Zionist Organization of America National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

Today, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) reacted to a brand-new Congressional report, “Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed.” ZOA thanked Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and her U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce for their hard work. ZOA condemns in the strongest terms the documented examples of college administrators tolerating and promoting antisemitism by pandering to antisemitic terrorist sympathizers at the universities and disregarding the rights of Jewish and other pro-Israel students, faculty, and staff. The report can be found here.

This report was published after a year-long investigation by the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce majority. It shows how antisemitism has engulfed college campuses since the massacres of October 7, 2023. ZOA knows from our previous work on campus antisemitism that the problem of indifference to antisemitism predates the atrocities committed by Islamic terrorists last year. The report documents the frequent occurrences where many college administrators intentionally prioritized the desires of woke students and faculty over the safety of Jewish and other pro-Israel students, faculty, and staff. These include the following disturbing examples:

• At Northwestern, administrators put radical anti-Israel faculty in charge of negotiations with anti-Israel students supporting terrorism with the aim of appeasing them. (Pg. 9) The appeasement worked, and Provost Kathleen Hagerty approved the boycotting of an Israeli company, Sabra Hummus. (Pg. 12)
  • University leadership promised to hire an anti-Zionist rabbi and the Northwestern President, Michael Schill, appears to have misled Congress on the matter, which could be a crime. (Pg. 15)
• At Harvard, the leadership intentionally failed to condemn the terror group Hamas in their widely criticized 10/9/23 statement about the massacre. (Pg. 34) They also refused to mention the fact that Hamas was holding hostages and refused to characterize Hamas’ actions as violent. (Pg. 35)
  • University administrators explicitly asked Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker not to call the antisemitic chant “From the River to the Sea” antisemitic. (Pg. 41)
• At Columbia, the administration excessively disciplined Jewish students falsely accused of using ‘chemical agents’ when in fact administrators were present at the scene, and knew the charges were false. Subsequent administration statements failed to correct the false narrative used to vilify Jewish students. (Pg. 48)
• 11 universities utterly failed to enforce their rules and impose discipline for antisemitic conduct violations. (Pg. 58) These included Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers, and UCLA.
• Administrators at Columbia, Harvard, and Penn expressed hostility and contempt for congressional oversight and criticism of their record. (Pg. 114)

ZOA President Morton A. Klein said:

“It is outrageous that the vicious antisemitic activities described in this document have become routine on our college campuses. I am particularly outraged that some leaders of the U.S. Senate, including Sen. Chuck Schumer, have downplayed the incidents and have even advised college presidents not to meet with Republicans in Congress on this issue. (See https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/chuck-schumers-ultimate-betrayal/) Schumer told the Columbia University President that Columbia’s ‘political problems are really only among Republicans.’ Partisanship when it comes to antisemitism is not acceptable.

“The time is now for the Senate to protect Jewish students by taking up the Antisemitism Awareness Act. There is no need to delay any further to protect politicians who are afraid to take a vote which might anger extremists in their own party.”

Director of the ZOA Center for Law and Justice Susan Tuchman, Esq. said:

“From our years of battling campus antisemitism, we at ZOA have long known that many students across the U.S. have been enduring a campus climate that is hostile to them as Jews and Israel supporters, and that too many university leaders have been unacceptably indifferent to this problem. The details contained in this congressional report are startling and horrifying. They demonstrate that Jewish students’ legal right to a safe and welcoming campus environment must finally be fully protected, and our colleges and universities must face serious consequences for their indifference to antisemitism.”

The ZOA has worked for over a century to educate and advocate on Israel’s behalf, including on U.S. college campuses. Even before the October 2023 massacres in Israel, the ZOA has taken the lead in combating the rising tide of antisemitism on these campuses. ZOA has provided resources, counsel, and support to students looking to build their knowledge about Israel and Zionism, and to those facing antisemitic harassment inside and outside the classroom. ZOA has also worked with influential Congressmen and Senators to achieve legislative solutions to this rising antisemitism and anti-Israel hate. This includes working with the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce majority on their fact finding and on their report.

ZOA urges members of Congress from both parties to take the next step after reading this report, and come together to enact solutions which keep Jewish students safe on our campuses.