House Education Committee Finds Colleges Failed to Provide Protections to Jewish Students Following Protests

Republicans on the House Education Committee on Thursday published his report on the rise of anti-Semitism on college campuses in the wake of the October 7 attack.

The commission spent almost a year investigating the wave of protests and anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish students and faculty. The investigation included congressional testimony from school officials and examined more than 400,000 documents from 11 schools.

The investigation reached four main conclusions: campuses intentionally withheld support for Jewish students, schools made major concessions to protesters, universities failed to adequately discipline students who engaged in anti-Semitic behavior, and school officials were hostile to the congressional investigation.

“For more than a year, Americans have watched an anti-Semitic mob rule so-called elite universities, but what has been happening behind the scenes is arguably worse,” committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx – wrote in the statement. “While Jewish students showed incredible courage and refusal to submit to persecution, the university administrators, faculty and staff were cowards who completely capitulated to the mob and failed the students they were supposed to serve.”

The report highlighted concessions by Columbia University that included a thorough review of the divestment of certain businesses and a possible partnership with a Palestinian university where Hamas was reported to have been active. Northwestern University also considered removing Sabra hummus from campus, at the request of protesters.

Lawmakers also chided officials for not supporting Jewish students enough after Harvard refused to condemn a letter that blamed Israel for the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Former Harvard president Claudine Gay also asked the school not to label pro-Palestinian songs “from the river to the sea.” as anti-Semitic to avoid punishing those who sing it.

“The Commission’s investigation found that in many cases these failures were not the result of simple ignorance or lack of foresight, but rather deliberate decisions by university officials not to provide Jewish communities on their campuses with the necessary support needed to make them feel safe to live on campus or attend for classes” – described in detail in the report.

Lawmakers further sharply criticized schools for not punishing students who protested illegally, including those who closed schools. Columbia, which has been a hotbed of anti-Semitic protests, did not punish students who illegally occupied Hamilton Hall.

The report concluded that the schools likely violated Title VI and urged the U.S. Department of Education to hold the institutions accountable.

Misty Severi is the evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on x for greater coverage.