Flag United States of America the stands na indivisible andice all thank the gentlemen we’ll now begin with opening statements chair recognize himself over six years ago we had a hearing about attempts to curtail free speech on college campuses is right next door in the oversight committee the hearing touched on emerging threats to
The First Amendment safe spaces cancel culture and the targeting of conservative activist student groups unfortunately this was not a fad in the hostility towards certain points of view in particularly conservative points of view has only grown worse and it’s no longer universities just censoring their students we now know that American
Universities were working with the federal government to systematically Target speech on the internet just this week the committee released uh committee Republicans released information showing Stanford University worked with the cyber security and infrastructure Security Agency or sisa and the state Department’s Global engagement Center to censor certain speech in the leadup to
The 2020 election big government big Academia and big Tech all colluding to limit Americans first amendment Free Speech rights they were targeting jokes political opinions most importantly they targeted true information but the spee that was censored all leaned a certain way what used to be the bastions of free
Speech and the marketplace of ideas evolved into institutions of activism and suppression with quote safe spaces and Free Speech zones aimed to protect students from violence one would think Jewish students would have somewhere to turn as violent pramas students take to their demonstrations and have harmed students on college campuses that’s not
The case as we will see in today’s hearing nearly a 400% increase in anti-Semitic incidents including harassment vandalism and assault in the two weeks after the Hamas attacks against Israel we need to be doing more to protect the freedom of expression we’re actually uh working with uh with
The ranking member nler on some legislation introduced by one of our colleagues trying to see if we can uh put some legislation forward that would help in this area I want to thank my colleagues including represent uh representative Virginia Fox chairwoman of the education Workforce committee for
Her important work on these issues want to thank representative Murphy who was a leader on this topic has introduced two bills to advance free speech on campus and co-chair of the uh campus Free Speech caucus Miss kamik for her work and passion for this issue I also want
To recognize Mr Kylie one of our members who introduced a bill just last week that denounce anti-Semitism on college campuses we look forward to hearing from all our Witnesses today and again I want to thank you for coming and now uh we’ll turn to the ranking member for his
Opening statement and then we’ll get right to our Witnesses actually actually M I forgot well I’ll I’ll wait till your’s done then I’ll play a short video we have a short 90c video I wanted to show it we’ll play it right now let’s play it
Right now 90c video if we can if you can cue that up we’ll play this about what’s going on on college campuses Free Speech debates have Royal college campuses with protest against conservative guest speakers the fight against conservative speakers on college campuses escalated administrators failed to stop some students from heckling a
Conservative speaker on campus former College swimmer Riley gang says she was assaulted after giving a speech at San Francisco State University I understand and share your objections to a speaker whose rhetoric is offensive and clearly intended to shock and provoke I don’t think they’re less able to listen to
Opposing views I just think they take less crap students have been making National headlines protesting controversial speakers on campuses across the country is Free Speech Dead on Campus um no we don’t want him to speak hopefully we can drown him out that’s conservative podcaster Michael being burned in effigy at the University
Of Pittsburgh their opinions from the bench land as absolute disenfranchisement of their rights the president of the University of Pennsylvania critics say she is not sending a strong enough message against anti-Semitism I don’t hear people talking about Israeli violence Hamas has shifted the balance of power Hamas has
Changed the terms of debate the Jewish fraternity was uh hit with a graffiti attack of the Jews are Nazis this is our University [Applause] U I want thank our our staff for putting that together and CH now recognizes the the ranking member of the gentleman from New York for an opening statement thank
You Mr chairman Mr chairman one month ago yesterday on October 7th Kamas launched a barbaric attack on the people of Israel Hamas killed more than 1400 people and kidnapped 250 more many of them very old many of them very young and some of them American citizens the attack represents the largest la of
Jewish life in a single day since the conclusion of the Holocaust here in the United States the Jewish Community has had little time to mourn the steady rise in anti-Semitism in this country over the past several years has now reached fever pitch and few places have had to
Bear the weight of that Trend more than our college and university campuses where according to an audit published by the Anti-Defamation League months before the October 7th attack anti-semitic activity had increased by 41% in the last year alone in many ways the conduct we need to discuss most urgently goes
Far beyond the title of this hearing free speech on campus Jewish students are being physically threatened and have legitimate cause to fear for their safety on campuses across the country for example at Cornell University law enforcement officials arrested a student for making violent threats against Jewish students on an internet Message
Board these messages included the exhortation that quote if you see a Jewish person on campus follow them home and slit their throats close quote in another post the student threatened to quote bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews close quote we are joined today by a student from
Cornell University Amanda Silverstein Miss Silverstein I would just like to say that I am sorry that you and the Jewish Community Cornell have had to endure these threats simply for being who you are and I am sorry for the fear they have caused you and your fellow
Students if is unacceptable and we must do better there is no excuse for that kind of violence at any school against any student and an academic discussion about the first amendment is mostly beside the point until we can secure these campuses I think that most members
Here in both sides of the aisle would agree which is not to say Mr chairman that I do not appreciate your calling this hearing Congress can help but first we have to put aside the political stunts and academic debates and put our money where its mouth where our mouth is
The office for civil rights at the Department of Education is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the laws that protect students from discrimination to be clear the office of civil rights had an enormous amount of work to do long before the attacks of October 7th the reaction to those
Attacks in the United States May threaten to overwhelm the agency that is why the Anti-Defamation League and their partner organization the brandise center which is represented here today have set up a help line to Aid Jewish students navigate the process for filing complaints alleging anti-Semitism during this troubling time I would like to
Commend both organizations for their important work and I encourage Jewish students across the country to make their voices heard Congress also as an obligation to help more than that we have an obligation to offer meaningful help if we want to get this situation under control we need to move past
Debating the various theoretical definitions of the word anti-Semitism we need to move past the meaningless resolutions on the house flooor declaring our feelings about bigotry generally we need to send assistance where it is urgently needed and we need to do so today earlier this year the Biden Administration outlined a
Comprehensive National strategy to counter anti-Semitism for that matter the Administration has also announced a national strategy to counter islamophobia these strategies are whole of government efforts to combat bigotry in every part of American life that the government can touch the president has put enforcement of our civil rights laws
At the center of these strategies long before we could have foreseen the wave of violent anti-Semitism that would sweep across the country President Biden requested a 27% increase in funding for the office of civil rights my Republican colleagues were serious about this issue they would fully fund that request
Instead they are fighting to slash the office I’m sorry they are fighting to slash the budget of the office of civil rights and other agencies that would keep our children safe their promises about anti-Semitism and their actions disconnect in other ways as well if my Republican colleagues were serious about
Anti-Semitism they would have spoken up after the 2017 unite the right rally in Charlottesville when neo-nazis chanted that quote Jews will not replace us my Republican colleagues were serious about anti-Semitism they would have spoken up when President Trump then declared that there were quote very fine people on
Both sides of that rally if they were serious about anti-Semitism they would have said something last year when former president Trump shared a meal with Nick Fuentes notorious white supremacist and Holocaust denier unless you imagine that I am dredging up ancient history let me remind you that if my Republican colleagues were serious
About anti-Semitism they would not have just months ago invited Robert F Kennedy Jr to testify in this hearing room after he made a poing claims that Jews appear to be immune from coid 19 a nod to the laughable if if not so Insidious conspiracy that the virus was somehow
Engineered to spare the Jewish Community my friends for too long your silence on these matters has been deafening I’m well for free speech on campuses and otherwise that includes the right of my Republican colleagues to say nothing at all about anti-Semitism when silence is politically convenient even when the
Former president of the United States takes aimed at us directly but if you mean what you say here today if you believe that the threat and vitri all that my community faces on college campuses is both unfair and unjust and I’m asking you to move beyond the pointless gestures and political
Posturing and help us protect our children fully fund the officer of civil rights the administration’s efforts to counter anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination help us get the boots on the ground we can do better and our students deserve no less I thank the witnesses and I yield back I think the
Gentleman the gentleman yields back um without objection all other opening statements will be included in the record we will now introduce today’s Witnesses our first witness is Mr Connor ogic uh Mr Orek is a recent graduate of the University of Buffalo while a student at Buffalo he served as the
Treasure Vice chair and chairman of the University’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter he faced threats and protests from fellow students over speakers that his organization invited to campus thank you for being with us Miss Jasmine Jordan Miss Jordan is a student at the University of Iowa she serves as the
Chairwoman of the University’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter she has received threats from her fellow students over events that her organization has uh invited to campus and their recent pro-israel vigil was vandalized and disrupted by protesters we apologize for that thank you for doing that Miss Amanda Silverstein as
The ranking member has already talked about Miss Silverstein is a student at Cornell University she serves on the student Board of the Reitman Shabad Center at Cornell the leadership of the alpha cap aside professional business fraternity and as the director of marketing and Communications for canel Cornell Bas startup thank you Miss
Silverstein for for being with us today Mr Kenneth Marcus Mr Marcus is the founder and chairman of the Lewis D Brandy Center for human rights under law he previously served as the assistant Secretary of Education for civil rights the staff director of the US Commission on civil rights and as Deputy assistant Secretary
Of Housing and Urban Development for fair housing and equal opportunity we appreciate your work Mr Marcus and thank you for being with us Professor Pamela nadell Professor nadell holds the Patrick Clinton chair in women’s and gender history and is the director of the Jewish studies program at American
University she has taught a variety of courses on Judaism and Jewish and women’s history and has published several related books we appreciate you being here Dr and Miss Stacy bdet Miss bdad is a public policy strategist and consultant she has previously served as the vice president for government relations advocacy and Community
Engagement at the Anti-Defamation League and as the Director of government and external relations at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum we welcome all our Witnesses and thank them for appearing today we Begin by swearing you in would you please rise and I’ll rise and raise your right hand do you swear or affirm under
Penalty or perjury a perjury that the testimony you’re about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and belief so help you God let the records show that the witnesses have answered in the affirmative uh thank you you may be seated uh please know that your written
Testimony will be entered into the record and it’s entirely accordingly we ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes I think we’ll just go like like we did we’ll start with uh Mr oek and then we’ll move right down the line so you you’re recognized for five minutes thank you chairman Jordan
Ranking member nler and members of the committee committee will be in order committee will be in order people trying to Sil students uh we appreciate people being here but uh the committee has to be in order if You we will we will remove every single person who disrupts the Committee existed what has happened on October 7 this has existed longer than that and The Siege Ona now and the Occupation you will not silence us we will not be silent fire Now gentleman is recognized thank you chairman Jordan ranking member nler and members of the committee my name is Conor Orrick and it is an honor to bring my experiences before you today although I hope speaking up against genocide become anti-Semitism how is that the same will be in order children and students
