with foreign countries and what financial transactions have taken place between schools and foreign countries.

The regulations would also apply to foreign entities of concern — companies that are owned or controlled by Iran and other foreign adversaries.

Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL), the bill’s sponsor, highlighted concerns about the Qatar Foundation’s funding for public schools as one of the motivations for the bill.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) described the bill as a “solution in search of a problem” which could also have unintended consequences for language education and other cultural exchange programs in schools, and impose burdensome and unclear new requirements on them.

Ahead of House hearing, Jewish Rutgers students, faculty condemn handling of campus antisemitism

Ahead of testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday by Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway, hundreds of Jewish Rutgers students, faculty, administrators and staff signed onto a pair of letters condemning the school’s handling of antisemitism on campus.

Rutgers’ administration agreed to many of the demands put forward by anti-Israel protesters on campus, but refused to divest from companies linked to Israel or cut ties with Tel Aviv University. Lawmakers, including Gov. Phil Murphy, have condemned the university’s handling of the situation.

The more than 150 students who signed the student-led letter wrote that they “would like to share our experiences of the past academic year in the hope of conveying the hurt, pain, and isolation that many of us have suffered and suggesting ways that the entire university community might do better in the future, not just to support its Jewish students, but to create a more tolerant climate for all its members.”

The students said that anti-Israel demonstrators had “in short… taken over our university,” including by forcing the delay of final exams, taking over building and blocking events.

They said they felt “abandoned” by people they considered friends in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, some of whom defended the Hamas massacre and “quickly mobilized in support of terror, conveying to us that we would not be safe and welcome at the university many of us called home.”

The students further accused “many faculty and staff” of having “guided [protesters] in tactics of intimidation and menacing protest,” helped the students negotiate with administrators and in some cases “allowed for and perpetuated antisemitic behavior in their own classrooms.”

They said that they have “no objection” to pro-Palestinian protests, but said that student groups that have actively violated others’ rights to free expression have faced no punishment, and that the university has failed to enforce its own rules.

“​​Our desire is nothing more than for our university to once again become a place where all peoples are welcome and treated equally, in a tolerant environment where we can all pursue knowledge in a spirit of peace and empathy for others,” the letter continued.

The second letter, signed by more than 200 faculty, staff and administrators, highlights more than a dozen incidents, including celebration of the Oct. 7 attack and the use of university resources to promote anti-Israel propaganda, some of which have gone unpunished.

“The administration’s decision to accede to the demands of the encampment protesters undermines the principles of shared governance, and it elevates the voices of a radical few above those of the more reasonable whole,” they wrote. “It does a disservice not just to Jewish students, faculty, and staff, but to the entire university community.”

They said Rutgers had failed to act proactively to respond to and make clear its rules and policies with regard to demonstrations and, “As a result, the entire university community has suffered through the disruption of normal university operations and an often chaotic and intimidating environment on our campuses.”

Dark money group backing anti-Israel campus activity faces scrutiny for its practices

The Tides Foundation, which backs several organizations involved in anti-Israel protests on college campuses and beyond, is facing scrutiny from the House Ways and Means Committee for serving as a conduit to hide the identity of donors to its grantees.

Tides’ entities – the foundation, as well as the Tides Network, Tides Center, Tides Inc. and Tides Advocacy – have a combined budget of almost $1 billion to support progressive causes, NGO Monitor, which researches nonprofits, found. In many respects, they operate as a dark money group, allowing other organizations to hide sources of funding and expenditures.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) pressured the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to disclose the ultimate sources of its foundation’s receipt of $12 million from Tides, arguing that funding from the progressive donor-advised fund may conflict with its tax-free status. 

“Getting $12 million from Tides and then trying to say it’s really not from Tides, it’s from someone else, that makes me want to look harder,” Smith told The Hill. 

The Tides Foundation did not respond to a request from Jewish Insider for comment.

The probe is one of many nonprofits whose tax-exempt status Smith has been examining, including to determine whether universities are failing to prevent antisemitic activities. 

According to its 2022 tax filings, Tides entities contributed to nonprofits involved in recent campus and other anti-Israel activism, including Jewish Voice for Peace, Council on American Islamic Relations chapters (CAIR) in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Minnesota, IfNotNow, CODEPINK and others, as well as WESPAC (Westchester County Peace Action Committee), which, in turn, supports National Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine. 

Tides also supports Palestine Legal, which has sued universities for cracking down on anti-Israel protests, and the Adalah Justice Project, which began organizing protests within days of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, through a fiscal sponsorship since 2013 and 2016, respectively. 

This arrangement obscures NGOs’ financial operations, including their donors, donation amounts, staff, salary and other expenditures, and makes it nearly impossible to trace sources of funding or whether donations are being used for their intended purpose.

Legally, the fiscal sponsorship means that Palestine Legal and Adalah Justice Project are part of the Tides Foundation, which files tax documents on their behalf, even though the former presents itself as “an independent organization” and the latter says it is “a Palestinian-led advocacy organization.” 

Nonprofits that receive “Model A Fiscal Sponsorship” manage their entire backends through Tides; they fall under Tides’ 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, Tides does their financial accounting, payroll processing and human resources management, provides benefits to employees and administers grants, among other services, and collects a 9% fee.

In 2022, the last year for which Tides’ IRS disclosures are available, the five entities reported spending $158,217,539 on salaries. Yet the reported “officers, directors, key employees and highest compensated employees,” as well as the major independent contractors of Tides entities, add up to $36,554,485. The remaining $121.6 million is unexplained. Tides pays the salaries of employees of fiscally sponsored organizations, such as Palestine Legal and Adalah Justice Project.

Fiscal sponsorship allows NGOs like Palestine Legal and Adalah Justice Project not to disclose their donors, though in their case, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund contributed close to $1 million to Tides in 2023 and earmarked more than half for them.

George Soros’ Open Society Foundations contributed $25.8 million between 2020 and 2021. In 2019, $225,000 of its donations to Tides were for pro-Palestinian causes.

Other notable Tides donors include a foundation funded by Susan Pritzker, wife of Hyatt Hotel heir Nick Pritzker, a relative of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, and, in the past, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC) received $97,000 from Tides in 2022, nearly half of its funding that year, and reported spending almost $1.5 million on “office expenses,” in an office with just one part-time employee, The Washington Free Beacon found. 

WESPAC is the fiscal sponsor of National Students for Justice in Palestine, which victims of the Oct. 7 attack are suing for allegedly being “collaborators and propagandists for Hamas.” 

The lawsuit states that “the financial interactions between WESPAC and its anti-Israel clientele is intentionally opaque to largely shield from public view the flow of funds between and among them.”

A group of 16 Republican senators called last week for the IRS to investigate WESPAC and other groups for supporting terrorism. Their letter noted the “heinous support [National Student for Justice in Palestine] chapters across the country have supported for Hamas, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.” 

WESPAC does not disclose its fiscal sponsors, but the Anti-Defamation League reported that “most of WESPAC’s current or former fiscal sponsorships goes to support anti-Israel projects and groups,” such as Within Our Lifetime, which has been a major driver of anti-Israel protests in New York.

NGO Monitor President Gerald Steinberg said that “the hidden funding for the carefully planned ‘spontaneous protests’ needs to be addressed urgently.”

“The leaders of the network manipulated huge IRS loopholes that allow for secret payment of salaries, rent and other major costs for what are supposed to be transparent ‘civil society’ groups,” Steinberg added. “By funneling their money via Tides and other fiscal sponsors, the donors, possibly including foreign entities, remain hidden, in contrast to basic democratic norms.”

CORRECTION: Open Society Foundations contributed $25.8 million to the Tides Foundation in 2020 and 2021 combined; an earlier version of the story wrote the contributions were only in 2021.

Jewish community members outraged by UC-Berkeley chancellor’s approach to anti-Israel protesters

University of California Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ is retiring in just over a month, but nothing about her job is quieting down in her final days. Instead, the English professor is facing blowback from some in the local Jewish community regarding a series of actions she took this week to try to end the school’s Gaza solidarity encampment.

On Tuesday, Christ sent a letter to the “Free Palestine Encampment” outlining an agreement she had reached with the protest leaders in exchange for them ending their encampment. The letter quickly raised eyebrows among Jewish leaders for its concessions to the protesters and language it used around antisemitism. The next day, after the tents were taken down, several dozen pro-Palestine activists occupied a campus building that was not in use. They hung up the Palestinian flag and drew antisemitic graffiti that said “Zionism = Nazism” and equated the Jewish star to the swastika. 

Amid all of the tumult, Christ reached out on Wednesday to the members of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Life and Campus Climate, a group consisting of Jewish faculty members, students and local leaders, to schedule a meeting for Thursday. The advisory committee had not been consulted in the course of Christ’s negotiations with the anti-Israel protesters, despite several reported instances of antisemitism on campus, one person who was at the meeting told Jewish Insider. 

The person who attended the meeting, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the conversation, said it “went badly,” with “students crying [and] professors angry.” 

“She started the meeting by saying our primary objective was trying to not disrupt the semester, to make sure people continue to study and take their finals. But what about the Jewish students whose lives had been upended by this?” the attendee told JI. “It felt like we were slighted. And then the public statements that she’s made, and the way that we were engaged, was just really a lack of respect.”

In Christ’s Tuesday letter to the encampment leaders, she described their conversations as “quite valuable” and recognized the group’s “efforts to maintain a professional, organized, and productive approach during a very difficult time.” She responded politely to the protesters’ demands while seeming to absolve them of the antisemitic behavior that university officials acknowledge took place. 

She said the university is prohibited from divesting from Israeli businesses by state law, but that she will investigate whether the school’s investments “continue to align with our values.” She also said she opposes academic boycotts, but that she will review the school’s academic partnerships and ensure that none exhibit anti-Palestinian discrimination. (The protesters, in their own public post explaining what happened, call this provision a “pathway to boycott of Israeli university programs on grounds of anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab discrimination,” a charge that a university spokesperson denied.)

Christ’s letter did not refer to any of the protesters’ hardline language targeting Zionists, or instances of antisemitism perpetrated by the activists. She told the encampment leaders that she plans to make a public statement “sharing my personal support for government officials’ efforts to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire. Such support for the plight of Palestinians, including protest, should not be conflated with hatred or antisemitism.” The letter made no mention of the Israeli hostages, Hamas’ attack, or any Israeli victims of the current conflict. 

Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor for communications, told JI on Thursday that “there’s no doubt that there were individuals in the encampment who engaged in antisemitic expression, and that some of the signs that went up were antisemitic expression.” But, he added, choosing not to engage with the group because of “antisemitic expression emanating from certain individuals” would have “amounted to collective punishment.” 

In another Tuesday letter, to the university’s academic Senate, Christ said she was “greatly relieved that we were able to bring this protest to a peaceful end.” But less than a day later, a group of anti-Israel demonstrators had taken over Anna Head Alumnae Hall. Mogulof insisted that the protesters in the occupied building were not the same ones that Christ had negotiated with. 

“All the information we have [is] we don’t see the same people. We’ve spoken to them and they say we didn’t have anything to do with getting this started,” said Mogulof, who called the incident a “crime scene.” Police were dispatched there on Thursday night. 

