Exclusive: House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik is considering ways to use U.S. tax dollars paid to universities to ensure they crack down on anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
“There has to be accountability,” RN.Y. Stefanik told FOX News Digital. “Legally, there are a number of avenues I’m considering.”
Stefanik was among a group of lawmakers who heard from Jewish college students at Thursday’s roundtable led by House Education and Labor Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-Ky. She recalled instances where she felt threatened and faced profanity. about their Jewish identity.
This is part of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into anti-Semitism on campuses, which has already led to the resignations of presidents at two Ivy League schools, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.
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Rep. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) wants to use federal funding to help universities that aren’t doing enough to combat anti-Semitism. (Jiang Haiyun/Bloomberg)
A New York Republican, she is pushing for legislation that would help improve safety for Jewish students on campus, specifically targeting federal funding, foreign funding, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). He suggested that he is considering introducing the system.
“First, American taxpayers fund these institutions. American taxpayers do not want to foster the moral rot of anti-Semitism. We do not. We have to make sure,” Stefanik said. “The same goes for foreign funding. There’s not complete transparency around foreign funding and the strings attached to that foreign funding. That’s a big problem on these college campuses.”
She also cited the “abolition of the Office of DEI” and called DEI “inherently anti-Semitic.”
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“I heard from many students today about Jewish students contacting the DEI office and not even getting a response when it comes to harassment and violence,” Stefanik said. “There’s a lot of work to be done, but this is a bottom line. This is an earthquake, and it’s long overdue.”
Fox didn’t go into detail about the committee’s next steps, but lawmakers have sent numerous requests to universities to clarify how they protect Jewish students on campus. He said there was a wealth of information to digest before moving forward.
Stefanik made the comments after a roundtable with Jewish students held by Education and Labor Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R.N.C. Center). (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
“There’s a lot of work to do in vetting the material coming in from campuses. We’ll see what happens on a school-by-school basis,” Fox told Fox News Digital.
“The most important thing about this roundtable was to make sure the American people heard what they were hearing. [the students] I had to say it. Their testimony is convincing and they are being feared on campus. And that should never happen to students on college campuses in this country. And it is up to the leaders of those campuses to ensure that these students do not have their lives or safety threatened. ”
For nearly two hours, bipartisan lawmakers heard from students across the country who say schools are not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism on campus.
Harvard student Shabbos Kestenbaum said Congress is the “last hope” because “Harvard refuses to accept any responsibility or help Jewish students.”
“If anti-Semitism is a disease, then Harvard University is definitely the wet market of Wuhan,” he said.
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The Hillel Society building at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a sign declaring it a safe place. Harvard University students have called on members of Congress to “summon, summon, summon” over the school’s handling of anti-Semitism.
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Rutgers University student Joe Gindi said a program coordinator at a New Jersey state school once “screamed” at a Jewish student, “You, you colonialist, you Zionist.”
Instances of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have both increased following the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. Extremists invaded southern Israel and massacred more than 1,200 people during a music festival.
Israel responded with heavy artillery bombardment and a ground invasion of Gaza. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, says more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed so far.