AR what is your right to all of us are not free what does it mean if they try again although I had hoped that my arrival to a hearing for Palestinian Students fre [Applause] Fre is Not Mr agrec we’ll we’ll keep trying thank you chairman Jordan ranking member Nadler and members of the committee Palestinians deserve to speak on the genocide of their families Palestinian students deserve to speak on the genocide of their families stop stop [Applause] [Applause] gentleman’s recognize it is an honor to bring my experiences students should not be censored you want to talk about putting money where your mouth is there are 10,000 over 10,000 Goins dead in more berried half of whom are under the age of 18 and you are going to send money
And talk about this where are the in this room nowhere you are not offering plurality of opinion you are offering partisanship and you are offering murder to more my name is Conor Orrick and it is an honor to bring my experiences before you today although I had hoped that my
Arrival to higher education would Mark the arrival to a Bastion of free speech many many of my firsthand experiences of freedom of speech violations at the University of Buffalo came during my membership of ub’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom two of the most prominent examples of
Freedom of speech bias that I witnessed at the University each came in the form of speaker events hosted by my chapter in Spring of 2022 as Vice chair of my chapter I had the opportunity to assist with hosting Lieutenant Colonel alen West at UB an event which was preceded
By delays in the signing of our contract and a forced venue change which was exposed by a freedom of information request however the most striking action taking against us followed Lieutenant Colonel West’s speech which had included a discussion of race in America and accounts from his decorated past when
The floor was opened to a question and answer session student protesters shouted from their seats before the audiovisual employees from Student Association the student government cut powers to the events microphones and speakers ending the session confrontations continued upon the exit from the event and once outside as you
Just saw in the video before the opening statements chapter members were chased by a 100 person mob across campus what that footage did not show was the former Chapter Chair being forced into a bathroom where she called 911 for Rescue and another board member being physically attacked with Silence
From the University and charges not pressed by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office I’ve since been left to consider the precedent this sets for those who plan to protest future events on campus though I may not be qualified to determine what constitutes adequate evidence in the eyes of the justice
System if those were who were involved in this mob were able to result to fear tactics and violence without consequence what is keeping a pattern of this despicable behavior from being set and executed repeatedly this thought remained on my mind throughout the planning of a March 2023 event that I
Hosted as chairman featuring Michael nolles this event would grow to gain more push back than any event on campus in the previous four years and provide the most clear-cut examples of freedom freedom of speech violations this push back included delays in contract signing from E Student Association that deviated
Far from their outlined standard course of action condemnation of the event by a local New York state senator and multiple Western new york-based organizations a circulated petition constructed by three University professors calling for the cancellation of the lecture lecture which gained thousands of student signatures a forced venue change orchestrated not only by
University Administration this time but voted on by a Sunni Council a multitude of threats in torn literature and even a tweet from Governor Kathy hok on the day of the event calling comments from Michael dehumanizing the decry of this event garnered a responding statement from University president Sati trapathy
Explaining that the Constitution protect speech on campus quote no matter how noxious the content end quote based on the actions taken by faculty and the rhetoric used by trapathy I cannot name more clear examples of evidence that demonstrate the case of a university concerned only with following the letter
Of the law rather than uplifting conservative values to a level equivalent with the values of the left which are often celebrated in the University’s own distinguished speaker series unfortunately this was forced to extend into a federal lawsuit with representation by Alliance defending Freedom once our yaf chapter was banned
From campus as the result of a new National affiliation ban by the student government though I graduated in the previous spring semester and no longer able to engage in discourse with opposing students I’m fortunate to still have friends on campus including current YF board members who can something that
Has particularly concerned me recently both on campus and off is the outward support for Hamas under the guise of support for Palestinian civilians I will not generalize in entire groups however an unsettling number of students who appeared both in a 300 person Pro Palestine march on
Campus as well as a protest against a pro-israel speaker did not solely speak out in support of Palestinian civilians rather these students stated their support for H Hamas directly I would like to be clear regardless of background I do not wish for civilian death support for Hamas is not support
For Palestinian civilians it is the opposite support for Hamas is support for a terrorist organization and this must not be misconstrued regardless of what side of the political aisle you isied on it should be common ground that no student deserves to be threatened mistreated or silenced on campus due to their personal
Beliefs conservative students currently face a Relentless uphill battle for representation on campus and though we may seek support from outside groups and legislators such as yourselves we will not accept the label of victims standing up for your beliefs will never be a waste of time and As Americans we hold
This in our hearts I thank you for your time thank you uh Miss Jordan you’re recognized good morning chairman Jordan ranking member Nadler and the members of the committee my name is Jasmine Jordan and I’m blessed to have the opportunity to speak with you all today I was raised in the
Church and homeschooled from preschool through fifth grade both of these were crucial in shaping my early upbringing and my worldview they gave me the strong Foundation of moral beliefs and values that the constitution was founded on lessons like iron trens iron be a leader not a follower and so help me God are
Ingrained into every aspect of my character as I progressed to the public school environment this strong moral compass guided me throughout my journey and I carried it with me to college in Spring 2022 I joined Iowa Young Americans for Freedom when I discovered that this organization aligned with the Christian conservative values instilled
In in me by my church and family the more involved I became in the club the more I discovered that the playing field for freedom of speech on college campuses was not equalized the first time I noticed this was when Iowa yaf hosted kellyan Conway as a speaker in
Response I was doxed in a group chat of over 800 students and was falsely labeled as a Nazi a token a white supremacist and a bigot some individuals even expressed that I made them uncomfortable and feared that I might commit a hate crime against them simply because I black and hold conservative
Principles these students believe that if you are conservative you are hateful support oppression and only want to benefit straight white men even though such beliefs are untrue when we hosted Lieutenant Colonel alen West speak on campus last year he spoke on the topic of debunking diversity Equity inclusion
And prove that America is not racist we use chalk advertisements to promote the lecture which is something many colleges do to effectively let students know about upcoming events immediately our chalk was altered which is a violation of school policy new messages were put in place saying that Alan West is racist
And that racism is prevalent in schools thus critical race Theory should be supported at Allen West lecture a protester stood in the back holding a sign that read stop the altright punch your local knock today this is blatant irony conservatives are slandered by students and faculty as harmful yet
Here’s an obvious example of someone openly delivering a violent threat and facing no repercussions the entitlement continues I find that when a conservative doesn’t want to hear a speaker they just don’t attend the event but when a leftist doesn’t want to hear a speaker they do everything they can to
Shut the lecture down our club recently hosted Matt Walsh students and faculty were willing to do anything to cancel the event just because they found Walsh’s speech to be be offensive some people were so dedicated to silencing our voices that literally as one of us was advertising with chalk a leftist
Student was erasing each of those letters with a wipe we received death threats along with plenty of verbal harassment that night before the speaking of it my hemate who happened to be the one raising the chalk stalked outside of my bedroom door by putting
His ear on it to see if I was in my room because he was just so outraged by my involvement that was a terrifying experience but what I find to be more appalling is when I talked to our our Hall coordinator about this and she replied people are allowed to think feel
And react however they want to about this upcoming event at the event someone threw two thou 20,000 marbles on the floor to prevent people from entering the venue attendees were spat on outside a popular pet band well known to our school played loud music to try and
Drown out the speaker message I share these occurrences with you all to show that despite repeatedly meeting with the University Administration the rules are continually permitted to be broken by left leaning students they are in fact coddled by our school the university expresses affirmations and puts together support solidarity and celebration
Spaces these individuals act out against conservatives without care or consequence and are empowered to act this way because of the lack of action by the administration and University leaders conservative organizations do not get the same resources that these other organizations receive concertiv often have to hide who they are and what
They believe in so that they do not lose relationships or receive a lower grade or face constant doxing harassment intimidation or threats I went to college with the expectation that I would hear different points of view because I thought it would’ be a place where young people could come together
Disagree and still be friendly and courteous to one another however after two years I’ve realized that this is not the case at all and that students who hold opposing views are often subjected to frequent violent threats and other forms of harassment with no accountability our founding fathers
Guaranteed every US citizen the right to free speech in the Constitution it is an important resource for all Americans not just a small percentage of them particularly if they hold different views and ideas than those of others to ensure that peaceful continuation of the nation we must all come together and
Understand that differing opinions and expressing them we should nevertheless show respect for one another and R from causing each other bodily mental or emotional harm thank you for your time thank you Miss Jordan Miss Silverstein you’re recognized I was alone in a world gone mad these are the words my grandfather
Wrote on the day in October 1942 after his father had been shot dead and the Jews in his small polish Town including his entire family were deported to a death camp he was a teenager alone in a labor camp with a bleak future filled with unimaginable suffering I have
Thought about my grandfather’s words often in the 32 days since October 7th if I have watched what I can only describe as a world gone mad I have seen and heard things on on and around Cornell’s campus that just over a month ago I could not have imagined Cornell professor Russell rickford publicly
Justified and celebrated barbaric acts of Terror as exhilarating and energizing describing the torture rape and murder of innocent women and children as resistance I see classmates perpetuating anti age-old anti-semitic tropes on social media I walk across a campus to face with anti-israel signage and graffiti seeing phrases such as F Israel
And Zionism equals genocide anti-zionism and anti-Semitism are inextricably linked this is evidenced by the Jew hatred that consistently and openly accompanies attacks on Zionism on campus I am now confronted daily with shouts to free Palestine from the river to the Sea this catchy chant is not about peace or sovereignty for
The Palestinian people it is a call for a Palestinian State extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea a territory that encompasses the entire state of Israel it is a jew-hating genocidal mandate seeking to deny the Jewish right to self-determination in Israel it is a call to exterminate all
Jews in accordance with hamas’s open and unequivocal goal this chant is not about Palestinian life it is about Jewish death imagine that you frequent Jewish events on campus imagine that you live in a Jewish sorority house then imagine scrolling on your phone one day only to discover that a fellow student wants to
Shoot up the coacher dining hall and and I quote gang rape all Jew Pig women on campus that is what my peers and I experienced last week when reading the multiple online threats made by a fellow student instructing other Cornell students to assault Jews on campus to
Follow follow them home and slit their throats this was not just hate speech it was a call to action and an immediate threat the sentiment did not begin without student professors and student organizations have been fueling Jew hatred and spreading it across campus with disregard or potentially even with deliberate intent to