The leaders of the encampment took to Instagram to cheer on those who had occupied the building and called on supporters to go defend it from police. Berkeley’s graduate student chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which was also heavily involved in the encampment, expressed a “statement of solidarity” with those at the occupied building, and explicitly condemned Mogulof’s language, calling his separation of the two groups “inaccurate, untrue, and destructive.” 

Christ, who has served as chancellor at Berkeley since 2017, has enjoyed a close relationship with the Bay Area Jewish community for much of that period. The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Bay Area honored her with their “Courageous Leadership Award” at the group’s 2020 gala. 

She faced a different reaction from the group this week. After the Thursday meeting with the Jewish life advisory committee, the JCRC released a statement expressing “no confidence” in Christ’s leadership. “We call on the UC Board of Regents to take swift action amid this leadership vacuum to restore order to campus, and safety for Jewish campus life,” the statement said. 

“She’s retiring at the end of this academic year, so she only has a few weeks left,” JCRC executive director Tyler Gregory told JI. “I think our statement would have been different if she weren’t leaving already.”

Idaho Republicans press education secretary on federal response to campus antisemitism surge

A group of Idaho Republicans is seeking answers from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about how his department is shielding Jewish students from harassment on college campuses following months of protests against the war in Gaza.

Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Reps. Russ Fulcher (R-ID) and Mike Simpson (R-ID) penned a letter with three GOP colleagues to Cardona on Wednesday asking the education secretary to explain how he is “protecting Jewish and pro-Israel students from persecution on college campuses nationwide, amid growing protests.” 

“Given the growing number of radical encampments on college campuses and the harassment of Jewish students, we are concerned about their safety and ability to freely voice their views and practice a faith of their choice,” the letter, obtained exclusively by Jewish Insider, reads. 

“Not all campuses have failed to enforce the law. While we strongly disagree with the sentiments of many of these protests, several campuses have seen protests that abided by both state and federal laws and did not result in discriminatory behavior from its participants,” it continues. 

The letter also called for the Department of Education to establish “a best practices guide for universities showcasing the schools that have appropriately handled the recent increase in protests on their campuses.”

“The Department should compile a list of suggested policies and actions of universities that have safely protected the rights of all students and release best practices nationwide in order to encourage all universities to take the correct approach to this surge in protests,” the lawmakers wrote.

The four lawmakers listed a series of questions for Cardona about his department’s response up to now on the campus protests. They requested responses by the first of next month. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Education did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the letter, which comes following months of anti-Israel protests — some of which have turned violent — that occurred on dozens of university campuses across the country.

Congressional Republicans have been pushing the Biden administration and Senate Democrats to take more aggressive action to tackle the protests, which the House GOP majority is investigating through multiple committees. Senate Republicans have urged their Democratic colleagues in the upper chamber to hold hearings of their own on the topic, some of which are privately under discussion, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. 

President Joe Biden has condemned the acts of antisemitism and harassment that took place at the demonstrations, saying in a White House address earlier this month that, “Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is. It’s against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest.”

“Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law,” the president said.

Universities make concessions to anti-Israel campus activists

It’s spring in Cambridge, Mass. — graduation season — which means that large white tents have started to appear on the leafy quads throughout Harvard Square. 

Until Tuesday, a different kind of tent was still visible in Harvard Yard: small camping tents housing the stragglers who remained in Harvard’s anti-Israel encampment even after final exams wrapped up several days ago. Last week, Harvard suspended student protesters who refused to abide by campus administrators’ orders to disband the encampment, blocking access to their dorms. 

But now, just a week from the start of official university commencement festivities, Harvard has backtracked on its disciplinary action, ahead of the arrival next week of thousands of graduates’ family members, alumni and honorary degree recipients to the Ivy League university. University officials seemed to be saying that Harvard cannot get ready for commencement if Harvard Yard is still gated and locked, accessible only to university affiliates and the handful of people still camped out in protest of Harvard’s alleged “complicity in genocide.” 

In making a deal with the protesters, Harvard interim President Alan Garber joined a growing number of leaders at elite universities who are incorporating protesters’ voices into major university investment decisions and allowing student activists to get off with few, if any, repercussions after weeks of disciplinary violations. Harvard’s dean of the faculty of arts and sciences wrote in a Tuesday email that the outcome “deepened” the university’s “commitment to dialogue and to strengthening the bonds that pull us together as a community.” 

The path Garber took is now a well-trodden one — remove the threat of disciplinary consequences and allow protesters to meet with university trustees or other senior leaders to pitch them on divesting their schools’ endowments from Israeli businesses, a concession that before last month would have been unthinkable at America’s top universities. 

In a matter of days it has become commonplace. Just two years ago, Harvard’s then-president, Lawrence Bacow, responded to the campus newspaper’s endorsement of a boycott of Israel by saying that “any suggestion of targeting or boycotting a particular group because of disagreements over the policies pursued by their governments is antithetical to what we stand for as a university.” 

Northwestern University set the tone two weeks ago when President Michael Schill reached an agreement with anti-Israel protesters in exchange for them ending their encampment. Jewish leaders on campus found the agreement so problematic that the seven Jewish members of the university’s antisemitism committee — including Northwestern’s Hillel director, several faculty members and a student — stepped down in protest. Lily Cohen, a Northwestern senior who resigned from the committee, summed up their concerns: “It appears as though breaking the rules gets you somewhere, and trying to do things respectfully and by the books does not.” 

Her observation has proven prescient as universities negotiate with anti-Israel protesters who break campus rules while they slow-walk reforms long sought by Jewish students — or even avoid meeting with Jewish community members altogether. 

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone signed onto a far-reaching agreement with protesters this week that calls for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, condemns “genocide” and denounces “scholasticide” in Gaza and cuts off ties between a university-affiliated environmental NGO and two government-owned Israeli water companies. Meanwhile, Hillel Milwaukee said in a statement that Mone has refused to meet with Jewish students since Oct. 7. Where universities fumbled over statements addressing the Oct. 7 attacks last fall in failed bids to satisfy everyone, many campus leaders have now conceded it is easier to give in to protesters than to stand firm against their rule-breaking. (The president of the University of Wisconsin system said he is “disappointed” by UWM’s actions.) 

Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University made concessions to encampment leaders this week. At Johns Hopkins, the school pledged to undertake a “timely review” of the matter of divestment, and to conclude student conduct proceedings related to the encampment. Hopkins Justice Collective, the group that organized the protests, characterized the agreement as “a step towards Johns Hopkins’ commitment to divest from the settler colonial state of Israel.” 

In a campus-wide email on Monday, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said all students must vacate the campus quad where they had organized an anti-Israel encampment. He offered the campus protest leaders an audience with the body that reviews petitions for divestment. Other student groups can also petition for a meeting, he wrote.

Students who were arrested during the course of the protests may have a chance to take part in a so-called “restorative justice” process, whereby the university “would work to minimize the impact of the arrest on the participating students.” If protesters take responsibility for their actions, Eisgruber wrote, the school will conclude all disciplinary processes and allow the protesters to graduate this month. 

At many more universities, top administrators — including university presidents — have met with demonstrators, giving them a chance to air their concerns even when they didn’t reach an agreement. University of Chicago administrators held several days of negotiations with encampment leaders before the talks fell apart and police cleared the protesters. The George Washington University President Ellen Granberg met over the weekend with student protesters who lectured her about “structural inequality” at GW and likened the university’s code of conduct to slavery and Jim Crow-era segregation, according to a video recording of the meeting.

College administrators’ negotiations to end the protests might bring a wave of good headlines and promises of quiet at campus commencements, the largest and most high-profile event of the year for most universities. But students haven’t said what they’ll do when school is back in session next year. 
By promising meetings with university investment committees, the administrators are almost certainly guaranteeing that campus angst over the war in Gaza will not die down. Brown University President Christina Paxson pledged that protest leaders can meet with the university’s governing body to discuss divestment from companies that operate in Israel — in October, a year after the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,200 people and ignited the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East.

Correction: This article was updated to more accurately reflect negotiations between Princeton’s president and the protesters.

Daily Kickoff: GW anti-Israel encampment cleared ahead of hearing

speaking out

Biden condemns violent campus protests, Oct. 7 denialism and defenders in Holocaust remembrance speech

In a forceful speech on Tuesday at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden delivered some of his strongest denunciations of antisemitism and Hamas in months, denouncing violent anti-Israel protests on college campuses, harassment and violence targeting the American Jewish community and ongoing efforts to deny, downplay or move past the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Campus concern: The president said that the right to hold strong beliefs about world events and to “debate, disagree, protest peacefully” is fundamental to America, but that there is “no place on any campus in America, any place in America for antisemitism, hate speech or threats of violence of any kind.”  Biden emphasized that attacks and destruction of property — which have happened on a number of campuses — are not protected speech and are illegal. “We are not a lawless country, we are a civil society. We uphold the rule of law,” Biden said. “No one should have to hide or be afraid just to be themselves.”

Pushing back: Biden also condemned those who have already moved past the Hamas attack on Israel or are seeking to deny, downplay or justify the attack. “Now, here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later,” Biden said. “People are already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, it was Hamas that took and that continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten and neither have you. And we will not forget.”

Making connections: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) drew direct connections between the Holocaust, and the events that led up to it, and current events on U.S. college campuses, highlighting the role of German universities in perpetuating antisemitism and ultimately atrocities during the Holocaust. “We remember what happened then, and now today, we are witnessing American universities quickly becoming hostile for Jewish students and faculty,” Johnson said. “The very campuses [that] were once the envy of the international academy have succumbed to an antisemitic virus… Now is the time for moral clarity, and we must put an end to this madness.”

Read the full story here.

Share

up in arms

Congressional lawmakers urge Biden administration to quickly reverse any delays of weapons transfers to Israel

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are urging the Biden administration to reverse course on any delayed congressionally approved weapons transfers to Israel. Reports have circulated in recent days that the Biden administration is holding up the pending sale of two types of Boeing precision bombs to Israel “to send a political message” about U.S. disapproval of a Rafah invasion, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs and Marc Rod report.

Stuck in limbo: While the U.S. has not formally declined the sale, the administration has refused to take any action to move the sale forward, thus preventing the weapons transfers. The sale in question would cover 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which turn bombs into precision-guided weapons, and an unknown number of Small Diameter Bombs. 

Rafah concerns: Congress was first informed of the deal in January, though a senior administration official said on Tuesday that discussions on pausing additional weapons sales began in April when they claim “Israel seemed to approach a decision on Rafah without fully addressing U.S. concern.” The official said of the 3,500 bombs, “We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment.”

Letter to Biden: Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Ted Budd (R-NC) penned a letter to Biden urging him to “immediately restart the weapons shipments to Israel today as it continues to fight Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iran-backed threats. We are shocked that your administration has reportedly decided to withhold critical ammunition to Israel,” the duo wrote. “You promised your commitment to Israel was ironclad. Pausing much-needed military support to our closest Middle Eastern ally signals otherwise. We are deeply concerned that your administration failed to notify Congress about this decision.”

