Ivy League President Set to Address Antisemitism in Columbia Before Congress
Columbia University President Nemat Shafik is scheduled to testify before Congress about antisemitism, following a controversial December testimony involving Ivy League presidents. The upcoming hearing titled “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Antisemitism” will address rising antisemitic incidents, campus safety concerns, and the need for accountability and reform in higher education institutions. This comes amid reports of increasing hostility toward Jewish students on campuses.
Columbia University President Nemat Shafik is set to testify before Congress about antisemitism on Wednesday in a sequel to the December testimony in which two Ivy League presidents sparked outrage in refusing to say that calls for genocide against Jewish students violate school policy.
Shafik will be grilled by the Committee on Education and the Workforce just four months after former Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth testified before Congress. The hearing is titled “Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Antisemitism.”
“Many of our leading academic institutions have been warped by ignorance and backwards ideologies,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), who serves on the committee holding the hearing, told the Washington Examiner. “They have led a 21st-century American resurgence of one of history’s most vile and retrograde prejudices.”
“This rise in anti-Semitism is horrifying, and Columbia has been the site of some of the most disturbing incidents. Our Committee is committed to bringing accountability to those who are responsible and reforming American higher education,” he said.
There have been a number of antisemitic incidents reported in campus communities following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, including several since the first testimony. This has led to a majority of Jewish students feeling “unsafe” on campus.
Columbia received a “D” grade on the Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card, which grades how universities respond to antisemitic incidents. Both Harvard and MIT received failing grades on the report released on Thursday.
“I hope Columbia returns to being a safe place for all students — including Jewish students,” Columbia graduate student Marc Nock told the New York Post as his peers joined him in calling on their school to do more to protect Jewish students against heightened hostilities.
Harley Lippman, who serves on boards at Columbia and Yale University, slammed Gay and Kornbluth’s testimonies in a December interview with the Washington Examiner, reacting to the first hearing. “They have a responsibility, and they have Jewish students who are frightened and don’t feel safe on campus, and they are completely ignoring the rights of this minority,” he said.
The widespread climate of antisemitism on college campuses around the country has prompted Jewish organizations to launch counterefforts. On Tuesday, the Academic Engagement Network announced the Faculty Against Antisemitism Movement and #KeepTheLightOn Campaign to empower faculty to stand up against antisemitism on their campuses.
“I became involved in this movement because I believe that universities can and should be places of respectful dialogue,” Southwestern University professor and FAAM member Michael Saenger told the Washington Examiner.
With faculty both in K-12 and in higher education pushing anti-Israel sentiment, college students are increasingly sharing these views, resulting in nearly half of college-age Americans stating they believe the Oct. 7 attack was justified.
“I am a Jew, so I am particularly concerned with antisemitism and how it affects me and my students, but I also want the university to be welcoming to all students. It should be a place of learning and listening, not aggression and ideological conformity,” Saenger said.
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The Wednesday hearing is slated to begin at 10:15 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, and Columbia Board of Trustees Co-Chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald will also be testifying.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Columbia University for comment.
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