Incite Palestine anti-is is not an committee will be in warit will be in order apologize miss silberstein you can continue and even after that student’s arrest professors have continued to teach blatant anti-israel lessons in their classrooms students in the course race racism and public policy reported that Professor Lindsay played a video in
Class claiming that Israel is committing a parthe in which students felt was an attempt to place blame for the terror attack on Israel students in the writing seminar true stories taught by Professor globman reported that the professor suggested that pal Palestine is a textbook case of genocide and sought to
Pressure students who had previously expressed sympathy for Israel to change their views these not so subtle examples of bullying and attempts at indoctrination have a tangible impact on the pervasive Jew hatred spreading throughout my campus my grandmother along with many of my family members and close friends live
In Israel why are they calling me every day to check in and see how I’m doing do I feel safe on campus is there enough security do other students know that I am Jewish they live in an active war zone with rockets constantly being fired at
Them and yet my safety on an American college campus is keeping them up at night growing up with a firsthand account of what my grandfather endured during the Holocaust I could never comprehend how neighbors and Friends stood by as Jews were rounded up to be killed and how governments around the
World World turned a blind eye until now witnessing such unbridled and Unapologetic anti-Semitism unfold on my college campus is a testament to the impacts of Permitting Jew hatred to fester and infect the mob mentality of impressionable students it is shocking that college campuses have devolved into Echo Chambers fostering animosity
Aggression and bigotry a shift that is painfully reminisent of the vitriol and Terror that my grandfather endured in the 1930s anti-Semitism can no longer be hidden under the guise of anti-zionism disseminating lies about Israel is an effort to validate violence against Jews I’m grateful for the supportive words of
From the Cornell Administration but actions speak louder than words we require tangible measures including strict adherence to policies that forbid threatening or intimidating behaviors towards any student and ensures that purveyors of violence are removed from campus no student should ever live in fear for their safety regardless of
Background or religion what is happening on Cornell’s campus and across universities in this country is not about protecting expressions of free speech or free exchange of ideas it is about enabling and even promoting intimidation and the threat of harm to Jewish students and supporters of Israel it is imperative that decisive action is
Taken to ensure the collective safety of students thank you for your time today thank you Miss Silverstein and thank you for your courage um Mr Marcus you’re recognized for five minutes uh chairman Jordan ranking member Nadler distinguished members make sure you got the mic make sure your mic’s on
There chairman Jordan go ranking member Nadler distinguished members Friends brave students thank you for conducting this important hearing today I am chairman of the Lou D Brandi Center for human rights under law and former head of the US Department of education’s office for civil rights at the Lou D
Brandy Center we fight anti-Semitism on college campuses and I appreciate the kind words from both the chairman and ranking member about the work that we’re doing more work than ever before I would have said If This Were October 6th that we have never seen more anti-Semitism on
College campuses than we were seeing on October 6th our staff was stretched we were getting more complaints on a daily basis than ever before and by far we look back with Nostalgia at those days because in a week since October 7 we’re hearing from more students than we would
In a month or more before October 6th incidents have gone through the roof let’s think about that we’re talking about a situation in which there was mass murder of civilians organized rape torture and desecration of corpses and the immediate reaction on many many college campuses was for student
Organizations to go out and celebrate the murders the rapes the the torture for so many students that we work with and you may get a sense of this from the brave words that you’ve heard today from these students what they’re facing is an extraordinary shock and the difficulty
Of realizing that the masks are down and the students who they thought were their friends are celebrating murders of people just like them this is partly about will be in order this is an issue of speech and it’s also an issue of civil rights again and again we are seeing Jewish college students
Who are being prevented from expressing not only their viewpoints but an integral part of their identity for many Jewish Americans not all but for many Jewish Americans Zionism a Comm commitment to the Jewish state of Israel is an important part of their identity and so when they are excluded as
Zionists they feel this as exclusion as Jews a rule against Zionist is a rule against Jews even before October 7 we were finding that large numbers of college students including strongly self-identified Jewish college students such as people who were living in Jewish fraternities and sororities were unwilling on a consist basis to express
Their Jewish identity majorities were saying that they sometimes felt it necessary to conceal their Jewish identity including in particular their support for the state of Israel in many cases we saw this not just as toxic hostile environments but as specific actions to exclude Jewish students who
Have that as a part of their identity for instance at tuft and the University of Southern California clients of the Brandy Center were members of student government facing organized efforts to exclude them to throw them out of student government because as Jews they support the state of Israel
Similarly this is difficult but I have to say at Sunni news we had two clients who were thrown out of a sexual assault survivors group because Zionism was an important part of their identity at the University of Vermont similar issues as well as a book club in which which one
Could not participate if one was a Zionist here we found Viewpoint discrimination but not just Viewpoint discrimination that is to say people were shunned marginalized and excluded not just because of their political views but because who they are and what their identity is as Jews at my own alma
Mater the University of California at Berkeley School of Law many student organizations including law reviews have adopted rules including bylaws and changes to their constitutions that prevent anyone from speaking to their groups who is a Zionist or a supporter of the state of Israel and let me be
Clear they were prevented from speaking and are to this day prevented from speaking on any topic this was not just a statement that if your Viewpoint disagrees with us we don’t want to hear you this was if you are a Zionist we don’t want to hear you on any topic if
You are a feminist legal scholar we don’t want to hear you on feminist legal issues if you are a supporter of Israel which is to say most Jewish Americans would not be able to speak to these groups because of their identity as Jews since October 7th this has skyrocketed
We are hearing continually of Jewish students being assaulted Jewish property being vandalized Jewish students being harassed in any number of different ways not just on a few college campuses that one might describe as hotspots but at so many colleges and universities that one cannot identify any place that are safe
A few quick suggestions if I may first the Department of Education should have the same tools to protect students free speech that it has to protect the very important issues of anti-discrimination second a coordinator within the department to protect Free Speech third the Department of Education has committed to issue a regulation
Implementing the executive order on combating anti-Semitism and has set a deadline of next month be nice to ask them if they’re going to do it and finally the anti-Semitism awareness act would provide uh for the Department of Education a atifi definition of anti-semitism similar to what’s used
Around the world and has been embraced by this Administration I would suggest that action needs to be taken and I commend you for this opportunity uh thank you Mr Marcus uh Dr nadell you’re you’re recognized for thank you hit the hit that hit that pull it
Close is the light on oh there let’s try that sorry thanks thank you chairman Jordan ranking member Nadler and the distinguished members of this committee for inviting me to testify today committee will be in order I am Pamela Adell a professor of history at American University and I am
Writing a book called anti-Semitism and American tradition under contract with ww Norton and um I am a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanity’s public Scholars award to write this book and I am delighted to be able to thank the Congress for supporting the National Endowment for the Humanities for
Supporting work that teaches us about the history of our nation and for this prestigious award anti-semitic behavior that we’re seeing right now on college campuses as we have heard so brilliantly from the students and also from Mr Marcus this anti-Semitism is part of anti-Semitism that is Raging across the
United States the last time that I testified before this Committee in 2017 was um in November of 2017 just after three months after the white nationalists at the rally the unite the right rally in Charlottesville Virginia marched across the University of Virginia campus brandishing tiki torches and they were deliberately
Imitating the Nazi Stormtrooper parades of the 1930s during that hearing I was opposed to Congress legislating any definition about anti-Semitism and I remain opposed now because the definition keeps changing it keeps morphing and changing over time what I can do is I can give you some of the themes that are in ins
Sconed in um the word an anti-Semitism anti-semites blame Jews for the death of Jesus and believe that they that the Jewish people across eternity should be punished for that crime anti-semites believe that Jews have been corrupted by money since Judas sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver and what they’ve done
Since then is they have used different code names over time Rothchild and now George Soros to signify avaricious Jews anti-semites believe that Jew’s primary loyalty is to their people around the world and not to the Nations that they live in that conspiracy theory gained Traction in the United States when Henry Ford published
In the Dearborn independent over 91 weeks a series called the international Jew the world’s foremost problem today that charge that Jews are internationalist goes under a different code word globalist across American history the people from all walks of life have conveyed these anti-semitic ideas new Amsterdam’s Governor Peter
Stenson tried to expel quote this deceitful race such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ close quote the future President John Quincy Adams wrote quote the Jews would steal your eyes out of your head if they possibly could close quote Congressman Albert Johnson a chief architect of the
1924 law establishing immigration quotas told a Jewish reporter quote if the Jewish people combined to defeat the immigration bill as reported by the committee their children will regret it close quote that was the past what about today we are just five months out from the massacre at the Tree of Life
Synagogue and I could give you so many other examples as for the campus anti-zionism meaning opposition to Israel’s policies absolutely crosses the line into anti-Semitism when it leads to discrimination violence harassment intimidation and bullying as we have heard from the students today the barbarity of the Hamas Invasion the
Torture the rapes the murders and The Taking of more than 200 hostages adds a terrible new chapter to Jewish history anyone who CLA claims to care about human rights should denounce these Horrors that so many students on college campuses not only did not but that they claimed that the savagery was justified
Um has caused not just students on campus it has caused Jews around the world deep anguish what happened on October 7th was not anti-zionism it was anti-Semitism I deplore hate speech but in the United States in America hate speech including anti-Semitic speech remains protected speech for that speech
Stands at the core of liberal arts education an education which I believe every single member of this committee benefited from when you were students at some of the nation’s Elite colleges and universities and the fine public colleges and universities that our country has the value of free speech does not permit discrimination bias
Threats or violence in any form including on the campus when these occur our institutions of higher education have mechanisms for dealing with them in May 2023 the White House published the US national strategy to counter anti-Semitism the first time I believe that any nation in the world has
Published such a strategy it talks about how to use title 6 to deal with problems of anti-Semitism on campus I am a proud American and I am a proud Jew I never used to be afraid afraid to identify as a Jew in this world since 2017 since that March in Charlottesville
I am afraid we can work together in this country to resolve this problem but it’s not just a problem on campus thank you chairman thank you do Miss Bret you’re recognized for five minutes thank you chairman Jordan for inviting me and for having these students uh able to bring their voices
Here we have too many conversations about them without them and chairman Nadler thank you for always being a voice of conscience in this country against anti-Semitism and for the civil rights of all Americans and listening to these students if I had a Sharpie I’d want to change my name tag
Just to say mom because I too have a son processing these events on a college campus a campus is the most diverse Place most people will ever encounter for the rest of their lives graduates will sort themselves in into the right neighborhoods the right book clubs the right school districts or houses of
Worship filled with people who agree with them but in college they live in the reality that a free Society isn’t only about what you get to say it’s what you have to hear and managing that experience for young adults is a very hard work is a very hard job for