Dem opposition: A few Democrats distanced themselves from the newly discovered delays, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) telling Fox News, “I don’t think we should be withholding any kind of munitions” to Israel. “If there should be any kind of conditions, it should be on Hamas and its enablers and its benefactors,” Fetterman added. 

Read the full story here.

IDF comment: Asked about the issue at a Yediot Ahronot conference today, Israeli army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israel and the U.S. resolve any disagreements “behind closed doors” and lauded the coordination between the two countries as having reached “a scope without precedent, I think, in history.”

Share

candid convo

Former Speaker McCarthy warns that far-right and far-left lawmakers threaten world peace

In a no-holds-barred speech on Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) decried growing extremism in Washington, alleging that fringe lawmakers in both parties threaten world peace, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.

Negotiating powers: McCarthy, who resigned from Congress at the end of last year after being ousted as House speaker, blasted Congress for taking six months to pass a bill to increase aid to Ukraine and Israel, and suggested the Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) should have done more to negotiate with President Joe Biden.

Look for compromise: “If you don’t use the power of the speakership — because what happened? You say, Why did he change his mind? He overwhelmingly was getting rolled by the Senate bill that sat there. That’s what transpired,” McCarthy said. “We have a system designed to find compromise, but we don’t reward it.” 

Peace at stake: McCarthy warned that far-right and far-left figures in Washington threaten global peace, which he said America has maintained for the 79 years since the end of World War II.

Washington worries: “The world looks like the 1930s. You’ve got the Axis of Evil back together. You’ve got a weakness inside Washington. You’ve got an isolationist working inside the Republican Party, you’ve got a Democratic Party moving away from Israel. You’ve got a populism growing — there’s no principle behind it,” said McCarthy. “That is a perfect storm for someone to make something stupid.” It was not clear whether he was referring to a specific Republican individual as “isolationist.”

Read the full story here.

Share

trip talk

‘I wish they were close to getting a deal,’ Joni Ernst says following Israel visit

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), following a trip to Israel and broader Middle East over the weekend, expressed hesitance about the possibility of a hostage release deal, arguing that continued Israeli military pressure on Hamas is likely the only path to ultimately achieving a deal, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Talking talks: “I wish they were close to getting a deal,” Ernst said. “But from [Israel’s] perspective, they feel that the military action is the only way that they have leverage over Hamas. And I think they are probably right. So they felt that Rafah was important and that would be used as leverage to bring Hamas to the table. What other leverage do we have?”

Poor partners: Ernst said that U.S. allies Qatar and Egypt aren’t being helpful in the negotiations. “Look at the deal that they put forward. Israel wasn’t even included in that discussion,” Ernst said. “It was made up by Egypt, Qatar and Hamas. Of course Hamas is going to accept it — they wrote it. Egypt and Qatar, they have to do more.” She called Egypt “just as bad” as Qatar, which she has spent months criticizing, and said the U.S. must reconsider its military relationships with and funding of both.

Glimmer of hope: The senators’ visit to the United Arab Emirates provided a “little bit of optimism” on the trip, Ernst said. “I think [President Mohammed bin Zayed] really is exhibiting a high level of leadership for the region, and working with Israel and other Arab nations,” Ernst said.

Looking ahead: She said the UAE is willing to involve itself in postwar reconstruction and reorganization efforts in Gaza under the condition of a lasting peace between Israel and Gaza.  Israel’s leadership, on the other hand, is less focused on the day after the war in Gaza, Ernst assessed. “I don’t even know that the prime minister is able to see what the day after looks like right now.”

Read the full story here.

Mystery solved?: Potentially providing insight into a mystery that has plagued Washington for nearly a year, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) alleged in a new letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken that their investigations have found that suspended Iran Envoy Rob Malley is under investigation for transferring classified documents to his personal email account and downloading them to his personal cell phone, enabling a “hostile cyber actor” to breach Malley’s account or device and access the information.

Share

protesters’ protection

Emerson College president offers to pay bail for anti-Israel protesters arrested at school

The president of Emerson College became the latest university leader to face sharp criticism for his handling of the anti-Israel encampment protests after he offered to pay bail for protesters arrested at the Boston liberal arts school and requested that they not be prosecuted, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Haley Cohen reports for Jewish Insider. 

You’ve got mail: Following the arrest last week of 118 “Gaza solidarity encampment” protesters, who camped out in tents for weeks in the middle of campus, Emerson President Jay Bernhardt sent a campus-wide email last week saying that the school “has continued to be supportive in multiple ways – sending staff to all the precincts and posting bail for arrested students, canceling and modifying classes so our community could process what had occurred, and providing additional care and support for our community to heal.” Bernhardt, who is Jewish, added, “The College will not bring any campus disciplinary charges against the protestors and will encourage the district attorney not to pursue charges related to encampment violations.”

Hate speech: Roni Moser, an Israeli freshman at Emerson, said in a speech at a pro-Israel rally in Boston on April 28 that the encampments have been the “climax” of the anti-Israel rhetoric that has engulfed the Boston campus since Oct. 7. While Emerson’s undergraduate enrollment is only about 4,000 students, its Students for Justice in Palestine account has more than 6,000 followers. Moser said that the protesters have “written hateful speech on walls and screamed violent chants repeatedly.” She said that, “People have the right to protest. People shouldn’t have the right to use such violent and antisemitic speech,” pointing to slogans that have been thrown around campus including “Long live the intifada” and “Israel is antisemitic.” 

Harassment: “Jewish students were personally harassed, to the point where many had to be removed from campus, and temporarily placed in hotels,” Moser said, adding that “friends of mine were called terrorists.” 

Read the full story here.

Bonus: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos explains why he shut down his school’s anti-Israel encampment.

Share

Pic of the Day

“Rimon’s Song,” written by Jerusalem Post senior editor David Brinn and performed by Libbytown, honors released Israeli hostage Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, whose husband is still being held by Hamas, for her bravery. The song is dedicated to the some 130 hostages who remain in Gaza.

Birthdays

Rabbi in Dusseldorf, Germany, until moving to Israel in 2021, Rabbi Raphael Evers turns 70… 

Retired senior British judge, Baron Leonard Hubert “Lennie” Hoffmann turns 90… Immediate past chairman of the board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Stanley A. Rabin turns 86… International chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Irwin Cotler turns 84… MIT biologist and 2002 Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, H. Robert Horvitz turns 77… Former MLB pitcher who played for the Angels, Rangers and White Sox, Lloyd Allen turns 74… CFO for The Manischewitz Company for 13 years until earlier this year, Thomas E. Keogh… Retired USDOJ official, for many years he was the director of the Office of Special Investigations focused on deporting Nazi war criminals, Eli M. Rosenbaum turns 69… Past president of Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs, Ga., Janice Perlis Ellin… Third generation furniture retailer in Springfield, Ill., Barry Seidman… President of Clayton, Mo.-based JurisTemps, Andrew J. Koshner, J.D., Ph.D…. CEO and founder of NSG/SWAT, Richard Kirshenbaum turns 63… Novelist, author of If I Could Tell You and movie critic for The Jerusalem Post, Hannah Brown… Co-founder of the disability advocacy nonprofit RespectAbility, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi turns 60… Israeli journalist, anchorwoman and attorney, she is the host of the investigative program “Uvda” (“Fact”) on Israeli television, Ilana Dayan-Orbach turns 60… Long-time litigator and political fundraiser in Florida, now serving as a mediator and arbitrator, Benjamin W. Newman… Canadian social activist and documentary filmmaker, Naomi Klein turns 54… Member of Knesset and chairman of the World Likud, he served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Ambassador Danny Danon turns 53… Stand-up comedian, writer, actress and author, Jodi Miller turns 53… Novelist and memoirist, Joanna Rakoff turns 52… Senior adviser at West End Strategy Team, Ari Geller… Director of strategic initiatives at J Street, Josh Lockman… Ice hockey player, now the assistant coach of the New Hampshire Wildcats women’s ice hockey program, Samantha Faber turns 37… Founder and CEO at Axion Ray, Daniel First… Canadian Olympic beach volleyball player, Sam Schachter turns 34… Former White House senior policy adviser in the Biden administration, Amiel Fields-Meyer…

Emerson College president offers to pay bail for anti-Israel protesters arrested at school

The president of Emerson College became the latest university leader to face sharp criticism for his handling of the anti-Israel encampment protests after he offered to pay bail for protesters arrested at the Boston liberal arts school and requested that they not be prosecuted. 

Following the arrest last week of 118 “Gaza solidarity encampment” protesters, who camped out in tents for weeks in the middle of campus, Emerson President Jay Bernhardt sent a campus-wide email last week saying that the school “has continued to be supportive in multiple ways – sending staff to all the precincts and posting bail for arrested students, canceling and modifying classes so our community could process what had occurred, and providing additional care and support for our community to heal.” 

“The College will not bring any campus disciplinary charges against the protestors and will encourage the district attorney not to pursue charges related to encampment violations,” Bernhardt, who is Jewish, wrote.

Roni Moser, an Israeli freshman at Emerson, said in a speech at a pro-Israel rally in Boston on April 28 that the encampments have been the “climax” of the anti-Israel rhetoric that has engulfed the Boston campus since Oct. 7. While Emerson’s undergraduate enrollment is only about 4,000 students, its Students for Justice in Palestine account has more than 6,000 followers. 

Moser said that the protesters have “written hateful speech on walls and screamed violent chants repeatedly.” 

“People have the right to protest. People shouldn’t have the right to use such violent and antisemitic speech,” she said, pointing to slogans that have been thrown around campus including “Long live the intifada” and “Israel is antisemitic.” 

“Jewish students were personally harassed, to the point where many had to be removed from campus, and temporarily placed in hotels,” Moser said, adding that “friends of mine were called terrorists.” 

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called on Bernhardt to “reverse this decision” and for “the Suffolk district attorney to enforce the law.”

“The president of Emerson is going out of his way to make sure students who broke the law and violated Emerson’s own policies face no consequences,” Greenblatt said in a statement. 

Several universities around the country have recently struck deals with anti-Israel protesters to quell the turmoil on college campuses — including giving protesters a seat at the table regarding investment decisions, which Jewish leaders warn could further poison the atmosphere for Jewish students. But at most schools, the concessions have been largely symbolic. 

Greenblatt said that in Emerson’s case, “This capitulates to the most extreme voices and rewards their disruptive conduct. The Emerson community deserves better.”

In a follow-up letter to students on Monday, Bernhardt announced that the university “will establish a campus bias rapid response team.” 

“I deeply regret that despite our best efforts, our students’ activism resulted in police action over their encampment, especially in the heartbreaking way it occurred,” Bernhardt wrote. 

He went on to say that, “Regarding financial divestment, the Board of Trustees has considered this request and may continue to do so further in the future.” 

Biden condemns violent campus protests, Oct. 7 denialism and defenders in Holocaust remembrance speech

In a forceful speech on Tuesday at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden delivered strong remarks denouncing violent anti-Israel protests on college campuses, harassment and violence targeting the American Jewish community and ongoing efforts to deny, downplay or move past the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

The remarks, one of Biden’s clearest denunciations of antisemitism and Hamas in months, came amid surging anti-Israel protests on college campuses around the country and growing domestic and international pressure on Israel.

