Antisemitism on college campuses is intense. Incidents shot up 700% after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Jewish families have reason to be nervous as another school year begins. Will their sons and daughters be safe?
Last year, Jewish students were blocked from classes, told to "go back to Europe," and even forced to navigate a Jewish "exclusion zone" at one university. Don't expect much improvement this fall. Aside from the resignations of three Ivy League presidents, colleges have done little to deter more incidents.
Worse, the safety of Jewish students is being held hostage to Democratic party politics.
A large bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate support a bill -- the Antisemitism Awareness Act -- that would bolster protection for Jewish students.
The bill says its purpose is to "reverse the normalization of antisemitism" on campuses and punish discrimination "rooted in antisemitism as vigorously as against all other forms of discrimination" prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meaning Jewish students would get the same level of protection as Black or Hispanic students.
The bill passed the House in June 320-91. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is sitting on it. Apparently Democratic Party bigwigs are afraid to irritate the split between moderate pro-Israeli Democrats and the extreme left wing of the party that supports Palestinians. That split is on full display this week, roiling the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"Schumer is petrified of AOC (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and the progressive left and doesn't want to divide the Democrats in the Senate, despite having well over 70 votes for the bill," reports the bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.)
"This is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history, and he is refusing to combat antisemitism legislatively," says Lawler, "though he has no trouble writing a book about it."
Schumer's book "Antisemitism in America: A Warning" is due out next February. He launched a promotion of it last week.
Words are one thing. Action is needed now.
An advocacy group, the Florence Avenue Initiative, is spending $2 million on an ad blitz calling on Schumer to bring the bill to a vote.
In fairness, Schumer, along with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, (D-N.Y.), the American Civil Liberties Union and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression -- strange bedfellows -- argue that the bill threatens freedom of political expression -- a First Amendment right -- and will muzzle opponents of Zionism and deniers of Israel's right to exist as a state. They point to the definition of antisemitism in the bill -- taken directly from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition --which includes attacks on Zionism and the right of Israel to exist.
Their concern about muzzling free speech is misguided. The bill expressly states that "nothing in this Act shall be construed to diminish or infringe upon any right protected under the First Amendment."
The bill doesn't prohibit any speech, no matter the viewpoint. It bars tolerating a threatening environment on campus. Protesters can condemn the existence of Israel all they want, but they can't demand that Jewish students disavow Israel to get into the library.
The bill's definition of antisemitism is already in use by 37 states, by the U.S. State Department and by the Department of Education under an executive order put into place by former President Donald Trump and continuing to this day under the Biden administration.
Lawler nailed it when he explained that the real holdup on this bill is political.
That's precisely why a law is needed.
Currently, protection of Jewish students depends on an executive order. The will of the president.
That could be flimsy protection under a Kamala Harris presidency. She told The Nation magazine last month, when discussing the anti-Israel protests, that antisemitism needs to be "navigated." No one would advocate merely navigating racism or bias against LGBTQ students.
Beyond pressing Schumer to pass the bill, donors to colleges and parents need to take a stand. Universities overwhelmed by pro-Palestinian protests last spring have shown very little inclination to discipline protesters. On Monday, the House Education and Workforce Committee received a report from Columbia University that nearly all the student protesters who invaded Hamilton Hall on April 30, smashing windows and taking hostages, are unpunished, and remain in "good standing" with the university.
Dean Josef Sorett, who mocked the Hillel director for describing antisemitic bigotry on campus, remains dean and on the payroll. A disgrace.
For turning their backs on the safety of Jewish students, colleges need to be punished with fewer applicants and less donated money.
This week, it's reported that not one student from the elite Ramaz high school in Manhattan has chosen to attend Columbia's liberal arts college, a first in decades. That will send a message that needs to be repeated all across the nation. Antisemitism will not be tolerated.