Universities but students who can navigate the discomfort of conflicting ideas and we we’ve heard some here today they will be leaders who can engage in the kind of give and take that we need to solve the world’s biggest problems and we’re living in what it looks like
To not be able to have give and take to solve problems now just because speech is legal doesn’t mean it can’t be harmful and University presidents and Deans have made crystal clear that antisemitism goes against their values protecting expression also means making clear when it crosses a line into threats or
Harassment support for Palestinian rights solidarity with Palestinian suffering is not anti-Semitism it is not anti-Semitism to advocate for curing cancer either but when your advocacy turns into threats of violence eliminationist speech hostility that ju goes from online threats it and translates into hate incidents against people because of
Their identity well then we need to see and we have seen schools enforcing their rules protest permits suspending perpetrators schools have been working with law enforcement to have people arrested and to open investigations but that’s not enough the anti-Semitism task forces that have announced been announced in some schools can go deeper
They can make transformative chains change across systems they can touch every aspect of student life and what they learn the national strategy to counter anti-Semitism did that kind of stocktaking they spoke to a thousand community members and experts and it commits our government to Serious action with time-bound deadlines and federal
Agencies have already been fulfilling those commitments including some uh ad mentioned by my longtime colleague Mr Marcus in addition to the Department of Education eight other federal agencies have affirmed in writing for the first time that title six bans anti-semitic discrimination in all federally funded programs so if you ride on a transit
System that gets Department of Transportation money you are covered these changes and commitments are important and dramatic and meaningful and even the little actions matter making a new Complaint Form so that it says on the form and makes clear that if you’re a Jew victim of harassment you are covered making information available
In Hebrew and Yiddish for orthodox Jews who walk to and from synagogue and face attacks they need to know their rights and they need to know what recourse is available to them and this strategy this is those are just a few examples of why the action recommendations in this
Strategy are a real road map to stem the normalization of anti-Semitism it’s got bipartisan by Camal support and so many organizations rallied around and celebrated this strategy strategy because it’s such a serious plan so first Congress should implement it if they’re serious and second by the time of student files a
Complaint to the Department of Education we failed them their peer networks have failed failed them their school has failed them and now they will be making a complaint the number is what Mr Marcus called through the roof they will send those complaints to a civil rights staff that is already processing a record
Record number of complaints with less capacity so Congress should fund the office of civil rights put investigators in the chairs for the complaints that we know are going to be coming we are sad but we don’t want those students and families to wait and finally it seems like the only thing communities and
Congress can agree on is to fund security and that’s critical but we can’t legislate regulate tabulate or barricade anti-Semitism out of our society Jews are saying loudly and clearly they feel alienated they feel alone they feel disappointed in their allies they want support prevention and awareness building and community
Building aren’t some kind of extra the Jewish Community Values those opportunities you should see how many groups are working with the US Department of Agriculture that never did before we want these programs we want to engage in prevention and the Department of Justice civil rights uh community relations
Service and those programs that we sometimes think of as an afterthought they are essential to prevent these incidents before they escalate Jews are a small minority in this country and we are targeted so disproportionately by hate violence that was true before October 7th it was true 10 years
Ago we don’t have the luxury right now to be partisans of anything but our safety and right now the national strategy is the best blueprint for Action I have seen in 30 years of writing blueprints for Action the clock is ticking for us and for Jewish students so the question
Isn’t whether but how quickly is Congress going to fund and implement it thank you very much thank you Miss bdet we will now proceed under the F minute rule with questions the chair recognizes the gentleman from California Mr Isa for five minutes thank you Mr chairman the testimony today obviously is concerning
I want to touch on a few points and then ask a couple of short questions I wish I had more time uh I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood I grew up at a time in which there was uh there were Wars between Arabs and Jews in the in the
Region those Wars have ended when this War Began I was in Bahrain a country that has signed diplomatic relations with Israel they didn’t do it because the Palestinians were being treated well were ill treated they did it because in fact Israel is a partner they wanted to have against
Iran I’m going to say here today and the protesters who have all been escorted out probably don’t understand but they are playing into the hands of Iran they are playing into the hands of the last major Nation to be not just anti-semitic but wanting to destroy the state of
Israel and doing it in no small part by funding activities around places including college campuses so I’m going to agree personally with Miss uh bdet yes we need to fully fund but we need to fully fund investigations into the funding that goes to anti-Semitism into a pattern that we see here
Today I want to say to all of you who uh both Young Americans for freedom and non yaap members thank you for standing up to be conservatives on C campus and taking it um but particularly uh to miss cyber and I have a question for you you know the history of the
Holocaust you know that before uh that terrible uh time and and the mass murders in fact Jews had duck their heads they had been forced to reduce or deny who they were do you see that as a young Jew do you see that as a pattern that today we
Are at risk if we don’t use the full power of civil rights to protect the right of people to have their religion be proud of it and be proud of all that goes with it thank you for your question uh the Jewish the history of the Jewish people
Is one of constant oppression and fear for our lives and for being persecuted for who we are and as I’ve mentioned my grandfather experienced this throughout his life and and most prominently in his childhood during the Holocaust and his suffering in outtz but we are seeing it very prevalent especially on college
Campuses today and I never thought twice about putting on my Jewish star every day about opening my computer with my Hebrew keyboard in class but today I do think twice about that and the thought of being persecuted for who I am being looked at differently and being discriminated against crosses my mind
Multiple times a day and I do see I do see a positive path forward for us I think that Jews are we are resilient we are perseverant and we will not stop shouting out and and voicing our concerns and voicing our fear until it is dealt with and I really do appreciate
You all considering this today Mr Marcus are you concerned that this uh movement is not just Pro Palestinian or just anti-Semitic but in fact massive amounts of of dollars and support not just here but globally is in fact being spent coming from the very country who paid
For the 5,000 now 10,000 plus rockets that have fallen on Israel that paid for those weapons and that continues to be virtually the sole funer of attempts to destabilize Israel and in fact led to the murder of more than 2,000 Israelis thank you Congressman Isa for
Your question and it is well put uh yes indeed what we’re seeing today especially post October 7 is not just harassment of Jewish students although we’re seeing that and it certainly isn’t just support of Palestine which in and of itself is simply a political view what we’re seeing is a lethal hatred
Which may be supported by funds from other countries and to that extent I believe we need to know first our colleges making the disclosures that are required by law and if not are there appropriate sanctions being brought on them second we need to know if funds are being brought in from
Abroad what is the impact not just on these groups but on University curricula personnel and other decisionmaking well and you have our pledge and my pledge particularly to the two pronged approach combat anti-Semitism using the power of this committee and particularly civil rights and look into and root out the
Continued foreign influence that may affect not just here but around the world anti-Semitism and anti-israel chairman thank you for your Indulgence I yield back gentleman yields back the chair now recognizes the ranking member from New York Mr n thank you Mr chairman M bdet do you agree that if Congressional Republicans really care
About enforcing title 6 they would support fully funding rather than trying to cut funding for the office of civil rights at the Department of Education to ensure that the officer’s adequate Staffing and anticipation of a surge en title six complaints I would say that anyone who cares about civil rights and enforcement
Uh against anti-semitic actions should fund that office and Miss bdet was the office for civil rights already inundated with complaints of anti-Semitism and islamophobia before October 7th they had their record year of complaint in 2016 I’m sorry to say and that was that record was broken in
2022 um at almost 19,000 complaints they have worked through them um but they are working with uh I think 12% less staff so it just doesn’t make any sense at all and what happened after October 7th after October 7th we already know from NOS like the one cited uh where my my my
Professional Alma moer ADL talking about 400 hundreds of percent increase but if you uh ask Mr Nadler the NYPD they even reports coming to them in just three weeks have been skyrocketing and when you compare it to an average month of October um there there are three times as many incidents and I’m
Sure police departments in a lot of congressional districts would say the same and what do you think will happen going forward we know that every time Israel is in the headlines unfortunately attacks against Jews go up so inappropriate there’s there’s no war there’s no conflict there’s no Injustice
That entitles someone to punch their neighbor in the face to spit at them and all the things we’ve heard here from these students I think that this war won’t be a Six-Day War this conflict the tension on campus is going to take a very long time to work through it’s
Really a work in progress and I think we’re going to be dealing with these incidents for a long time that’s why I mentioned the community relations service I don’t know if we think about it every day but those civil rights tools and instruments and Outreach programs that we have they’re going to work
First the universities and those programs have the ability to help Miss Silverstein right now without a law and without a markup thank you professor nadell and Miss Beret in your testimony you noted the White House’s National strategy to counter anti-Semitism for the record I would also note that the
White House is also pursuing an analogous National strategy to counter islamophobia to the extent you are able can you explain the national strategy to counter anti-Semitism and highlight why you think it’s valuable and effective thank you um thank you for your question I was one of the 10,000
People that the White House talked to as they were developing the national strategy to counter anti-Semitism this is an extraordinary document it runs to I don’t know 60 70 pages and it is filled with recommendations about what can be done to respond to anti-Semitism in different venues and in different agencies in the
United States government as I said in my opening remarks I know of no country that has ever developed such a strategy and believe me as we know from the testimony of Miss Silverstein we know that other countries could have developed this if they had the Good Will
To do so so for example it talks about as um Miss berett was talking about it talks about the what should be done in the office of civil rights in the Department of Education since the Obama Administration title 6 has protected Jewish students under title six by um
Understanding that they need to be protected based on Ancestry and based on ethnicity because title 6 doesn’t specify based on religion and it to understand Jewish identity it’s a very complicated phenomenon so there are these kinds of measures there but what I’m hearing from Miss berett and I’m not
An expert on funding in the government is that it’s not been sufficiently funded and what is very clear both from Miss Brett’s testimony and from Mr Marcus testimony is that it’s going to need more support than ever before thank you thank you let me just
Say to uh Miss Jordan and Mr O gritc I hope I haven’t mispronounced your name uh as a very proud uh leftwing liberal um I hold no truck with trying to silence conservative voices or any other voices um and on college campuses or anywhere else freedom of speech which
Is a fundamental value and I I would just say that this is not new when I was a undergraduate of Columbia I was shouted down by the an organization called the students for Democratic Society because I was not leftwing enough in their opinion uh this is something that is an ongoing fight and
Uh um in a liberal Society we must conducted and I and I I’m sorry for your experience oh and uh I ask unanimous consent to include the following items in the record written testimony of Jonathan green black CEO and National director of the anti defamation League a letter dated November 6th 2023 from
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to speaker Mike Johnson outlining the department of education’s efforts to combat anti-Semitism and islamophobia on college campuses and oped piece in the New York Times dated October 30th 2023 co-authored by The deans of the Princeton School of Public and international Affairs and the Columbia