“I see your fear, your hurt and your pain, let me reassure you as your president you are not alone, you belong, you always have and you always will,” Biden said. “And my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree.”

The president said that the right to hold strong beliefs about world events and to “debate, disagree, protest peacefully” is fundamental to America, but that there is “no place on any campus in America, any place in America for antisemitism, hate speech or threats of violence of any kind.” 

Biden emphasized that attacks and destruction of property — which have happened on a number of campuses — are not protected speech and are illegal.

“We are not a lawless country, we are a civil society. We uphold the rule of law,” Biden said. “No one should have to hide or be afraid just to be themselves.”

He said that it’s incumbent on all Americans to “be those guardians, we must never rest, we must rise against hate, meet across the divide, see our common humanity,” and that attacks on any minority group are threats to all minority groups.

Biden also condemned those who have already moved past the Hamas attack on Israel, and the “too many people” who are “denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and Oct. 7, including Hamas’ appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews.”

“Now, here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later,” Biden said. “People are already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror. It was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, it was Hamas that took and that continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten and neither have you. And we will not forget.”

He connected such rhetoric to the Holocaust, highlighting that the Holocaust began with smaller crimes in the face of “indifference” from the world.

“It’s absolutely despicable and it must stop,” Biden added, of the Oct. 7 denialism. “Silence and denial can hide much but it can erase nothing… it cannot be buried no matter how hard people try.”

Biden pledged that he is “working around the clock” and “will not rest” until all hostages held in Gaza are freed.

In connection with Biden’s speech, the administration announced on Tuesday a series of additional steps to combat antisemitism. 

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued new guidance to every school district and college in the country that provides “examples of Antisemitic discrimination, as well as other forms of hate,” which could prompt civil rights investigations, according to a White House announcement. 

Education officials told Jewish leaders last week the guidance is aimed at helping school leaders distinguish between protected free speech and antisemitic incidents.

The Department of Homeland Security will create a new “campus safety resources guide” to help schools access “financial, educational and technical assistance” available to them. 

DHS is also set to assemble and disseminate guidance on “community-based targeted violence and terrorism prevention” and ensure that targeted communities are aware of the federal resources available to them.

And the State Department’s Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism will bring together technology companies to discuss procedures for combating antisemitism online.

In separate remarks, Stuart Eizenstat, the administration’s special adviser for Holocaust issues, praised the House for passing the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would codify the requirement that the Department of Education use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and its examples in assessing campus antisemitism. Eizenstat said the bill would help clarify the definition of antisemitism.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) drew direct connections between the Holocaust, and the events that led up to it, and current events on U.S. college campuses, highlighting the role of German universities in perpetuating antisemitism and ultimately atrocities during the Holocaust.

“We remember what happened then, and now today, we are witnessing American universities quickly becoming hostile for Jewish students and faculty,” Johnson said. “The very campuses [that] were once the envy of the international academy have succumbed to an antisemitic virus… Now is the time for moral clarity, and we must put an end to this madness.”

Speaking graphically about both events, Johnson drew direct parallels between the atrocities of the Holocaust and the Oct. 7 attack.

“We must be graphic right now because the threat of repeating the past is so great,” Johnson said. “And some are trying to downplay, justify what happened on Oct. 7. Some are even blaming Israel for the barbaric, inhuman attacks. There are some who would prefer to criticize Israel and lecture them on their military tactics… than punish the terrorists who perpetrated these horrific crimes.”

Johnson added that it’s “very important we deliver” the “critical assistance” to Israel “without any delay at all” and that “we have to do all that we can, everything within our power, to ensure that evil does not prevail.”

The administration has reportedly been delaying shipments of bombs to Israel over disputes about Israel’s operations in Gaza.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) likewise highlighted the “deeply disturbing rise in antisemitism on campuses, throughout the country and around the world, adding that it’s a “very searing time for the Jewish community.”

Jeffries called to “recommit to the principle of Never Again,” and to “eradicating antisemitism whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.”

“We must crush antisemitism along with racism and sexism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia and all other forms of hatred, together,” Jeffries said. “That is the American way, together. And together, we will defeat antisemitism with the fierce urgency of now. That’s a moral necessity.”

Bowman’s break with Biden on campus antisemitism isn’t helping him back home

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has been trying to ingratiate himself with President Joe Biden even as his left-wing, anti-Israel record in Congress has alienated moderate Democratic voters to the point where he could lose a hotly contested primary against Westchester County Executive George Latimer next month. 

But in a sign of the Squad-aligned lawmaker’s ideological commitments undermining his political prospects, his support of the anti-Israel campus protesters has underscored how far his views are from Biden’s. In the same week that Bowman defended Columbia University protesters taking over and occupying a building on campus and decried “heavy-handed repression” from the NYPD, Biden condemned the violent protests that have swept college campuses in a White House address.

The prominence of antisemitism as a major political issue across the country couldn’t come at a worse time for Bowman, who faces a heated Democratic primary against Latimer on June 25. 

Notably, in recent weeks, Bowman had been trying to showcase his support of the president, with his campaign even touting the fact that the congressman voted for Biden in the New York presidential primary over an “uncommitted” option to protest the Biden administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Bowman’s spokesman said he voted for the president because the two “are close allies in combating gun violence and climate change.” 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) urged Democrats in her home state of Michigan and elsewhere to vote “uncommitted” rather than for Biden in the presidential primary as a means of protesting his continued support of aid to Israel. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said last month that she did not vote in Minnesota’s presidential primary, though she praised uncommitted voters for using the primary to send a message to Biden. 

And instead of joining the anti-Israel protesters outside a recent Westchester County fundraiser for Biden’s reelection bid, Bowman opted to take part in the event alongside the president. Bowman even received a shoutout from the president during his 20-minute speech to the crowd, with Biden saying he and former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) need “to win in November.”

Bowman’s cozying up to Biden is borne out of political necessity. Bowman badly needs to improve his standing with suburban voters who find Bowman’s hard-left activism problematic. Latimer has consistently polled ahead of the incumbent congressman with that moderate suburban constituency — most notably, among Jewish voters alienated by Bowman’s anti-Israel posture and ties to antisemitic groups.

Bowman has also voted against many Biden-backed bipartisan initiatives, including Biden’s infrastructure deal, the national security supplemental (which included Israel aid, TikTok divestiture legislation and a bill aimed at stemming the flow of fentanyl that rivals a proposal of his own), as well as numerous Democratic-led resolutions relating to Israel or condemning terrorism. 

Bowman has also faced a number of controversies in the last year alone, most prominently when he pled guilty to a misdemeanor for triggering a false fire alarm in a House building.

Bowman, whose Westchester-based district has a large and active Jewish community, most recently opposed a resolution condemning Iran’s drone and missile strikes on Israel. He was one of 14 House lawmakers — 13 Democrats and one Republican — to do so. He joined 42 of his Democratic colleagues and that same Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), two days earlier to vote against a resolution condemning the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic.

In the days immediately following Oct. 7, Bowman was one of the 10 members of Congress to vote down a resolution reaffirming U.S. support for Israel “as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.” Bowman voted in November against a resolution condemning support for terrorist groups and antisemitism on college campuses. In that case he was one of 23 lawmakers to oppose the resolution. 

Bowman co-sponsored a resolution alongside Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) less than a week after Oct. 7 calling for an “immediate cease-fire.” The resolution, which was harshly condemned by local Jewish leaders at the time, made no mention of Hamas or terrorism broadly, nor did it address the Israeli hostages in Gaza. 

Senate GOP demands Democrats hold hearings on campus antisemitism

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans penned a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Thursday to request that he hold a hearing on how the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses is violating the civil rights of Jewish students. 

The letter was led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the top Republican on the committee, and signed by every Republican who serves on the panel, including Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), John Kennedy (R-LA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). They urged Durbin, who chairs the committee, to convene a hearing “on the civil rights violations of Jewish students” and “the proliferation of terrorist ideology — two issues that fall squarely within this Committee’s purview.”

“With this current state of inaction, it is incumbent upon this Committee to shed light on these civil rights violations,” the group wrote. “This Committee owes it to Jewish students, and all students who attend universities with modest hope of having a safe learning environment, to examine these civil rights violations.”

“Our committee should examine why more is not being done to protect the civil rights of innocent students across America,” they added. “We must also examine the threat to national security posed by the proliferation of radical Islamist ideology in the academy. These pressing issues demand our immediate attention.”

A spokesperson for Durbin did not immediately respond to JI’s request for comment on the letter, which came the same day as a missive from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) requesting a similar hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. 

Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate HELP Committee, sent a letter to Sanders on Thursday urging him to convene a hearing in his capacity as committee chairman on the uptick in antisemitism on college campuses. 

Cassidy’s letter, first obtained by Jewish Insider, marks the second time in six months that the Louisiana senator has written to Sanders requesting that he allow for a full committee hearing “on ensuring safe learning environments for Jewish students, as required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Cassidy released a statement last week re-upping his call for a hearing, though he told JI that effort got no response.

“It is our duty to ensure federal officials are doing everything in their power to uphold the law and ensure students are not excluded from participation, denied the benefits of, or subject to discrimination at school based on race, color, or national origin,” Cassidy wrote to Sanders. “In the six months since my last letter requesting a hearing, the situation has only gotten worse.”

While Republicans have generally been more vocal about their concerns on the issue of antisemitism on college campuses, there have been bipartisan calls for action in the upper chamber. 

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) have also asked Sanders to hold a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses in his capacity as HELP chairman. Similar to Cassidy, they have also not heard back from the Vermont senator. 

Separately, Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) requested a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s response to protests at The George Washington University’s campus this week. 

The duo penned a letter on Thursday to Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who chairs the committee, requesting he bring in Bowser and D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith to testify on their respective responses to university requests to bring DCMP onto campus to clear out an anti-Israel encampment, requests Bowser denied. 

On the House side, where Republicans are in the majority, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) launched a chamber-wide effort to address all elements of the campus unrest. 

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the Education and Workforce Committee, revealed that in addition to her ongoing probes, she will have the presidents of three other schools testify next month on their responses to protests and instances of antisemitism on their campuses. The presidents of the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; and Yale University will be brought in to testify before Foxx’s committee on May 23. 

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that her panel “oversees agencies that dole out massive amounts of taxpayer funded research grants… We will be increasing our oversight of institutions that have received public funding and cracking down on those who are in violation of the Civil Rights Act.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that his panel was reaching out to the State Department and Homeland Security Department to find out “how many students on a visa have engaged in the radical activity we’ve seen now day after day on college campuses.”

Biden condemns violence, antisemitism at campus protests

In a surprise White House address on Thursday morning, President Joe Biden condemned the violent protests that have swept American college campuses and decried the antisemitism that has taken place at many of the demonstrations.

“We’ve all seen the images and they put to the test two fundamental American principles,” Biden said in his first major remarks on the campus protests. “The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.”

In a brief speech lasting just over three minutes, Biden drew a clear differentiation between lawful protests and the violence that has occurred on some campuses.

