2023 United States Congress hearing on antisemitism



On December 5, 2023, the United States House Committee on Education & the Workforce held a hearing on antisemitism on college campuses. The committee called a few university leaders to testify, including the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the widely televised hearing, the presidents answered questions about their schools' policies, including those on antisemitism. After the hearing, the committee called for the resignation of the presidents, and announced a Congressional investigation "with the full force of subpoena power" into the same issues.

The following week, Liz Magill, president of Penn, submitted her resignation, partly in response to backlash resulting from the hearing. In January, Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned as well, following the hearing on antisemitism and allegations of plagiarism.

Background
Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, there were multiple anti-Israel protests at university campuses in the United States, which supporters of Israel allege to have had antisemitic undertones. Many universities were criticized for supposedly failing to adequately condemn the Hamas attacks and ensuing alleged antisemitic rhetoric, including Penn and Harvard. This became a conservative talking point, described by some commentators as adding to more general right-wing attacks on higher education.

Hearing
The Committee invited the presidents of four major universities to testify about antisemitism on their campuses. Those able to attend included Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Gay of Harvard, and Sally Kornbluth of MIT. It was later reported that at least one other university president, Minouche Shafik of Columbia University, was invited to testify before the committee, but declined due to a "scheduling conflict." The presidents were joined by Pamela Nadell, professor of History at American University.

Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) led the hearing on December 5, and noted that the rise of antisemitism on college campuses is disturbing and threatening to Jewish students, faculty, and staff. The presidents were each asked whether "calling for the genocide of Jews" violated their rules of bullying and harassment. During the hearing when Kornbluth, who is Jewish, said she had not heard any calls for genocide, Rep. Elise Stefanik claimed that chants of "Intifada" (Arabic) may be considered a "call for the genocide" of Jewish people. Each president replied that the answer at their institution depended on context.

In a specific exchange, Stefanik asked Harvard president Gay: "At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?", Gay answered, "It can be, depending on the context."

Reactions and further developments
Immediately after the hearing, Stefanik and other members of the committee called for the three presidents to resign, later publishing a written letter calling for their resignation signed by 70 members of Congress. The following day, the committee announced a Congressional investigation "with the full force of subpoena power" into the same issues.

The responses of all three presidents drew public criticism for being evasive. Gay released a statement noting that some "have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students." White House spokesman Andrew Bates said, "Calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country." Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, said he found the responses by Magill "unacceptable." Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, noted that though the university presidents' answers were "legally correct", it was frustrating "to see them discover free speech scruples while under fire at a congressional hearing," rather than in a more principled way.

Magill, who had already been under pressure in October over the university's initial response, resigned as president of Penn four days after the hearing. A few days later, a series of allegations of plagiarism were levied against Gay by conservative activist Christopher Rufo and journalist Aaron Sibarium, followed the next week by an announcement by the Committee that it would open an additional probe into the allegations. Gay resigned as president of Harvard on January 2, 2024. Both resignations were widely reported as political victories for the right. After Gay's resignation, Stefanik declared this was "just the beginning of the reckoning", and that "Republicans will carry out a 'long overdue' cleansing of higher education".

In popular culture
The hearing was portrayed in the cold open of the December9 episode of Saturday Night Live Season 49, in which Chloe Troast played Stefanik. It was also satirized in an episode of the Israeli comedy show Eretz Nehederet, with a guest appearance from American comedian Michael Rapaport.