House Committee’s Investigation into Antisemitism at Columbia University

The House Education and the Workforce Committee, chaired by Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., has sent a letter to Columbia University requesting documents and information related to the university’s response to antisemitism on its campus and its failure to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff. The letter provides examples of antisemitic incidents at Columbia that have occurred over the past two decades.

The documents and information requested include all reports of antisemitic acts or incidents and related documents and communications made to Columbia administration since January 1, 2021, as well as information about the university’s policies and procedures for dealing with discrimination and harassment. The committee is also seeking all documents and communications relating to sources of funding for certain anti-Israel student groups and foreign donations to the university since January 1, 2021.

Foxx’s letter cites numerous incidents of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism at Columbia, including incidents of Jewish students being targeted by demonstrators who tore down posters of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas militants. Chants have called for death to Jews and student email threads have similarly wished for death to Israel Defense Forces veterans on campus. Numerous Columbia faculty have made antisemitic remarks and statements of support for Palestinian terrorism both before and after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.

Some of the most egregious examples include professor of modern Arab politics Joseph Massad, who compared the “Palestinian resistance” to “Europeans resisting the Nazi occupation” and referred to Israel as “cruel colonizers” and the Palestinian Authority as “the collaborator PA.” Massad has also espoused antisemitic tropes, including calling the Israeli military “baby-killing Zionist Jewish volunteers for Israeli Jewish supremacy,” labeling Israelis “cruel and bloodthirsty colonizers,” and saying Zionism is a “genocidal cult.” Another university employee, Hamid Dabashi, Columbia’s Hagop Kevorkian professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature, has made numerous virulently antisemitic statements dating back years.

Despite the university suspending its campus chapters of the anti-Israel groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) on November 10, 2023, the letter asserts that the university has failed to enforce this decision and has allowed these groups and others to hold unauthorized antisemitic, anti-Israel events without consequence. The letter also notes that Columbia’s commitment to not tolerate antisemitic actions and to move forcefully against antisemitic threats, images, and other violations as they are reported stands at odds with the university’s failure to enforce its decision to suspend these groups.

Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police, and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.