“Violent protest is not protected. Peaceful protest is. It’s against the law when violence occurs,” the president said. “Destroying property is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation — none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest. It’s against the law.” 

Biden specifically called out the hate experienced by Jewish students on many campuses. “Let’s be clear about this as well: There should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students,” said Biden.

“There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans. It’s simply wrong,” added Biden. “There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s un-American.” 

The president did not mention Israel or anti-Zionist rhetoric, nor did he make any reference to the content of the protests or the protesters’ demands. But Biden said “no” when asked by a reporter if the protests will lead him to reconsider his policy in the Middle East. He also responded with a “no” when asked if the National Guard should intervene.

“I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions,” said Biden. “In America, we respect the right and protect the right for them to express that. But it doesn’t mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate and within the law.”

Earlier this week, after student protesters violently occupied a Columbia University administrative building, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates condemned their actions.

House Republicans to ramp up efforts to combat campus antisemitism 

Congressional Republicans are vowing action to address antisemitism on college campuses nationwide, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) launching “a House-wide effort” this week to crack down on universities unable to control anti-Israel protests that on some occasions have grown violent. 

Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday that House Republicans would expand the ongoing efforts to tackle antisemitism beyond the House Education and Workforce Committee, which has investigations into six universities underway. 

The chairs of the House Energy and Commerce; Oversight; Judiciary; Ways and Means; and Science, Space, and Technology Committees will separately investigate “the billions of federal taxpayer dollars that go to these universities,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said at the press conference. 

“Antisemitism is a virus and because the administration and woke university presidents aren’t stepping in, we’re seeing it spread,” Johnson said. “We must act, and House Republicans will speak to this fateful moment with moral clarity. We really wish those in the White House would do the same. We will not allow antisemitism to thrive on campus and we will hold these universities accountable for their failure to protect Jewish students on campus.”

“That’s why today we’re here to announce a House-wide effort to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses,” he continued. “Nearly every committee here has a role to play in these efforts to stop the madness that has ensued. The federal government plays a critical role in higher education, and we will use all the tools available to us to address this scourge.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the Education and Workforce Committee, revealed that in addition to her ongoing probes, she will have the presidents of three other schools testify next month on their responses to protests and instances of antisemitism on their campuses. The presidents of the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Michigan; and Yale University will be brought in to testify before Foxx’s committee on May 23. 

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, noted that her panel “oversees agencies that dole out massive amounts of taxpayer funded research grants… We will be increasing our oversight of institutions that have received public funding and cracking down on those who are in violation of the Civil Rights Act.”

“Imagine being a Jewish American, knowing that part of your hard-earned paycheck is going to fund an antisemitic professor’s research, while they threaten students and actively indoctrinate and radicalize the next generation,” McMorris Rodgers said. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that his panel was reaching out to the State Department and Homeland Security Department to find out “how many students on a visa have engaged in the radical activity we’ve seen now day after day on college campuses.”

“The overriding question is real simple: Are individuals advocating for the destruction of our dearest and closest ally, the State of Israel, and engaged in this antisemitic behavior, is that a national security threat? We think it is,” Jordan said. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) hasn’t directly addressed the expanded GOP investigations, but is pushing for the House to consider a bipartisan antisemitism bill in response to the campus incidents.

Jeffries said Wednesday he has no current plans to visit colleges that have been plagued by unrest and anti-Israel encampments. He said he also hasn’t looked at proposals for cutting funding to colleges that are not cracking down on antisemitism, but slammed Republicans for pushing to cut funding to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which investigates antisemitism accusations on campuses.

“Ultimately, it was House Democrats led by [Rep.] Rosa DeLauro [D-CT], that were able to restore the proposed extreme MAGA Republican cut that would have adversely impacted the ability of the Department of Education to combat antisemitism and all other forms of hatred on college campuses,” Jeffries said. “We don’t need rhetoric from some of my Republican colleagues, we need real action.”

The New York congressman expressed support for Columbia University and the New York Police Department’s response to anti-Israel demonstrators who broke into and took over an administrative building on campus.

“As far as I can tell, the efforts by the NYPD were thorough, professional, and they exercised a degree of calm in a very tense situation that should be commended,” he said during a press conference, adding that he did not see any incidents of excessive force.

The Democratic leader said that peaceful protest and civil disobedience are “an important part of the fabric of America” but that protests that threaten others or engage in antisemitism or other bigotry are unacceptable.

He said he had no comment on Democratic lawmakers who have visited the encampments at Columbia to offer support. He also declined to comment on remarks by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) accusing some Jewish students of being “pro-genocide,” noting that he hadn’t spoken to Omar directly.

On the Senate side, where Democrats are in the majority, Republicans have been largely unified in calling for consequences for schools that cannot get their campuses under control, but otherwise lack the power to force any action. 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) organized a press conference on Wednesday for a group of GOP senators to condemn the encampments, which he referred to as “Little Gazas.”

“These ‘Little Gazas’ are disgusting cesspools of antisemitic hate full of pro-Hamas sympathizers, fanatics, and freaks,” Cotton said. “President Biden needs to denounce Hamas’s campus sympathizers without equivocating about Israelis fighting a righteous war of survival.”

“The State Department needs to yank the visas of foreign students in these ‘Little Gazas’ and DHS needs to deport them,” he added. “The Justice Department should investigate the funding sources behind these ‘Little Gazas,’ and the Department of Education needs to withhold funding for colleges that won’t protect the civil rights of their Jewish students.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the No. 3 Senate Republican, similarly called for revoking federal support for universities that fail to uphold civil rights laws.

“We have laws in this country to protect against violence, to protect students. Students have a right to be protected. Jewish students, all students on campus, from harassment, from discrimination,” Barrasso said at the weekly leadership press conference. “If not, those colleges should lose their federal funding.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered two floor speeches on the matter within two days. His Tuesday speech likened Columbia protesters to ‘student Nazis of Weimar Germany’ in a call to restore order on the university’s campus, while his Wednesday remarks urged the Biden administration to not focus “on virtue-signaling and political theater to appease the leftist agitators of their base.”

While Republicans have generally been more vocal about their concerns on the matter, there have been some bipartisan calls for action in the upper chamber. 

Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) have asked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to hold a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the top Republican on the committee, has requested the same.

Asked by JI in the Capitol on Wednesday about organizing a hearing about antisemitism on college campuses, Sanders replied, “Well, the issue of bigotry on campus is something that we are concerned about,” before abruptly entering a senators-only elevator. 

Cassidy told JI in November that Sanders had declined to call a hearing on campus antisemitism. Sanders delivered a Senate floor speech on Wednesday largely expressing support for anti-Israel protests on college campuses and rejecting many of the accusations of antisemitism leveled at anti-Israel demonstrators.

Sanders’s office did not respond to JI’s subsequent request for comment on the matter, nor did a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Extremist rhetoric escalates among campus anti-Israel protesters

As an attempt to shut down the anti-Israel encampment that has been on campus for more than a week, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik entered negotiations with student protestors. Among her interlocutors is Khymani James, a student quoted in national news outlets including CBS News who was described as a protest organizer in a recent interview with the Columbia Spectator.

Newly unearthed footage of James, posted on his public Instagram in January and published by The Daily Wire on Thursday, reveals a radical side of the Columbia junior. In the video, which James described as a recording of a conversation with a school official who called to discipline him after he posted a threat against Zionist students, the Columbia junior spoke at length about his hatred of Zionists and his belief that they should not be alive. (James was also recorded in a video at the encampment encouraging protestors to form a human chain to keep “Zionists” out of the camp.)

“Zionists don’t deserve to live,” James said in the January video. “Zionists, along with all white supremacists, need to not exist.”

“Be grateful,” he said, “that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists. I’ve never murdered anyone in my life and I hope to keep it that way.” A Columbia spokesperson told Jewish Insider on Thursday that such statements are “unacceptable, full stop,” but declined to comment specifically on James’ case and whether he will face disciplinary action. (At 1:30 a.m. on Friday morning, James released a statement expressing “regret” for the comments in the Instagram video. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification,” wrote James, who added that Zionism “necessitates the genocide of the Palestinian people” and “I oppose that in the strongest terms.”)

As similar encampments have spread to dozens of universities around the country, James isn’t the only student protestor promoting violence against Zionists. A growing number of campus activists have veered into extremism — including demanding the expulsion of Zionists from their campuses, calling for the destruction of the state of Israel and promoting their messages in terrorist-aligned social media channels. At Columbia, some protestors called on Jewish students who walked by to “go back to Belarus” and “go back to Poland.”

Student organizers of campus anti-Israel encampments at several universities have taken to Telegram, a messaging app, to spread their message and elicit support, donations and advocacy from other students and outside supporters. 

A channel run by the organizers of the encampment at New York University, which was shut down by the university on Monday, posted a message on Wednesday encouraging supporters to follow another Telegram channel called “Resistance News Network,” where organizers said people could stay informed about updates on the situation in Gaza. (It is not known who sent the message, as Telegram allows users to remain anonymous.)

“Resistance News Network” is a channel that is closely associated with Hamas and other terrorist groups. Its pinned post — the post to which it directs all new members of the channel — is a message posted early on Oct. 7 with a video from Hamas’ military chief, praising the group’s terror attack in Israel and calling on supporter to take up arms. Several times a day, the Telegram channel posts messages praising Hamas attacks on the “Zionist enemy” in Gaza and quoting propaganda from other terror groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis. 

NYU spokesperson John Beckman told JI that the “matter has been referred to our Bias Response Line for investigation.” 

“NYU takes very seriously instances and allegations of antisemitism, exhortations of violence, and our responsibility to create a safe and welcoming environment for all NYU students,” Beckman said.

The “Resistance News Network” channel has cheered the anti-Israel encampments, and on Thursday it posted a message from Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — a U.S.-designated terrorist organization — calling on Arab students to “follow … the example of American universities.” 

Members of the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at The Ohio State University shared a message with the “Resistance News Network” channel on Thursday asking members of the Hamas-aligned Telegram channel to support them and to stand with other SJP chapters. 

“We ask for you all to pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters in Gaza, and to support your local SJP as they combat the controlling powers that have stripped the world of any decency,” the message said. 

An Ohio State spokesperson said “there is no ongoing encampment or continuous demonstration at Ohio State,” noting that the gathering had been broken up by campus officials earlier on Thursday. But the spokesperson declined to comment on the SJP chapter seeking support in a Hamas-aligned forum.

At Princeton, a university staff member posted a photo to the social media platform X of a person at the encampment — where at least one professor has held their classes this week — holding a Hezbollah flag.

Amid growing campus protests, House to vote on codifying Trump’s antisemitism executive order

The House is scheduled to vote next week on the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act, the latest move by top House lawmakers to respond to growing anti-Israel protests on college campuses over the past week.

The bill would codify the Trump administration’s 2019 executive order instructing the Department of Education to treat antisemitism on college campuses as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and to utilize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism in assessing cases of antisemitism. The Biden administration has continued to enforce the Trump order.

