By Jonathan D. Salant, JNS
“Our response must also preserve the constitutional freedoms that are fundamental to our educational institutions and our democracy,” stated Rochelle Garza, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Not enough is being done to address the growing problem of Jew-hatred on college campuses, according to a report that the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released on Monday.
Responses must be targeted to specific problems at individual campuses and have to involve Jewish students at each school, rather than a one-size-fits-all punitive response from the federal government, according to the report.
“Antisemitism is a serious civil rights concern, and students should be able to learn, participate, and express themselves without fear of discrimination or harassment,” stated Rochelle Garza, chair of the commission.
The report was sent to U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate President pro tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
“Our response must also preserve the constitutional freedoms that are fundamental to our educational institutions and our democracy,” Garza stated. “Every student deserves a campus where their civil rights are protected and where they have a fair opportunity to learn and thrive.”
The 220-page document reported that universities faced the challenge of balancing discrimination and harassment prohibited under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act with academic freedom and First Amendment rights to political speech and peaceful protests.
There was no consistency among the nine universities examined on how to classify, investigate and resolve complaints, per the report.
“Students deserve protection from discrimination and harassment while colleges and universities uphold free speech and expression,” Garza stated.
The question is where to draw that line—the same issue debated by the New Jersey Advisory Committee to the commission.
“Institutions must address discrimination and harassment based on Jewish shared ancestry while protecting political speech, peaceful protest activity, academic freedom and other forms of expression covered by the First Amendment and central to effective higher education,” the report said.
At the same time, “Jewish students reported harassment, vandalism, threats, exclusion and rhetoric that affected their safety, sense of belonging and educational experiences,” particularly after Oct. 7, the commission said.
Complaints to the U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights office rose sharply, but the agency saw more than half of its staff laid off and seven of its 12 regional offices closed due to budget cuts under the Trump administration.
Many of the office’s responsibilities under Title VI were transferred to the U.S. Justice Department.
Title VI says that people cannot be discriminated against on the basis of “race, color or national origin,” not religion. But the department considers Jews, and others, to be covered if they are discriminated against on the basis of their “shared ancestry.”
Along with addressing Jew-hatred and protecting First Amendment rights, enforcing Title VI discrimination was one of the competing interests, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror organization set off protests on campuses.
“The heightened political environment due to these protests amplified the complexities and problems that school administrators—confronting increasing national political pressure—faced as they sought to address reported antisemitic incidents and protect Jewish students and employees while simultaneously affirming longstanding commitments to free speech and academic freedom,” the report said.
“Campus officials also had to address legal determinations about free speech, legally protected hate speech and expression that may constitute discrimination under Title VI,” it stated.
The report also noted that the Trump administration, unlike its predecessors, has responded to campus Jew-hatred by suspending federal funding for schools or demanding settlements “sometimes judicially determined to be overbroad and illegal,” rather than launching investigations or regularly monitoring the colleges and universities to make sure they’re addressing the problem.
That has led to “unintended harm,” as budget cuts disrupt research funding, affect others and “generate resentment toward Jewish students,” according to the report.
“When the government abruptly withdrew funding, I witnessed and experienced the immediate consequences,” Harvard University student Sarah Silverman testified before the commission.
“Young scientists, many of them Jewish, were left feeling unprotected and uncertain about their futures,” she said. “Policies described as protecting Jewish students did not make me feel protected. Instead, in a deeply troubling way, I felt blamed.”
The commission was unable to document the full extent of the problem. Information on antisemitic incidents from universities, advocacy organizations, scholars and federal officials was inconsistent or unreliable, and the Trump administration did not provide requested records about federal enforcement.
“Universities, advocacy organizations, scholars and the federal government produce inconsistent or unreliable data on antisemitic incidents and frequently fail to distinguish between claims of unlawful antisemitism and claims about controversial expression,” the commission said.
The commission decided unanimously to look at Jew-hatred for the first time since 2006 following the surge in Jew-hatred after Oct. 7. It unanimously approved the report in July before finalizing and releasing it Monday.
“Antisemitism is the oldest bigotry in the world, and it has not gone away,” stated Mondaire Jones, a former Democratic congressman from New York and member of the commission.
Jones co-chaired the investigation with Peter Kirsanow, a Republican and former member of the National Labor Relations Board.
“In the days and months following the deadly terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitism reached a fever pitch—not just in the United States, but across the world,” Jones said. “This was most obvious on America’s college and university campuses.”
The report provided more documentation of the hostility directed at Jewish students by both their peers and their professors.
Adira Fogelman, a student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, said that masked protesters banged on the walls and threatened violence against Jews attending an on-campus event about Israel.
“Chanted outside of a room full of Jews, organized by Jewish organizations on campus and featuring a Jewish Israeli speaker, the threatening message for Jews like me was unmistakable,” she told the commission at one of its hearings.
