The House Committee on Education and the Workforce will investigate three medical schools over their “failures to address antisemitism,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), the chair of the committee, announced on Monday.  

The three schools targeted in the probe are the University of Illinois College of Medicine (UICOM), University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Los Angeles Geffen School of Medicine. 

The investigations come as medical schools and the medical profession have faced increasing scrutiny over rising antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks. 

In letters sent to the leaders of each institution, Walberg requested that the administrators send a lengthy list of documents to the committee, including materials related to complaints of antisemitism, any discussion of antisemitism among DEI staff after Oct. 7 and all guidelines for antisemitism training and investigations that are utilized on campus. 

“The Committee has become aware that Jewish students, faculty, and patients have been experiencing hostility and fear at the university, and it has not been demonstrated that the university has meaningfully responded to address and mitigate this problem,” Walberg wrote to each institution, followed by a list detailing alleged incidents of antisemitism. 

The allegations at UCLA date back to 2021, when UCLA’s medical school reportedly instituted a mandatory first-year seminar about “structural racism and health equity” that described Jews as “white” and showed them alongside images of “oppressors” and “capitalists” with “long hooked noses.” Other incidents include a student writing in the UCLA Class of 2025 group chat that Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 were akin to a “slave rebellion” and a professor in the mandatory equity class requiring students to chant “free Palestine” with her.

Last year, the House Energy and Commerce Committee warned UCSF that its federal funding could be at risk if it didn’t do more to address antisemitic harassment. In June, UCSF fired a medical school professor who had posted antisemitic content online and targeted a Jewish faculty member — more than a year after she first made the posts.

Jewish students at UCSF have hidden parts of their Jewish identity, “including removing identifiers on social media,” and the Jewish patients have done the same, according to the letter from Walberg. It also lists several instances of UCSF faculty and staff expressing support for Hamas. 

The allegations at UICOM include the removal of Oct. 7 hostage posters from campus, a student group hosting a lecture with a speaker who expressed support for Hamas and a UICOM surgeon comparing Israel to the Islamic State and to Nazis in social media posts. In a Slack channel, which is used to share information about campus events, multiple posts reportedly rejected the claim that Hamas terrorists raped Israeli women on Oct. 7. Walberg also said the medical school staff member tasked with addressing antisemitism is “not suited” to help the school deal with the problem, because he has “made light of the rise [of] antisemitism on college campuses.” 

Dr. Yael Halaas, a plastic surgeon in New York and the founder and president of the American Jewish Medical Association, praised the investigations.

“We are physicians and healthcare professionals because we believe in healing the sick and helping the vulnerable. Hate has no place in healthcare,” Halaas told Jewish Insider. “Equally, as educators, we know that indoctrination — whether political, antisemitic, or any ideology of hate — has no place in medicine. The practice and teaching of medicine must be grounded in science, compassion, and respect for human dignity.”

The letters request the universities to submit relevant documents to the committee by Sept. 8.