“The horrific antisemitism we’ve seen at colleges and universities, and the abdication of these campuses to antisemitic radicals, has been painful to witness in real time,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the bill’s lead House sponsor, said in a statement. “Which is why I’m thrilled to hear that the Antisemitism Awareness Act is coming up for a vote next week. This critical legislation will help put a stop to this once and for all and ensure campuses remain safe for Jewish students,” 

A coalition of 31 Jewish groups sent a new letter to House lawmakers on Thursday urging prompt passage of the bill, calling it “more timely and important than ever” as campus incidents have “reached a fever pitch.”

“The current climate certainly reinforces the need for the Department of Education to have clear guidance when investigating instances in which anti-Israel activity may cross a line into antisemitic harassment that creates a hostile environment for Jewish students on campus in violation of federal civil rights laws,” the letter continues.

A variety of Jewish community organizations have been encouraging lawmakers to exclusively back the IHRA definition. But there’s also been growing opposition to the IHRA definition among progressives both on and off Capitol Hill. Some conservative lawmakers might also be inclined to oppose the bill due to concerns around free speech.

Last year, a resolution expressing support for the IHRA definition and describing anti-Zionism as antisemitism passed by a 311-14 vote, with 92 Democrats voting present and 13 voting against.

The bill will require only a simple majority vote. In addition to Lawler, other lead sponsors include Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Max Miller (R-OH) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). It has 29 additional Republican and 10 other Democratic cosponsors.

“The timing of this vote is critical considering that anti-Israel and antisemitic protests are flaring up across the nation,” Karen Paikin Barall, vice president of government relations for the Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement. “The Department of Education needs this major tool in their toolkit so that they can hold schools accountable for allowing antisemitic behavior on campus.”

JFNA, which has made the bill a priority issue, has been “the leading advocate” for the legislation, Barall continued, noting that federations have held “hundreds” of meetings with congressional staff on the issue.

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations, said, “The violent and antisemitic demonstrations underway” at campuses nationwide “require us to provide the Department of Education will all the guidance and tools it needs to ensure the safety of Jewish students. In order to begin to address the problem of antisemitism, we must be using the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.”

In a letter to the bill’s sponsors, leaders of the Orthodox Union said that the bill will “make even more clear the legal obligation for universities to protect students on campuses around the country,” and that codifying the application of IHRA at the Department of Education “will play a critical role in ensuring the safety of Jewish students in classroom and on campuses around the country.”

Several university leaders begin cracking down on anti-Israel disruptions on campus

Last Friday, police officers dressed in riot gear arrested at least 20 masked students at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., after some 150 people stormed the university president’s office and refused to leave for more than three hours. Organized by the student-led group Pomona Divest Apartheid, the demonstrators from Pomona, as well as nearby Scripps and Pitzer Colleges, were protesting the removal of an anti-Israel “mock apartheid wall” on campus.

Earlier this month, Columbia University indefinitely suspended four students for participating in a campus event called “Resistance 101,” led by prominent Palestinian activist Khaled Barakat, who appeared by video to discuss the war in Gaza that started in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Barakat reportedly said that “friends and brothers in Hamas, Islamic Jihad” were excited to see student groups in the U.S. protesting on their behalf.

And at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., late last month, four students were arrested after staging a sit-in at the university’s main administration building for nearly 24 hours, demanding that the Tennessee school divest from companies that operate in Israel.

Six months after anti-Israel activity began to dominate many college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — with minimal action taken by college presidents to quell rising levels of antisemitism — administrators at schools such as Pomona, Columbia and Vanderbilt have taken a harder line in recent weeks. As a result, Jewish leaders are wondering whether these three schools’ tougher responses could represent the leading edge of a trend that takes root across the country.

Jacob Baime, CEO of the Israel on Campus Coalition, told Jewish Insider that other universities will only take similar action if they are pressured to do so. “The suspension of anti-Israel activists at schools like Vanderbilt University is a step in the right direction in addressing the campus climate,” Baime said. 

In a statement to Pomona College on Friday, the school’s president, Gabrielle Starr, warned that “any participants in today’s events… who turn out to be Pomona students, are subject to immediate suspension. Students from the other Claremont Colleges will be banned from Pomona’s campus and subject to discipline on their own campuses.” 

“I don’t see this as a victory and I don’t know if it’s going to change anything in the future,” Ayelet Kleinerman, a fourth-year Pomona student from Israel who founded the group Haverim Claremont in 2022, told JI. “There is a lot of backlash here from students, faculty and community members on the outside,” she continued. “So we will have to wait and see how things unfold, but when people are arrested I don’t see it as a victory — it’s sad that we got to a situation in the first place where police needed to be called. We shouldn’t have gotten to this in the first place.” 

Kleinerman, who started Haverim as a way for Jewish and non-Jewish students to connect and learn about antisemitism — something she felt was missing from on-campus groups in the past — said the climate on campus for Jewish students since Oct. 7 “has been hard and intimidating, [filled] with a lot of [anti-Israel] protests.” 

For months, Jewish students and alumni from the Claremont Consortium— Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Pitzer College (known as the 5Cs), have urged administrators to take action in response to what they called in a Nov. 6 email “harassment of Jewish Students at Pomona College.” 

“We are particularly alarmed by the administration’s acquiescence in the face of gross violations of College policy and applicable law,” the letter, signed by a group of 5C alumni said, pointing to several incidents at Pomona, including a demonstration on Oct. 20 when “Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace held a rally at Pomona’s Smith Campus Center with several hundred attendees. At that rally, SJP and JVP members assembled, at the Smith Campus Center (a shared space intended for use by all College students), a display honoring the Hamas terrorists responsible for the genocidal attacks of October 7.”

According to a university statement, “Unidentified, masked individuals have repeatedly disrupted and/or forced the cancellation of events on our campus since October 2023, including Pomona’s Family Weekend events, a gathering for high school counselors and Harvey Mudd College’s Presidential Inauguration.”

“Our response has been graduated, with repeated warnings and reminders of policy,” the statement continued. “President Starr has repeatedly offered to meet with students and multiple dialogue sessions have been held. However, the violations from some individuals have escalated.” 

“I wish they stopped it earlier,” Kleinerman said. “I think [Friday] was just the last straw on a long list of breaking policies.” 

Later this month, the Associated Students of Pomona College are slated to vote on a non-binding student referendum that calls for an academic boycott of Israel and divestment from companies with ties to Israel. 

In a campus-wide email, a copy of which was obtained by JI, Starr wrote that “the referendum raises the specter of antisemitism.” 

In an open letter sent Monday from Pomona College tour guides and admissions interns, dozens of students wrote that “the school’s decision to call in over 30 militarized police officers to arrest 20 unarmed, peaceful student protesters… was an egregious violation of students’ safety at their place of living and learning.” The signatories threatened to “strike [giving campus tours] until our student demands are met” and “will begin every tour, webinar, and information session introduction with an overview of what happened on April 5th. Specifically, we will make it clear that this institution suppresses student voices.” 

Also on Monday, Pomona faculty met to vote on a resolution created by several faculty members regarding the arrests. According to The Student Life, the campus newspaper, the meeting was centered around a resolution that condemned Starr’s handling of the demonstration and called for the removal of the suspensions on arrested students. Faculty are expected to reconvene later in the week to finish the discussion and to vote on the resolution.

At Columbia, students identified as participants in the “Resistance 101” meeting were dismissed from their campus housing on Wednesday and given 24 hours to vacate, according to the campus newspaper, the Columbia Spectator. 

Columbia conducted an investigation into the meeting using an outside firm, university President Minouche Shafik said in a statement, and charged the four students found to have participated in the event with violating campus policies, endangerment, disruptive behavior, among other charges, according to the Spectator.

“On March 24, an event took place at a campus residential facility that the University had already barred, twice, from occurring. It featured speakers who are known to support terrorism and promote violence,” Shafik said in a statement. “I want to state for the record that this event is an abhorrent breach of our values.”

Shafik, as well as Columbia’s board chairs, are slated to testify next week at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. The suspensions were a contrast from several other “unauthorized” events that were allowed to take place with little response from the administration. While the groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace remain suspended as official student groups, neither organization has ceased organizing on-campus events.

According to witnesses, some of the unauthorized events by the anti-Israel groups have included holding protests featuring chants of “Intifada, Intifada, long live the Intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Deans have done nothing to stop the events the school claimed were canceled, students on campus told JI in December. 

Vanderbilt is among several universities that have traditionally been quiet regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but are suddenly seeing their first-ever anti-Israel activity, including Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns, in the months after the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The late March demonstration, organized by the Vanderbilt Divest Coalition, was a response to the administration’s move to quash a first-time BDS referendum, scheduled to take place in March; administrators said that a boycott of Israel would violate Tennessee state law and jeopardize the state and federal funding the school receives. All of the protest participants who breached the building will be placed on interim suspension, a Vanderbilt spokesperson told JI at the time. 

“It’s too soon to tell whether the way these university administrators handled these situations is an indication of a strong trend, but their responses are certainly encouraging,” Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told JI. 

“Clearly conveying and enforcing reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on student protests and demonstrations is sound policy and practice,” she continued. “These measures are critical and will greatly improve the campus climate for everyone. This applies also to the suspension of student organizations that disobey the rules.”

Elman said that university leaders are “typically hesitant to weigh in on student speech and free expression.”

“But given the egregiousness of recent incidents and conduct, including students blocking access to and commandeering school buildings and disrupting events and normal university operations, they really have no choice,” she continued. 

James Pasch, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior director of national litigation, called it “refreshing to see some college presidents stepping up to enforce campus policies.” 

“It is incumbent on all university administrators to put an end to the escalation of antisemitic discrimination and harassment on their campuses,” he told JI, adding that, “one vital way to do that is to implement robust enforcement of applicable campus rules and policies, including but not limited to the Code of Student Conduct and University Space Rules for antisemitic harassment, demonstrations, and signage on campus.” 

The ICC’s Baime, while hailing the moves by the three universities, said, “The Jewish community must continue to pressure universities to protect Jewish students by enforcing their codes of conduct. While Vanderbilt’s response should be applauded, it’s not nearly enough. We must continue to press universities to stand up for what is right.” 

University administrators on high alert for Gaza protests at upcoming graduations

At last month’s Honors Convocation at the University of Michigan, one of the first events of the school’s spring graduation festivities, President Santa Ono — dressed in full academic regalia — stepped up to the stage to address the university’s soon-to-be graduates.

Almost immediately, a chorus of boos broke out. Several dozen students rose, holding signs that read “Free Palestine” and “Ceasefire Now.” Ono was at the lectern for less than two minutes before he sat down, unable to continue speaking over the students’ shouting. The ceremony ended abruptly, and early. 

The event highlights the challenge universities face as they prepare for the prospect of anti-Israel protests at university graduations across the country this spring. While the frequency of protests has diminished since last fall, fallout over the Israel-Hamas war continues to roil U.S. campuses. That university administrators have responded to protests that violate campus policies, such as the one at Michigan, with inconsistent enforcement of university codes of conduct raises questions about how they will handle similarly disruptive actions at graduation events. 

Although no protests have been announced yet, some campus activists are already calling on pro-Palestinian supporters to wear keffiyehs and bring Palestinian flags to graduation. But whether graduating students are willing to disrupt graduation ceremonies to make a political statement, as they did at Michigan — and risk being kicked out of the event — remains to be seen. 