School of International and public affairs and an article from inside higher education titled House Republicans plan to cut education Department’s budget noting that Republican appropriators want to cut about 25% from the Department’s office for civil rights that was a long title without objection so ordered we now recognize
Thank you Mr chairman the gentleman from Colorado for his five minutes thank you Mr chairman uh Mr Marcus I want to visit with you for a few minutes I guess about uh an issue I I feel like we’re talking about college campuses right now and we really should be talking at a much
Younger age and how to deal with this problem by the time students get to college campuses they have certain views and and oftentimes ingrained that are then reinforced by other students would you advocate for some type of uh you know education or other um uh awareness for uh younger adults in our K
Through 12 system isn’t our K through 12 system really uh um letting down the the concept that we have in America for Free Speech but also for responsible free speech for for speech that doesn’t include hate Congressman I would like to be able to tell you that you don’t need to worry
That this is just a campus problem but the fact is that it is not um K12 is important not only because of the attitudes that students develop and bring to college but also because there are increasing issues that we see currently in public elementary and secondary school including any number of
Different forms of discrimination we see that especially in certain schools especially on the west coast that have a particular form of uh ethnic studies which unfortunately has involved some degree of anti-Semitic stereotypes and defamations there are things that Educators can do to address this certainly there are more school districts that are incorporating
Holocaust education into their programming but what studies are showing is that Holocaust Education isn’t necessarily sufficient and that it’s better to have also education into the ways in which an anti-Semitism manifests itself today so that sort of um programming is important but more than that I do think we need to have more
Attention than we have been about the increasing problem of anti-Semitism also in K12 uh schools you mentioned funding from uh other countries do do you have any direct evidence of funding from other countries because I I honestly believe that it goes on in a lot of different areas one of the great things
About America is we open and one of the great vulnerabilities we have is that we’re open and social media is being used to manipulate us in a lot of different ways do you have any evidence that uh Iran or any other foreign country is using our social media in
This country to uh promote anti-Semitism during the Trump Administration the Department of Education revealed various kinds of evidence that that there were not just significant contributions coming from the Gulf States uh and elsewhere in the world but also contributions that were not disclosed as required by law and
These are to college Camp to college colleges and universities and I believe there was also a um a a effort by the Chinese Communist party to establish uh groups on uh campuses the confucious center I think they were often called that’s right but if I may Congressman
The problem is also going the other way around which is to say the increasing perception that there may be support from college campuses for terrorism abroad not just money coming one way but support coming the other you’re not suggesting that colleges are supporting terrorism abroad but but students or or
Professors on college campuses are are are supporting terrorism there are student groups who have indicated that they are not just in favor of the same issues as Kamas but that they are part of that movement and there is is a point at which under Federal terrorism law that promoting the program and agenda
And ideas of a US state department designated terrorist organization May constitute material support for terrorism so where do we draw the line between speech and where it crosses the line um the Supreme Court has made clear that that anything that encourages violence and I’m not using the the
Technical words but uh crosses the line but is anti-Semitic speech by itself uh violative of of the uh first amendment in the case of support for terrorism of course under the absolutely absolutely but I’m just suggesting someone um we we have hateful speech all around um and
It’s offensive and and frankly I want to be the first and and as all my colleagues on this committee are to condemn anti-Semitism and islamophobia and uh racism and anti-christian speech um it’s terrible it’s hateful it shouldn’t be in this uh you know Marketplace of ideas that we have but is
It without threats and of violence is that speech uh violative of the of the First Amendment so what I would say to you congressmen is that the Supreme Court has properly been protective of a wide range of speech including much speech that we would describe as hate
Speech however what we are seeing over and over again on college campuses is that where you see intense anti-jewish hate speech you will almost always also find hateful conduct hateful conduct not just words it can be assault it could be exclusion it’s happening over and over again so in order to address the
Anti-Semitism I think that there is efficient conduct we need to go after in terms of speech I think there should be the same protections regarding speech in this area as in any others I yield back thank you I think the gentleman we now recognize the gentleman from Georgia Mr
Johnson thank you uh Mr chairman um the chairman when he showed his video this morning uh we witnessed in that video Someone asking the question is Free Speech Dead on Campus I think that question uh applies to Congress it’s ironic that we’re holding this hearing today about
Censorship and uh speech on campus uh but last night uh magga Republicans and others censured the only Palestinian voice in the House of Representatives because they didn’t like what she had to say she didn’t threaten anybody she did not uh advocate for violence uh she stated a view uh as happens on college
Campuses it happens across the country we have freedom of speech in this country but she was censured last night tonight for exercising Her First Amendment right to freedom of speech and uh we’re not setting a very good example uh here in Congress we are all reeling from the situation in the Middle East
Passions are running High throughout the country but they are especially intense on college campuses every student including students of Jewish Israeli Muslim or Arab backgrounds deserves a safe College learning environment free from threats of violence and discrimination it should go without saying that threatening violence against people because of who they are is
Illegal and never acceptable the department of education’s office of civil rights is primarily responsible for combating anti-Semitism islamophobia and other forms of discrimination in higher education the office of civil rights has already seen a dramatic rise in titled six discrimination claims in the wake of the October 7th attack by Hamas but the
Office of civil rights needs sufficient funding to carry out its civil rights enforcement Mission President Biden’s budget requested a 27% increase in funding for the Doe’s office of civil rights but Maga Republicans are pushing to slash its budget magga Republicans need to stop playing political games with Jewish lives with
Muslim lives and all students lives by giving the Department of Education the money that it needs to keep students safe uh Professor nadell what lessons can we draw from the long history of anti-Semitism and what do you think criticism of the government of Israel or
Let me ask it this way do you think that criticism of the government of Israel is always anti-semitic or does it depend on context and how such criticism is expressed thank you for your question as a historian I think everything depends on context um I think we always need to
Think more broadly it’s very clear the criticism of the government of Israel is not ifof facto anti-semitic if it were hundreds of thousands of Israelis who he had watched in the past months turning out to throng the streets of Tel Aviv and of every city and hamlet in um
Israel would have been seen as anti-semitic so criticism of the government’s policies is not by itself anti-semitic however what is anti-Semitic is absolutely is to deny the Jews the right of self-determination a right that is internationally protected and to um call for the destruction of the state of Israel so
There’s no question about about that what we know from the long history of anti-Semitism is we know that Jews live with memories of hate against their people that go back to ancient times and that they live with the fear or with the sense that they may encounter it in
Their lifetimes and that they are afraid that it will continue forever we know that anti-Semitism in those three little examples I gave you that anti-Semitism has coursed across American history it has risen in some time periods and it has been more under the radar in others historians used to call the years
Between 1933 in 1945 the high tide of American anti-Semitism I have been saying not just since October 7th I have been saying for far longer that we are living in the high tide of a man of American anti-Semitism but I won’t be around to write about that but we are
What we hear from the students but also what we hear from those who are afraid to walk into their synagogues who are concerned about the future of the of their of their children of their grandchildren my my niece did not send her daughter one second my niece did not
Send her daughter to a Jewish preschool on the day of global Jihad because she was afraid it would be a act we need to deal with that in the United States thank you and it wasn’t made easier when uh ex-president Trump made his remarks about there’s good people on both sides
When he’s talking about down in Charlottesville but thank you and I yeld back the gentlemen he back we now recognize the gentleman from Florida Mr Gates I want Israel to win and Hamas to lose but this is not an armed services Committee hearing about the military it’s a Judiciary hearing about speech
And in that vein I am reminded of the great words of the philosopher Austin Powers who said there’s only two things I can’t stand people who are intolerant of other people and the Dutch and a similar tension seems to be on display today because on one side of the witness
Table we have people saying we have we have speech that we would like to have Vindicated and we’re under this tremendous pressure from these entities that offer a heckler’s veto of what we’re trying to get out and then on the other side of the table you have people
Saying well there’s speech we really don’t like that’s anti-semitic and problematic and we got to figure out ways to root it out there is an inherent tension in having that discussion on those terms and increasingly it feels as though if we like speech then any effort to constrain that speech is really
Problematic and the committee needs to explore it and if we don’t like speech we’re increasingly censuring it on the house floor were increasingly uh confronting it on on pretty negative terms so like I guess I want to just go through some of the statements some of our Witnesses made
Like so Mr Marcus a celebration of what happened on October 7th let me let me disclaim is offensive horrid but is it constitutionally protected speech um thank you Congressman it may be but but it depends and I’ll give you an example okay if you say I’m going to
Celebrate Kamas and then you celebrate them by giving a big talk doing a little dance that can be deeply offensive and protected right but if you say I celebrate Kamas I am part of Kamas their mission is my mission and I will do what I can to advance them that may be
Material support for terrorism depending on what exactly you do no I think that’s right but what you focused on there is the conduct I think that was a really good a good explanation and parsing of it because speech is different than conduct when someone says I associate with this known terrorist movement then
That Association has more sort of a conduct flavor than someone saying I think what happened on October 7th was good right so I think that’s right Congressman but with one caveat from the law um interpreting the terrorism act which is the following U material support doesn’t need to be dollars it
Could be guns it doesn’t need to be guns it could be pens and it can be the sort of PR activity that could be done by a commercial front man see that’s the thing PR activity sounds a lot like people talking uh and so I I just think
We got to be careful with that but I do want to move on because um I think it was Dr nadell is it possible to criticize George Soros without being anti-semitic I don’t know all the all the tropes that people use to associate with George Soros but when they talk
About a no no no no no no no no no no not when they talk about something else I I is is criticism against George Soros ever not anti-semitic that’s the question um m berett is offered t with no no no but you mentioned Mr Sor want
You to this there’s no phone a friend here in the Judiciary Committee what H what has happened in the United States is that we use different code words right no I’m not that’s not question no wait I’m answering your question we use different code words to disguise anti-Semitism and so Soros has become
The code word that replaced Rothchild but is it possible to criticize him without being anti-semitic yes or no I don’t know the context I’m not going to talk no cont that is just an astonishing thing and and similarly you said any critique of globalism is anti-Semitic
Now that really is an Austin power no what I said was that the word globalist I didn’t say any critique of globalism what I said was the word globalist had become the new code word for the internationalist code word from the previous period but you you ascribe that
Motive see when I criticize globalism I’m often criticizing the UN which then in turn goes around and criticizes Israel so if if critiquing a globalist entity that criticizes Israel is anti-Semitic so why use the word globalist instead of the UN well because the un’s goals are to have
