WASHINGTON DC – U.S. Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), co-chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, called on Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to hold a full committee hearing on rising antisemitism on college campuses and the actions needed to keep Jewish students safe from antisemitic harassment and discrimination. Following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, there has been a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents on college and university campuses across the United States.
“Schools have a legal responsibility to protect their students from discrimination, yet many university presidents and administrators have failed to forcefully condemn antisemitic speech and incidents on campuses in the wake of Hamas’s terrorist attack,” wrote the Senators. “We are profoundly concerned that far too many Jewish students do not feel safe on college and university campuses.”
“No student should have to fear for his or her safety or ability to study in a safe environment, regardless of his or her ethnicity, religion, race, or national origin,” the Senators continued. “…we strongly urge the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to take immediate action to keep Jewish students safe, including by holding a full committee hearing on campus antisemitism, so that we can better understand the scale and scope of this scourge, and take action to counter it.”
The full letter can be found HERE.
Senator Rosen has been a leader in the bipartisan fight to counter antisemitism on college campuses. Last month, she sent a letter urging the Department of Education to review the harassment policies and codes of conduct of colleges and universities to ensure they comply with federal civil rights requirements by protecting Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and discrimination. She also recently applauded the news that, following her push, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance to schools and colleges, reminding them of their legal responsibility to protect students from discrimination. She also helped introduce a bipartisan resolution denouncing antisemitism at institutions of higher education, which passed the Senate unanimously. In August, Senators Rosen and Lankford co-led a bipartisan, bicameral letter calling on the Department of Education to take steps to counter antisemitism on college and university campuses.
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