“There’s a rich, long tradition of students especially, but sometimes guests, engaging in protests in commencement exercises,” said Mark Rotenberg, vice president for university initiatives and general counsel at Hillel International, which has been advising university administrators about heading off disruptive protests.

Usually, students who want to make a point at graduation do so silently. Often, they write a political message on their cap or turn their backs to object to a particular speaker. Sometimes they hold up signs, such as last year at Howard University, where 12 students silently protested President Joe Biden’s address with posters that said things like, “Biden and [Vice President Kamala] Harris don’t care about Black people.”

Occasionally, they even stage a silent walkout, such as students at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., last year who protested Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who delivered the commencement address. The phenomenon is widespread enough that, in 2014, CNN published an op-ed about “the smarter way to protest college speakers,” after three universities reversed course and changed their commencement speakers to respond to student backlash.

Many schools have not yet named commencement speakers for their 2024 graduations. But so far, it appears that prominent universities are choosing not to tap political or controversial speakers to deliver the commencement address.

“You just see people invite the most bland, noncontroversial, I guess, or non-political speakers out there. People like Donald Trump, or Joe Biden, or other controversial figures don’t really get invited anymore to these events,” said Zach Greenberg, senior program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Notre Dame students walked out during former Vice President Mike Pence’s speech in 2017. (The White House and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment asking if Biden, Harris, Secretary of State Tony Blinken or other senior administration officials had been invited to deliver any commencement addresses this year.)

There’s also a possibility that graduation speakers — either invited guests or student speakers who were selected by the university — may decide to use the opportunity to make a political point. Recent student speakers at the City University of New York’s law school graduation condemned Zionism in their speeches. The university responded by entirely eliminating student speakers from its official commencement events. (A CUNY spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for graduation this year.)

“Many universities will say to the student speakers who are invited to speak at commencement, ‘You’re not supposed to speak about controversial political topics in your speech,’” said Rotenberg, a former general counsel at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota. “They’ll say that because the intention of the event, the purpose of your being invited to speak, is not to offer your own personal views on politics but to celebrate the graduation of your peers.” That doesn’t mean the students always listen. 

“The real concern,” Rotenberg added, “is that there will be disruptions so that a congressman, for example, can’t give his speech, or an honorary degree recipient cannot receive their degree, because they are tenured at an Israeli institution of higher education, or that other Israelis in attendance will be badgered, harassed or even attacked.” 

In recent months, university enforcement of policies regarding disruptive protests that attempt to shut down speakers has been lackluster and uneven. While speaking at the University of Maryland, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was shouted down by hecklers who called him “complicit in genocide.” 

“What you saw play out actually was democracy and free speech and academic freedom,” UMD President Darryll Pines, who attended the event and made the decision to shut it down, said later. When asked whether vocal protestors would also be allowed to disrupt the school’s graduation ceremonies, a university spokesperson shared a link to a Monday email from the school’s general counsel outlining UMD’s free expression policy. 

“No person may intentionally and substantially interfere with the lawful freedom of expression of others,” the email said. The spokesperson did not say whether the actions of the students who shouted down Raskin violated the code of conduct, and if similar activities would be tolerated at graduation. 

When reached for comment, several prominent universities directed Jewish Insider to their schools’ codes of conduct. All of them agreed that disruptive protests are not permitted at graduation, although they declined to share specifics about their plans for any potential disruptions, citing security concerns.

“We are well aware there is a possibility of disruption,” said Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor for executive communications at the University of California, Berkeley. “There is a distinct line and difference between nonviolent protest that does not interfere with the rights of others — including the right to participate in and/or attend a graduation ceremony — and impermissible actions that violate the rights of others.” 

The University of Virginia plans to have “designated areas outside the ticketed event space for protest activity to occur during official ceremonies,” a university spokesperson said. Official events and ceremonies are ticketed. “Protest activity must not block access to the event or use amplified sound.”

Graduation ceremonies are usually the biggest events that universities organize each year, and the culmination of students’ experiences on campus. Dignitaries — politicians, trustees, donors, prominent alumni — are in attendance, putting the schools under more intense scrutiny. That’s a big difference from student-run events where security protocols might be unclear, or where administrators may choose not to enforce campus rules.

“They’re not really prepared for addressing heckler’s vetoes and event disruptions,” said FIRE’s Greenberg. “For commencement, it’s a very well-planned large event and universities take great pains to ensure it goes smoothly. So I think because of the preparation, because due to the large police presence there and just the sheer number of people, any disruption to the event, whether it’s the speaker or to the audience, tends to be addressed pretty quickly.” 

Chris Booker, director of media and public relations at The Ohio State University, said the large number of attendees at graduations means “there is always a potential for a disruption. It has always been a part of the university’s standard comprehensive preparedness plan to employ heightened safety, security, and crowd and audience management measures for commencement.” 

Citing new campus policies announced in January to combat antisemitism, a spokesperson for American University asserted that indoor protests are not allowed on campus. “This includes commencement,” said Matthew Bennett, vice president and chief communications officer. “Violations of the directives or other university policies are subject to disciplinary action.”

Stacy Wagner, a University of Colorado Boulder spokesperson, said that “interference, obstruction, or disruption of CU Boulder activity” are violations of the student code of conduct. “Any student found responsible for violating the Student Code of Conduct will be subject to appropriate sanctions.” 

Neither Bennett, Wagner or the other university administrators contacted by JI shared how violations would be handled, and what “disciplinary action” might entail. 

Universities “sometimes are a little squeamish,” Rotenberg pointed out, “about being completely candid about what are the consequences for violating these rules.”

Controversial pro-Palestinian group resumes anti-Israel protests after campus suspensions 

Heading back to school after winter break, Rutgers University students discovered that the campus’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was reinstated from its suspension and allowed to continue its on-campus protests, though the group remains on probation until December. 

Across the Hudson River, at Columbia University, students were also welcomed back with chants of “Long live the Intifada” around campus from SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace — although in Columbia’s case both pro-Palestinian groups remain suspended. 

At The George Washington University, the third school to issue a temporary suspension of SJP following the organization’s activities after Oct. 7, a new semester means a new phase of restrictions for the controversial group. 

As the Israel-Hamas war roiled college campuses and brought attention to groups such as SJP and JVP, whose protests have included anti-Israel and antisemitic slogans and even praise for Hamas, the three universities that temporarily banned their campus chapters have taken drastically different approaches to handling the disciplinary action. 

On Jan. 17, Rutgers lifted the suspension of SJP’s chapter on its flagship New Brunswick, N.J., campus and imposed a one-year probation period following an investigation into alleged disruptive behavior.

“Rutgers typically issues an interim suspension of organizational activity when a student organization is facing multiple conduct complaints,” Megan Schumann, a spokesperson for the school, told Jewish Insider. “The conduct case involving the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Rutgers-New Brunswick has been resolved and the interim suspension of organizational activity is over. The organization has been put on probation for a year, with educational sanctions.” 

Schumann noted that “none of the actions taken were based on speech.”

“Decisions were based on the fact that the students were protesting in nonpublic forums, causing disruption to classes and university functioning, which are violations of university policy,” she said. 

The crackdown at Rutgers stemmed from multiple complaints that alleged that “SJP disrupted classes, a program, meals, and students studying,” Schumann told JI. Rutgers opened the investigation one day before the Biden administration announced it had launched a civil rights investigation into its Newark campus over alleged antisemitism. 

Columbia University, meanwhile, suspended its chapters of SJP and JVP on Nov. 10 after the groups held an unauthorized event that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” The administration said both groups could be reinstated in the spring semester if they show “a commitment to compliance with University policies.” When the new semester started a week ago, both groups remained suspended. 

A university spokesperson told JI, “Staff advisers have met with representatives from the groups to discuss steps toward reinstatement. Most importantly, the groups would have to agree to fully comply with the university’s long-standing policies and procedures. If the groups agree to follow these prescribed steps and fully comply with university rules, they may be reinstated.”

In response to the suspension, the two groups said in November, “You can shut our organizations down, but can’t stop our hearts from beating for liberation, humanity and the freedom of Palestine.” Within weeks after Columbia announced the temporary suspensions of the groups as official student groups through the end of the fall term, both continued organizing on-campus events.

According to witnesses, some of the unauthorized events held in December and January by the anti-Israel groups have included holding protests featuring chants of “Intifada, Intifada, long live the Intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Deans have not acted to stop the events the school claimed were canceled, students on campus told JI.

In response to JVP events held during Hanukkah, Samantha Slater, a Columbia University spokesperson who spoke to JI at the time, didn’t outline what attempts were made, if any, to prevent the groups from sponsoring campus events. 

“We have communicated with JVP that this is an unsanctioned event by an unsanctioned student group. The university supports students who wish to commemorate religious holidays, including by lighting menorahs and celebrating the festival of Hanukkah. Our event policies are in place to ensure that group gatherings are as safe as possible, and to minimize any disruption of ongoing instruction, research, and other activities taking place on campus,” Slater said.

At GW, SJP’s suspension, which is set to continue into the spring semester, was issued in two phases: the first, a 90-day period that began in November, bans the group from sponsoring and holding events on campus; in the second phase, beginning on Feb. 12 and lasting for the remainder of the academic year, the university will “continue to restrict” its activities. 

The school’s administration cited the group’s unauthorized projection of pro-Hamas messages on a library named after deceased Jewish supporters of the school as cause for the suspension. 

“GW determined that SJP’s actions violated university policies… As a result, the university prohibited SJP from participating in activities on campus, including the ability to sponsor or organize on-campus activities or use any university facilities for 90 days,” Joshua Grossman, a GW spokesperson, told JI. “Additionally, SJP has restrictions against posting communications on university property until May 20, the end of the school year,” he said. 

Brandeis University remains the only private university to have banned SJP permanently since the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. On Nov. 6, the school cited SJP’s open support for Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization, as the driving factor in the decision.

Suspended groups at Columbia University continue to hold anti-Israel campus events

Just weeks after Columbia University announced a temporary suspension of the campus chapters of National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) as official student groups through the end of the fall term, both groups have continued organizing on-campus events.

According to witnesses, some of the unauthorized events by the anti-Israel groups have included holding protests featuring chants of “intifada, intifada, long live the intifada” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Deans have done nothing to stop the events the school claimed were canceled, students on campus tell JI.

“It feels like [JVP and SJP] have ramped up more [since the ban],” Alon Levin, a Columbia School of Engineering graduate student, told Jewish Insider. “We’re seeing it now almost on a daily basis,” he said, adding that some of the events are held under different names associated with JVP and SJP, such as a protest he witnessed on Monday that was sponsored by Student Workers of Columbia, held on Barnard’s campus. Barnard College is affiliated with Columbia University and Barnard students are part of Columbia clubs.

“I’ve been to a few of these events so I can document what’s going on, and usually it’s not overtly under SJP or JVP but other groups that are under the banner of Columbia University student organizations that say they will pick up the slack for those groups by doing things like booking rooms,” Levin said. 

