Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), alongside Senator Bill Cassidy (R., La.), is leading 14 other colleagues in demanding the Department of Education ensure universities across the country protect Jewish and Israeli students in the face of discrimination.
“Antisemitism has no place on our college campuses, or anywhere,” Ernst told National Review. “Iran wants chaos, and protests are fueling that at home and abroad.”
The letter, which follows a deluge of antisemitic rhetoric within American institutions of higher education, contains requests that education secretary Miguel Cardona hold a briefing to discuss its Antisemitism Awareness Campaign, data relating to complaints filed with the Office for Civil Rights, and whether that office is undertaking any investigations or reviews based on recent harassment of Jews on college campuses.
That Antisemitism Awareness Campaign, announced during the spring of 2023, is meant in part to remind universities of their legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act “to provide all students, including students who are or are perceived to be Jewish, a school environment free from discrimination,” the signatories note.
As Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.), who signed Ernst and Cassidy’s letter and introduced legislation to defund educational institutions that allow antisemitism to flourish, explained to NR soon after Hamas attacked Israel, universities have been delinquent in demonstrating they have followed those guidelines, in part because the Biden administration has not adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
“I wish they would use that definition of antisemitism to stop this hatred on college campuses that I believe could easily lead to a spillover into violence,” Scott said.
The senators mention in the letter, which is similar in its demands to one Representative Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) released on October 12, a slew of examples of antisemitic incidents on college campuses:
At Drexel University, a Jewish student’s dorm room door was set on fire. At Georgia Tech, someone wrote “Free Palestine” in shaving cream below the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi’s posted Israeli flag. At Stanford University, a professor encouraged Jewish students to stand in a corner along in a purported “academic” exercise to show how Israel treats Palestinians. A professor and faculty advisor at the University of California Davis wrote a social media post appearing to call for Zionist journalists and their children to be murdered.
Ernst sponsored Scott’s legislation and took the lead on the letter to the Department of Education. She told NR that she hopes the message will lead to action on Cardona’s part.
“In the face of horrific acts of antisemitism towards students following the October 7th attacks on Israel, I’m demanding the Department of Education use its full authority to ensure Jewish and Israeli students are not subjected to discrimination,” Ernst said. “Anything less would be inhumane.”