Global Order over things that deprive countries of their sovereignty one of those countries is Israel that that is that is the great hypocrisy of what I think is frankly a reverse Trope that any criticism of Soros or any criticism of globalism is somehow anti-Semitic sometimes they’re just criticisms of
Soros and of globalism but I see my time’s expired and I yield back I think the gentleman yield back we now recognize the gentleman from California Mr Schiff thank you Mr chairman uh thank you all for being here to testify um like so many millions of people I watched the events of October
7th with unbridled horror I found it hard to wrap my head around the magnitude of the brutality uh the nature of The Butchery uh the murder of whole families uh the rape of women the desecration of bodies the burning families alive families clutching each other lying in bed as they were machine
Gunned um and I asked myself how is it possible that people could commit such acts of barbarism and I think I probably speak for many in the Jewish Community when I say that as as horrifying and traumatizing it was to witness that it was it Amplified the pain to see the
Reaction the almost immediate reaction in the United States and around the world uh was to not condemn The Butchers but to condemn the victims um to celebrate hamas’s acts of unbridled Terror uh and then I asked myself a different question how is it possible that people could justify The Butchery of whole families
The um the the want and deliberate violence directed against these innocent civilians how could that be celebrated and I don’t think it can be celebrated unless you view Israeli life unless you View Jewish life as somehow less than a human life um we we spent a lot of time debating the definition of
Anti-semitism I’m not sure I could give you a clear uh analytic answer to that question but seems to me at its most uh basic viewing Jewish life as less than human life is the very def definition of anti-semitism or it’s certainly anti-Semitism in its most extreme
Form um and what I see happening on college campuses with a glorification with people talking about how empowered they felt at seeing um women butchered peace activists mowed down um the fact that that many Jewish students don’t feel comfortable expressing their Jewish identity um uh at a time of their lives when they
Should be free to discuss whatever issues they want free to be themselves is just horrifying remember years ago talking to the president of the Jewish community in France uh at a time when many Jews were leaving France because they didn’t feel safe there and he told me the French
Government was doing what they could to protect the Jewish Community but who wanted to live in a country that where you needed protection and I remember thinking years ago thank God that’s not the case in the United States but now it is the case and and and not for Jews alone we’ve
Seen a horrific rise of islamophobia even as we mourn the death of a older Jewish man in Los Angeles who died uh when struck at a protest we mourn the loss of a six-year-old a Muslim child it’s just horrifying Dr nadell I’d be interested your thoughts on how you see anti-Semitism
Today uh how is it different in character than what we’ve seen in the past Miss bdet I interested in your thoughts on how hate online leaps into the real world and what we might do to combat that the anti-Semitism that we see today since you closed with hate online is
Horrifically magnified in a way that it has never been this magnified before because it is you can reach millions and millions of people by expressing anti-semitic ideas including all of these old ideas about about Jews as internationalists and old ideas about Jews as um as corrupted by money and so
What we have in this moment in time is we have millions of people especially when leading personalities whether they are members of the government or they are entertainment figures when they post the these kinds of anti-Semitic messages and then they it just explodes it go it
Goes viral I don’t spend time looking at the social media because I think you could just spend all your time doing it but I had a student last semester in my course anti-Semitism enduring hatred who told me that she had spent the previous week 40 hours looking at Tik Tok videos
So I looked at her I said when did you ever do any of your schoolwork and I was a little concerned but the point is is that anti-Semitism is magnified in a way today because of social media that was just unimaginable in earlier eras I than the gentleman we now recognize the
Gentleman from Arizona Mr Bigs thank you Mr chairman thank you for our panelists for for all of you being here today appreciate it very much um so I just want to um point out to my friend from Georgia who has left the room that apparently uh 22 Maga Democrats also
Voted in favor of the censure resolution last night so I think that’s important to get out but but be that as it may I want to I want to um um just kind of get into some of this we’ll take deal with some of the anti-Semitism we’ll talk also about the conser anti-conservative
Um uh bias and education so I’m going to give you two personal examples number one I I belong to a church I think it’s the only uh American church that’s ever been actually an exterminated extermination order was issued on be by a governor governor Lilburn bogs of Missouri to actually give license to
Kill members of my religion over 150 years ago I could you know little a little bit um the other thing is um uh just to just to relate to this we talked about the UN just a moment ago so uh at at 40 years old um having practiced law and tried literally
Hundreds of cases actually representing NOS at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions by the way there is no other organization I know that is so openly um uh you know anti-semitic in my opinion than the UN it the the the Israeli uh representative was constantly ostracized and uh and ignored and
Maltreated in my opinion anyways so I went decided to go back because you know being a lawyer at the international level that was good but being a PhD at the international level and a lawyer um really get a lot of credence so I decided to go back to get to my my
Degree uh unafraid very conservative but the one thing I know is when I was on that campus in Arizona by the way somebody mentioned that I I was graduated from Elite universities I can’t wait to tell ASU and U OFA and BYU they’re considered Elite by some Congressional Witnesses
But the point is as I was there I had to duck and hide my beliefs because the professors held every they held you you sit in a master’s degree or PhD class in seminar how could I express my thoughts knowing that a grade below a b because a professor the professor disagrees with
Me and I experienced that they control your Destiny so I want to ask about to our three students tell us a little bit we’ll start with you miss Sil Miss Silverstein Miss Jordan and Mr agj is that how you say close enough uh a little bit about whether the administration or the
Institutional or the institution of whether it’s Cornell Iowa or Buffalo did anything to um hinder your identity as a student or your beliefs or your um let’s just go with that thank you Congressman um as for Cornell on in the case of anti-Semitism following the massacre on October 7th President poock
Issued a statement in which she essentially conflated the horrific Massacre of Jews on that day with various natural disasters occurring in the world such as an earthquake in Afghanistan which was extremely baffling ton deaf and insensitive and truly hurtful to the Jewish community on campus now many incidents
As I’ve mentioned have occurred since then in which the Jewish students at Cornell have been threatened repeatedly um most recently with a student’s comments uh posted online to directly go after and attack students so when we have a threat that is not protected speech that is Criminal speech
Uh was there criminal uh prosecution investigation arrest made in that case um in the case of the student who is just arrested yes tell us me yeah so he this student was arrested I believe last week and he was arraigned he is uh currently being held and um his parents
Claimed that he uh made these comments due to his mental health issues um but regardless of any you know mental health issues that could could have caused these statements it’s evident that that the sentiment created on campus by professors and students alike of pervasive and just widespread anti-Semitism and anti-israel rhetoric
Has created such an atmosphere that has enabled him to make these comments and that really fuels the Fire Within many students who who may feel hostile to to Israel to attack Jews because of it m Mr chairman my while my time has expired I asked the question of the may may they
Respond to thank you thank you for your question so our Flyers have been torn down our chalk is washed away and we even had an advertisement sign for one of our speakers Khloe Cole stolen and the police recovered the sign but they didn’t um figure out I guess who took
The poster we never received that back and this stuff has been ongoing continues to go on and it’s obviously showing that there is an equal opportunity for our speech the left leaning students groups they get their posters like theirs are literally right next to ours you can see the remnants of
The tape and our poster design still there but then their posters are completely unattacked and like I have met with the University president I’ve met with other staff members to discuss this and it just seems like there’s no move towards change I’ve asked I was
Like okay what can we do to at least let our messages heard so we can have people attend our events and hear different points of view and I still haven’t received any other options because you know it’s a shame that we have to have different things so that different
Things be done so that we can have our sweet heard we should have the equal opportunity to have our Flyers up just like their left Lan students we should have equal opportunity for our chalk to be under red so that you know we shouldn’t have to do something different
And um and also all these actions that these students are doing violat school policy it’s it’s very clear in the handbook and again it still keeps happening so I just would like to see something positive like just us being able to stay represented without being hindered thank you for your question I
Was very fortunate myself to not face any academic penalty while I was still enrolled at the University however I was also biological sciences major often times political topics stayed outside the class room however the we did have those three professors that I had mentioned in my opening statement um
Circulating a petition you know heavily protesting our Michael no’s event calling for it to get shut down so I do recognize as well that while I was lucky I did not have these Pro or I did not have these professors in class I recognize other students may not be
Quite so lucky and additionally it was very obvious that the protest fing following our Len West lecture was mishandled there was danger posed to students this was widely documented through police reports yet there was no apology from any University officials thank you Mr chairman thank you gentleman yields back the chair now
Recognize the gentleman from California for five minutes Miss Bret you are an expert on anti-Semitism and I want to read a few uh different statements to you and if you can just give me a yes or no as to whether you would consider them anti-semitic I prefer my kidss new
Hanukkah from Quanza at least it will come with some Financial engineering antiemetic or not very potentially I just think that’s what they’re about is making money in a reference to Jared Kushner and his Jewish Family you think that’s anti-semitic anti-jewish stereotype Planned Parenthood was made by Margaret Sanger a known Eugenics with
The KKK to control the Jew population when I say Jew I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah the blood of Christ who the people known as the race black really are this is who our people are anti-semitic or not a little too confusing for me to
Decipher we’ll get to that this ain’t a game I’m going to use you as an example to show you the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me I told you this is war now going to get you some business still confusing uh uses two
Stereotypes um about Jews as being motivated only by business business and having nefarious control uh that isn’t real last one I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con three on Jewish people the funny thing is I actually can’t be anti-semitic because black people are actually Jew
Also you guys have toyed with me and tried to blackball anyone who opposes your agenda what do you think about that one anti-semitic yeah so what I’m concerned about is that we have anti-semitic posts coming from this committee and last October the chairman tweeted out on October 6 Kanye Elon
Trump those five statements that I just read to you were from Kanye West who had made a number of anti-Semitic statements before this tweet was put up and then made the death conon statement about a day after the Tweet was put up I the chairman at the time chairman Nadler
Many people in the Jewish Community asked the chairman chairman Jordan to take this down and it wasn’t just members of Congress it was nonpartisan Jewish organizations who said Kanye West is anti-Semitic I don’t know what you’re doing but please do not give him a platform by leaving this tweet up it
Stayed up for months defiantly the chairman kept this tweet up so Mr chairman I want to be just today your accountability partner your online accountability partner and just go through your social media because if we’re going to have a hearing about anti-Semitism we can’t allow a tweet
Like this to be posted on our side or your side in 2019 chairman Jordan also tweeted at Tom Styer and used the dollar sign for Styer to spell his name again known Jewish philanthropist playing into what Miss bdet mentioned earlier tropes about Jewish people and money so this
Committee should have a conversation and a hearing about and anti-Semitism but I would first insist that the chairman I don’t know why he put this tweet up either he believes it which I hope is not the case or he just wanted to own the lips and if that’s what you’re doing
You’re hurting a lot of people by keeping that tweet up for so long especially knowing what it represents and if we’re talking about being your online accountability partner chairman you still have a subpoena in your inbox that’s about 500 days old and uh with that I’ll yield back J yields back the