Other events, such as a menorah lighting held throughout the week of Hanukkah, are still advertised as being sponsored by JVP and SJP, despite the ban, which runs through Dec. 22, the end of the fall semester. 

JVP Columbia advertised for the event on its Instagram page, writing “@SJP.Columbia will join us to meditate on the parallels between the Hanukkah story and current events, the importance of grassroots activism, and the significance of solidarity in the face of oppression and suppression.” 

In a statement to JI, Samantha Slater, a Columbia University spokesperson, didn’t outline any attempts made to prevent the groups from sponsoring campus events. 

“We have communicated with JVP that this is an unsanctioned event by an unsanctioned student group. The university supports students who wish to commemorate religious holidays, including by lighting menorahs and celebrating the festival of Hanukkah. Our event policies are in place to ensure that group gatherings are as safe as possible, and to minimize any disruption of ongoing instruction, research, and other activities taking place on campus,” Slater said. 

Immediately after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, National JVP released a statement declaring: “The Root of Violence Is Oppression,” laying the blame for the massacre on Israel. SJP has declared open support for Hamas. At Columbia, both groups have demanded that the university call Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza a genocide and to boycott business partnerships with the Jewish state. 

Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition formed in 2016, has gained renewed support since Oct. 7, with at least 80 student groups at Columbia joining the coalition. 

Levin said that the school’s “administration has lost control of the situation.” 

This isn’t the first time Columbia University failed to implement its suspension of campus events from unauthorized pro-Hamas groups.

Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine, which has expressed support for SJP but is not directly affiliated, organized a teach-in and discussion last Wednesday titled “Significance of the October 7th Palestinian Counteroffensive” in the lobby of the Social Work Building. The event, which was originally planned to be held inside a classroom, had previously been canceled by the School of Social Work administration following online backlash.

Photos obtained by JI show Columbia faculty members not affiliated with the School of Social Work, including deans, attended the event. 

In a statement to the Spectator, a member of Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine said that the group was never directly told that the event had been canceled. Organizers told the Spectator that they found out about the cancellation from a School of Social Work official Instagram post on Monday containing a statement from Melissa Begg, dean of the School of Social Work.

“This is not a CSSW-sponsored event. The students who organized the event did not seek approval for the fliers and text as required by CSSW processes,” Begg wrote. “CSSW supports free speech but does not condone language that promotes violence in any manner, which is antithetical to our values. This event will not go forward at CSSW.”

The group “decided to go ahead with the event as planned,” despite the statement from Begg, a Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine member wrote in a statement to the Spectator. 

Members of the student group gathered in the lobby to give speeches, according to the Spectator. “On Oct. 7, the Palestinian Liberation fighters demonstrated their refusal to be dominated,” a speaker from Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine said. “They showed the world that the Palestinian people will fight for freedom instead of quietly adapting to subjugation. They showed us that through creativity, determination, and combined strength, the masses can accomplish great feats.” 

“The matter is under review under University procedures,” according to a statement from Columbia School of Social Work. 

Natan Rosenbaum, a sophomore studying American studies and Talmud, echoed that the “frequency of JVP and SJP protests have virtually gone unchanged, about once or twice a week.”

“The size is also pretty similar,” he continued. “Maybe not what it was at its height but just today there was one that was 200 or 300 people on the Barnard campus,” Rosenbaum said, noting that he can hear the protests while studying in the library. 

Ari Shrage, a Columbia alum and board member of the newly formed Columbia Jewish Alumni Organization, told JI: “Columbia put out a statement that said that they ‘will not tolerate antisemitic actions and are moving forcefully against [them]’. Yet in the last few days students continue to send us videos where students call for genocide [chanting ‘from the river to the sea’]. We have photos of suspended groups holding events and distributing hate imagery. We have videos of deans standing and doing nothing to stop events that they claim were canceled. 

“Allowing students to chant ‘from the river to the sea’ for an hour is not acting forcefully. Deans standing for over an hour doing nothing to stop a ‘canceled’ event is not forceful,” Shrage continued. “Suspended groups handing out hateful images is not forceful. President [Minouche] Shafik should be asked under oath how these events continue despite making statements that they won’t allow them.” 

JI has seen the videos and confirmed their existence.

Columbia University suspended SJP and JVP on Nov. 10 due to the holding of an unauthorized event that “included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” 

Gerald Rosberg, Columbia’s senior executive vice president, said in a statement at the time that the “decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event… that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.”

Rosberg explained in the statement that suspension means “the two groups will not be eligible to hold events on campus or receive University funding.”

“Lifting the suspension will be contingent on the two groups demonstrating a commitment to compliance with University policies and engaging in consultations at a group leadership level with University officials,” he continued. 

It is not clear whether the administration is aware of other events going on under the radar or if the suspension is set to be extended into next semester. 

SJP and JVP said in a Nov. 13 statement on Instagram that “the university has repeatedly changed event approval policies and been deliberately vague about these changes.” 

Rosenbaum called the suspension a “symbolic gesture.” 

“I have yet to be made aware of any formal punishment or action from the administration besides that one suspension which was quite short anyway,” he told JI. “It makes the administration come off as weak.”

Van Hollen blocks Hawley resolution condemning antisemitic campus protests

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) on Thursday blocked an effort by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to request the immediate passage of a resolution condemning as antisemitic student groups and protests on college campuses that criticized Israel and supported Hamas.

Hawley introduced the resolution a day prior, with Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Ted Budd (R-NC) co-sponsoring. He came to the Senate floor on Thursday to request that the bill be passed by unanimous consent, immediately without further consideration by the Senate or a formal vote. Any single senator can block such a unanimous consent request, which are often used to fast-track broadly bipartisan and non-controversial measures. (Unanimous consent requests made on the floor without prior unanimous agreement have sometimes been criticized as political stunts.)

Hawley’s resolution charges that “students at universities in the United States have praised and justified the actions of Hamas, expressed solidarity with the terrorists, and vocally supported the atrocities of Hamas, including the murder of children.”

The legislation enumerates several specific public statements from pro-Palestinian student groups that defended or excused Hamas’ actions.

It denounces “the rhetoric of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas student groups as antisemitic, repugnant and morally contemptible for sympathizing with genocidal violence against the state of Israel and risking the physical safety of Jewish Americans in the United States.”

“Maybe almost as disturbing as the facts of these terrible attacks themselves is the response of some people in this country, on our college campuses in this country, who promptly took to the streets, to the courtyards of these campuses, to the airwaves to broadcast their support for this genocide against the people of Israel,” Hawley said on the Senate floor yesterday, introducing the resolution. “And in the wake of this, campus leaders have been silent. They have refused to condemn this violent, virulent, genocidal, antisemitic rhetoric for what it is.”

Van Hollen objected to the passage of the bill, arguing that, while he fully condemned the Hamas massacre and antisemitic activity related to it, the legislation was overly broad, not accounting for students who criticized Israel but did not engage in antisemitism.

“What this resolution does is attempt to smear students — many of whom engaged in antisemitic remarks — but many who did not,” he said. “And my view is that when you come to the Senate floor to pass such a resolution, and you’re talking about freedom of speech, it’s very important not to paint a broad brush and condemn everybody engaging In speech. This is what this resolution does.”

“It’s an attempt to say even to those who had legitimate statements to make about war and peace, to smear them all as making antisemitic remarks,” Van Hollen continued. “There are student groups that may have… legitimate concerns about the loss of innocent civilian life in Gaza.”

He said, however, that he was not defending any of the specific statements enumerated in the resolution. Hawley countered that students like the ones Van Hollen described would not be condemned by the resolution.

Van Hollen said that, while many of the protests were “repugnant,” they were nonviolent, and  the only violent hate crime seen in the U.S. known to be inspired by the Hamas attack was the murder of a young Palestinian-American boy in Chicago and stabbing of his mother. He questioned why this incident was not mentioned in Hawley’s resolution. 

Van Hollen added that “there have been a lot of other antisemitic remarks around the country” and said the Senate “is going to have to think long and hard” if it wants to “make a practice” of “regularly coming to condemn hateful remarks” against a range of groups.

“I would stand with my colleagues in standing up to hateful rhetoric, condemning antisemitism,” Van Hollen said. “What this resolution does is not that.”

Hawley responded that Van Hollen’s comments constituted “defense of the most vile antisemitic rhetoric under the excuse, that to call out specifically, the specific statements and denounce them one at a time, and say this is wrong — that is somehow a smear.”

In a subsequent statement to Jewish Insider, Van Hollen characterized Hawley’s resolution as directed at colleges and students generally, rather than actually focused on antisemitism.

“There is no room for hate, antisemitism or violence of any kind in our nation. We must stand up and speak out forcefully anytime we see it. That’s why I have wholly condemned the horrific attacks by Hamas and throughout my time in Congress, have always spoken out against antisemitism, including on the floor today,” Van Hollen said. “Senator Hawley’s resolution was not about that. His resolution aimed to take advantage of this moment to make politically motivated attacks against colleges — and students writ large — with a broad brush that undermines any true condemnation of hateful speech.”

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution yesterday expressing support for Israel by a 97-0 vote; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the only senator who did not co-sponsor the resolution, also voted in favor of it. The three non-voting senators were absent from Washington.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-TX) wrote to the administration yesterday asserting that Hamas’ attack on Israel constituted genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Israel and the Jewish people, and requested that the State Department formally determine and declare as much.

Highlighting that many of Hamas’ actions had been documented and shared on social media, 11 Republican senators on the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-TX), wrote to the heads of X, TikTok, Meta and Alphabet on Friday morning requesting that the companies not permanently delete any content showing the attack.

“While steps should be taken to curb attempts by Hamas to weaponize social media for its own ends, it is indisputable that social media platforms have already played a critical role in exposing the international community to the genocidal atrocities committed against Israel,” the letters, obtained by JI, read. “Much of this content is graphic and violent, and under normal circumstances it might be removed under your company’s content policies.”

The companies “have a responsibility to preserve [the content] in such a way that the public record and historical record can accurately document the horrific atrocities being carried out,” the Senators said.

The senators request details on the companies’ content moderation practices and potential regulations relevant to the situation at hand, and how they are being applied with regard to the situation in Israel. They also ask how the companies are ensuring compliance with U.S. sanctions on Hamas.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and 35 other Democrats urged the administration to quickly ensure humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, warning that “a humanitarian collapse in Gaza would threaten regional stability.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing yesterday with Herro Mustafa Garg, a career State Department official nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to Egypt.

“We are partnering with Egypt on a crucial vision for addressing urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza and enabling the safe passage of Americans and those who are at immediate risk through the Rafah crossing,” Garg said. “Equally important is the U.S.-Egypt partnership on an affirmative vision for a Middle East region focused on peace and security, negotiating a two- state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians, and furthering regional integration.”

She said that her current understanding is that the specific mechanisms of the U.S.-Egypt agreement to allow humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza and U.S. citizens to leave the strip are still being finalized.

Garg said that the U.S.’ security aid to Egypt “is an investment in self-reliant, capable and accountable Egyptian Armed Forces aligned with U.S. priorities and values,” but also pledged to “consistently raise” human rights and rule of law concerns with the Egyptian government.