Chair I recognize a gentleman from California Mr mcclint um first does a chairman wish to dignify that with a response time you know it seems to me there only there only two ways I I I know of to to resolve our differences these human beings there’s reason and there’s Force
I don’t know of any other way the the American Founders established an Empire of reason and democracy fre freedom of speech is the Beating Heart of of democracy fact the sole purpose of of this building and the others like it in this complex is solely to talk out our
Differences and and and resolve them uh it seems to me there’s only one way to separate truth from lies or wisdom from Folly and that’s to expose one to the other and then trust the people to sort out the difference that’s our entire form of government is based on that
Speech can be ugly it can be disgusting hateful prejudiced alarming but it can never be dangerous to a free society as long as men and women of good will have the freedom to dispute it to challenge it and and to reject it I I’ve never been comfortable with this concept of of
Hate speech simply because it’s always seem to be a very short step between Banning hate speech and banning speech we hate um M Mr Marcus this uh this chant um from the river to the Sea that clearly calls for the eradication of Israel it is genocidal at its roots uh
We uh the house just censored a member uh for uh for repeating it and let me say it is absolutely despicable but should that be banned or punished the mere repetition of that phrase so thank you Congressman I’ll just Begin by saying again that most hate speech is protected speech under
Our constit stition but context matters are we talking about uh public institutions or non-public institutions are we talking about public for or non-public for but I will also say again that where one finds hate speech one often almost invariably finds hateful conduct well there’s a there’s a very
Bright line between speech and conduct of uh Speech we tolerate because it can be combed by appealing to the better angels of our Nature by exposing the nature of evil that is behind it of uh that’s how we resolve our differences without resorting to force now my my
Point is this we have this this chant that calls for the eradication of Israel uh and we punish people for for for for for using it well I happen to believe in the eradication of Hamas uh I’m not making a moral equivalency there couldn’t be a stronger contrast between
Good and evil than that but the same freedom of speech that protects my right to Advocate that position uh is is at stake here is it not so I I also very strongly support Free Speech even freedom of speech to say things that we hate I believe that the Trump
Executive order on combating anti-Semitism does something important which is to say it indicates that in many other areas of the law we can use speech not as something to punish or suppress but as an indicator of the nature of conduct so that for example if you say certain things and then throw a
Rock through the window of the Hillel building your statement may be used to determine whether that conduct was intentional whether you intended to hit the building or not and whether it was motivated in a way that implicates either student conduct codes or other rules of behavior I believe it is
Important for rules whether within universities or within the federal department of of Education to use conduct in this way that is to say speech must be protected but it is sometimes a way of understanding conduct which often crosses the line yes but then then you’re talking about the
Conduct and and the influence of speech on it but the issue is the conduct not the speech what measures uh uh let me ask the students what measures would you propose to protect your rights to free speech on the campuses ultimately I would just ask for Less
Push back from the University I mean if as long as we can more equally represent all perspectives I think it would be much easier much more conducive to do so for other students there is a word for that it’s called tolerance correct yes and it would it would be much less of a
Step up to speak your mind when you know that violence is not coming your way for doing so now it is so polarized I just wish if we could step that back or in increase speech allow others to not face such consequence when doing so that would uh that would promote it Miss
Jordan yeah so I support what Connor said and I think really instilling within the campus community that you know we need to be more tolerant of others beliefs whether we agree with them or not like my school does a free speech training but you know people will
Just click through that just to get it over with they’re not actually being taught um to respect people just because they belies like that’s just what we’re asking for to be respected we aren’t asking to be doxed we aren’t ask asking to be violently assaulted or harassed or
Anything like that we are simply sharing our Viewpoint and we respectfully listen to other students and faculty’s viewpoints but they won’t do the same to us similar to Mr Marcus’s comments conduct often follows words we saw at Cornell after chance of free Palestine from The River To The Sea which calls for the
Genocide of the Jewish people and the eradication of the state of Israel that soon following that a student posted direct threats to murder Jews on campus that those are in very interrelated and they cannot separ the conduct should be banned or the speech should be banned or both speech advocating for violence
Should not be tolerated on a college campus well but what about the eradication of Hamas the eradication of Hamas is the eradication of a recognized Terror organization well so it depends upon your Viewpoint is that what you’re saying when students who are protesting the Jewish people’s right to
Exist their fellow students right to exist leads directly to violence against those students who who’s going to decide though which Viewpoint is legal and which one is illegal that’s what concerns me in a free Society we put all those viewpoints out there and let the people make that judgment for themselves
In the context of a college campus it is the school’s the school has a right and the school is obligated to protect all of its students from violence and students should all feel safe on their campus I know that Cornell is implementing additional Dei training training that now addresses
Anti-Semitism that all students will be required to complete so that all students feel safe and there should be similar similar Dei training to prevent islamophobia on campus as well when when talking about college campuses the main priority is ensuring that students feel safe and that they can freely Express
Their opinions without feeling harmed or or that harm is coming their way gentlemen gentleman’s time has expired uh the chair I recognize the general from Texas thank you Mr chairman I want to make it very clear that our committee is not undertaking this hearing today because my Republican colleagues actually care about free
Speech on college campuses or even care about anti-Semitism these are the same Republican colleagues who’ve worked tirelessly to defund all efforts for diversity and inclusion initiatives in the Appropriations bills these are the same folks who want to censor and remove books they disagree with from classrooms and school libraries
And the same folks will suspend just for my point of order was the statement that her colleagues her Republican colleagues do not care about anti-Semitism on college campuses or freedom of speech I would request that those words be taken down because they’re absolutely untrue it’s a matter of opinion yeah
Matter of opinion is not the um J Le from Texas was stating her opinion um but we’ve talked about this before in the committee I think all of us should be cognizant of um attributing motives to our colleagues and or other individual in the government whether that be the president the vice president
Or former president uh we should all be cognizant of that the GES recognized for remainder for five minutes and I’ll correct that I’ll say some of my Republican colleagues however again these are the same folks who’ve worked to defund efforts for diversity and inclusion initiatives in the Appropriations bills
Those are a matter of record those votes are available for anyone to view these are also some of the same folks who want to censor and remove books they disagree with from classrooms and school libraries and the same folks who B at the prospect of teaching accurate history lessons on slavery and its
Repercussions in the United States all of that is on the record and factual and available for anyone to review what is going on here is that there is an effort to capitalize on an emotionally charged issue to seow further frustration and Division I have frequently complained and expressed my
Concerns around the fact that there are egregious efforts to continue to divide our country and many of those efforts are coming from this Committee in the last four weeks alone we’ve seen horrific incidents in the United States fueled by both anti-Semitism and islamophobia alike in the community that I represent
Of El Paso Texas we know full well my community knows full well the power of speech the power of hate and how that drifts into conduct on August 3rd 2019 a white supremacist drove over 10 miles I’m sorry 10 hours to my community and he published a screed online talking about
The invasion of migrants and his anics and immigrants into the United States many of us flagged that speech as dangerous and as life-threatening and yet members of this committee continue to use that same speech knowing full well the kind of danger it creates for my community and other communities like
Mine I want nothing more than for students to feel safe on their college campuses I want want all of us to feel safe and be able to express our opinions and to be able to address controversy headon without fearing for our lives or the lives of people who live with us
Among Us near us th these conversations are critical and important and I want to thank our panelists for participating in these conversations and it is really important that all of of you put pressure on all of us to ensure that everyone can live in peace and dignity free from the fear
Of violence especially young people on college campuses Professor nadell Miss Beret can you give us concrete strategies and policies that colleges can use in order to create those safer spaces for young people sure thank you very much for for your question um and indeed you know there’s
A lot of serious work to do on this issue um and there are actions that could help that aren’t being taken aren’t being funded um and and I respect very much the spirit of what you’re saying so campuses have rules and the way we use our rules tells the story of our values
And that’s why I mentioned campuses are they’ve had someone arrested they have suspended people there’s a there are privacy concerns around speaking openly about disciplinary action against a student especially in in such a charge time but you get a protest permit there’s an approval process there are
Rules you have to follow in that protest and not all speech is permissible in our country and on a campus and I think we we heard one of the committee members say before that it’s just up to people to decide and that’s just not okay because of course I’m here to testify on
Behalf of free speech I’m invited by the Democrats I don’t know why someone tried to divide this witness panel into two sides I haven’t heard two sides I’ve heard people of of conscience my fellow panelists but when you call immigrants Vermin invading our country hate crimes against people who look like an
Immigrant go up I’m a practitioner that’s my indicator when Israel is in the front page and people are fighting about Israel and you assault a Jew because of their connection to Israel that’s bigotry that’s a hate crime and at words do have consequences and of course we can walk
In ch gum at the same time I like the Austin Powers movie also but we are civil society and elected leaders and we can distinguish the difference between free expression that people don’t like including conservative views that should be aired on campuses Miss Jordan should never have been called a Nazi I was
Tearing up while she was talking about it but words have consequences and we can’t just have Lord of the Flies in our Free Speech Marketplace thank you for that question thank you g lady yields back the chair I recognized gentleman from Texas Mr Hunt he Mr chairman college and Free Speech go hand
Inand and college is meant to be a place where students are safe to express ideas and confront ideas that they may or may not necessarily agree with we’ve heard for years about microaggressions and how silence is violence and colleges have spent years condemning and monitoring speech as they deem dangerous but when
Actual physical threats of violence occur do colleges know how to react under the logic of the left microaggressions are hate speech but physical threats of violence can be free speech depending on if the group being threatened is not oppressed enough it appears that colleg justs have labeled everything hate speech but hate speech
Itself they claim to be committed to diversity equity and inclusion but the dirty little secret is that there is a hierarchy of Oppression within a deep EI club and colleges fail to act when they consider these less oppressed groups to be threatened tragically universities have put their responses to free speech
Under the Dei lens and often times that lens fails to respond to threats for fear of angering the Dei Gods I went to Cornell ear three master’s degrees in four years from cor I went to Johnson irr school and the Masters in public Administration I graduated in
2015 I didn’t see any of this when I was there I cannot believe what has happened over the course of the past year the threats to you ma’am are pretty disgusting it it’s not just happening at Cornell it’s happening all over the country these attacks are not just coming from
Students a week after the horrendous Hamas attacks on Israel on October the 7th Cornell professor Russell rickford said at a rally challenged the Monopoly of violence and that Terror attacks against defenseless Jews were exhilarating and energizing I have a motion to submit to the record a letter from Corel president
Martha poock addressing that issue sir according to this letter Professor Ricker’s punishment is that that that was placed on this person was at a leave of absence for the duration of the Academic Year while the university is considering rather or not his personal opinions demonstrate an unfitness to serve an
Unfitness to serve that’s it this man was praising Hamas attacks on Jews and there needs to be an investigate an investigation as to rather or not this guy displayed a fitness to serve I think this response from Cornell demonstrates the problem going on in our institutions of Higher Learning today
And I have a sneaking uh sus I that if this professor made these hateful statements against Muslim Students black students like me or trans students the professor would have been out of a job immediately no investigation I dare anybody to tell me I’m wrong this is
What we see from I believe schools in the past few years as a Cornell Alum and a father of three children I can guarantee you that if this is how this University is going to approach anti-Semitism my children will not be attending Cornell whenever we have this kind of behavior
And people don’t step up and call it out for what it is we have students that then make comments like Patrick Dy he said if you see a Jewish person on campus follow them home and slit their throats rats need to be eliminated from Cornell interesting he also said rape
And kill all the Jew women before they birth more Jewish Hitlers I’m a combat veteran I’ve seen a lot I’ve heard a lot I’m in a patchy pil so you could imagine some of the things I’ve seen in combat hearing things like this really boils my blood because it shouldn’t be happening
To students like you I’ve been black for my entire life I’ve been as conservative probably about as long as I’ve been black Miss Jordan thank you for being here it’s okay to be black and you don’t ever be a black conservative and you don’t ever have to put put up with anybody telling
You differently this is America I fought for these freedoms and you have the right to think however you want to think and express it the way that you see fit with our prosecution ma’am thank you so much for being here I really appreciate it the text messages that I have gotten from my
Jewish friends and colleagues that actually took me to Israel twice while I was at Cornell during Passover to learn about their culture I promise them that I would defend them I promise them that I would defend their rights and we will continue to to do just
That we are not going to rewind this clock back to 1930 not on our watch I really appreciate your bravery thank you so much for being here and I Y back the rest of my Time gentleman yields like to rec the chair recognizes Miss Ross for five
Minutes um thank you Mr chairman and I don’t know what’s going on with this um but thank you to all the witnesses for being here today um this is a highly charged Topic at a highly charged time in our country but it’s not new uh I want to begin by joining my
Colleagues in condemning all forms of anti-Semitism on college campuses and all forms of discrimination that is not what America is about and like many communities across the country my region in North Carolina has seen a spike in anti-semitic incidents since hamas’s horrific attack on Israel on October 7th
But we had seen a spike earlier that’s why Congress is giving money to uh to religious institutions in particular to synagogues to be able to protect people and when I have worshiped with my constituents there are armed guards in front of synagogues in my district I’ve also spoken to Hell leaders in North
Carolina who have told me that their students in particular have reported an alarming number of anti-Semitic incidents in the past month and these students fear for their safety all students whether Jewish or Muslim Progressive or conservative deserve a safe learning environment at school college campuses are supposed to
Be places where people can discuss ideas including foreign policy with civility and with the goal of understanding different perspectives and learning from their peers this sort of environment is only possible when harassment discrimination and behavior that seeks to silence intimidate and dehumanize is not allowed congress’s role here should not
Be to dictate which perspectives held by students are acceptable but rather to address this problem r large it is the duty of the Department of education’s office of civil rights an office that my colleagues on on the right have refused to fully fund to help you with this
Mission at this moment when tensions on college campuses are high we must ensure that the office of civil rights has the tools it needs to properly address anti-Semitism and all discrimination on college campuses my first question is for professor uh Nadal and Miss berett could you just
Let’s go back to the basics why is it important that students at universities have freedom to es espouse and explore a wide range of ideas it it’s critical that the university continues to uphold the value of free speech it because what happens on the University campuses is that these
Are the the places where our students students learn to be Future Leaders how are they going to learn to be Future Leaders if they don’t CH if they if they’re not exposed to opposite ideas and different different points of view I think one of the most powerful
Statements comes from the um came from the dean of students at the University of Chicago when he wrote to the entering class of 2020 and he told them that yes you have to be on campus campus you is certainly a place where you cannot be challenged you cannot be threatened
But there are not going to be trigger warnings in the classrooms that you cannot shut down a speaker speakers have to be able to come and and hear their points of view and I’ve heard what the students have said about about their campuses but at the University of
Chicago they have upheld the value of hearing these diverse points of view so that when their graduates go out into the world they can become leaders and they know what people will be saying on multiple sides of issues so we have to maintain a that value Miss brat do you
Have anything to add to that of course I mean universities have harder jobs than any of us in this room because they have to teach people how to think not tell them what to think and we haven’t really mastered that they are chartered their mission is to create a platform that
Students including some of the young people in this hearing room and Jewish students can fill with their ideas and their perspectives and their voices and that’s how we learn and I don’t think for one minute there’s a university that doesn’t know what’s right and wrong when
It comes to is hamasa it was Hamas justified in th that Massacre but they have a very hard job and they agreed in 19 in 1967 the University of Chicago issued the Kelvin principles which is still still a very influential document and they protected the right of young
People to say I don’t want to die in Vietnam I’m scared and it wasn’t always the predominant View and so their jobs are hard we sit around and tell people what to think all the time it’s really harder to teach them how to come to their own conclusions and I just have
Utmost respect for the challenge they’re facing we should be helping them do better not walking away and pulling our marbles in our funding in our kids away thank you thank you Mr chairman I yield back gentoman yields and I will take five minutes for questioning now um
First of all I will Dain to respond in regards to the gentleman from California in regards to anti-semitic tropes in particular in regards to one gentleman named Tom Styer um that was had nothing to do with anti-Semitism he was a presidential candidate he was taking his
Enormous wealth and uh putting it into a president itial campaign and in America it is fair game to be able to criticize someone when they’ve chosen to enter the field of politics and the gentleman Mr Styer threw in huge dollars he was described by the gentleman from California as a
Philanthropist he was a presidential candidate who has thrown in hundreds of millions of dollars to political campaigns here in America that is fair game using the cudle of racism to stop free speech is also wrong um Mr Marcus um if you could do it real briefly so
Many of us I have um three children much the same age as them where’s this intolerance coming from where is this intolerance that um really is a bit foreign for someone who went to college you know a few decades ago and not just the anti- not just the anti-Semitism where’s the intolerance
Coming from Mr chairman this has been a long time coming and the intolerance towards other groups is not unrelated to the intolerance towards Jews we have for too long seen political polarization throughout our country with extreme aspects on the college campus there are extremists on the left there are
Extremists on the right but on the college campus the extremists on the left have considerably more influence uh louder voices and the greater ability to uh make their uh View heard uh often times that means not just presenting their own opinions but trying to silence
Others thank you for that so I turned to Miss Jordan why do administrators fear the left I would say that they fear the left because they don’t want to hurt their feelings I know that they probably are trying their best to you know be equal be fair but it honestly feels like they
Are favoring those students I know they’re are a lot of different departments within a big 10 University and so some of those we have a lot of diversity Equity inclusion spaces so a lot of those that are you know directly funded and directly associated with the university those are especially the
Leaders in um initiating the activities that I feel like you know cudle left leaning students and Empower them to you know attack us because Mr ogre Zack isn’t it true that they don’t fear you on the right on campus that going to tear things down that you’re going to go
Out and do a a nasty demonstration to deny somebody from coming into the campus who comes from the left point of view to speak I mean I’m assuming the administrators don’t fear you guys I would certainly hope that they would never expect us to commit any acts of violence against opposing
Speakers so um we heard earlier in testimony um the quote was used and the one of the panelists we have failed them by the time it gets to the office of civil rights we have failed them so Mr Marcus why would we put more federal dollars into something like this
I think this is part of what you’re hearing from some of us up here is we are saying is there really a federal role should we be pumping more federal dollars in in fact as we put more federal dollars in and we hear about more intolerance uh less tolerance for free
Speech are we going in the wrong direction by saying federal government you should try to do more because maybe the federal government is being counterproductive Mr chairman my experience with the office for civil rights is that it has had leine years and it has had fat
Years um in either case the head of that agency has been able to do what the head feels needs to be done that is to say there may be in a particular year 15 or 17 or 19,000 cases but the number of anti-Semitism cases will never be 1% and
Will seldom be one tenth of a percent so it is my sense that while there may be uh political reasons and a host of policy reasons to support either increases or decreases of the uh budget for that agency and the Brandy Center is a nonpartisan group we don’t support
Others that um the office for civil rights can focus the resources it needs on fighting the problems that needed to be fought as long as it has the political will and regardless of the budget in a particular year I want to get one more question in here for U Miss
Silverstein by the way um you are engaged with one of the uh most incisive questioners we have up here in Mr mcclint talk it is a terrific lesson many of us have learned and um why not tell parents just take your dollars elsewhere if Cornell is going to act the
Way they do if I mean Madison University of Madison refuses to condemn Pro Hamas demonstrators chanting glory to the murders why not just tell parents to take your dollars elsewhere I mean of course private individuals are entitled to do what they wish with their money um with regard to
Sending students to these schools I’ve been faced with that question numerous times and I’ve had to Grapple with it myself about why I would put myself in such a situation um that could potentially lead to my own harm and I have gone to a Jewish Day School my
Entire life and coming to Cornell I was hoping to encounter a variety of diverse perspectives who from whom I’d be able to learn and upon coming here I’ve realized that you know I’ve been hit with a lot of hatred and virent anti-Semitism and it’s something that
That makes me feel the the need and the right to be there more to combat it and to to continue to fight against it and to not let it win I want to thank all the witnesses for being here today thank you very much may I have a minute to
Clarify my words that were used is that possible within the rules um sure the chair will give you let’s take a minute go ahead thank you thank you very much Mr chairman so I’m the one who said we failed them um and fighting hate and preventing hate is a whole of society
Job J we all have a job to do and if all we do is investigate a crime after someone’s dead because of their identity I’m just saying we can interrupt it earlier I hope we won’t throw up our hands about what the United States of America and its government can
Do to help encourage our society to be more tolerant and moral so let’s please not throw up our hands interventions work and when the FBI counts hate crimes that is a deterrent when a school has a policy against hate all they have to do is post it online
There are less hate crimes so let’s just make the FBI count hate crimes it’s optional right now why so miss verett we can have more of a discussion on this um offline thank you for your comments thank you for the time um I yield and would like to recognize the gentle lady
From Georgia five minutes of questioning thank you Mr chair and as as a woman a woman of color who’s lost her son to murder the very kinds of bigotry and discrimination and hatred that we’re talking about today I wake up every single morning and when I see all of the
Elevated instances of anti-Semitism amb bigotry and hatred and just racial Division I ask God every single day are we losing our humanity and with that said first I’d like to thank the committee for holding this critical hearing to highlight the need to fund the office of civil rights
At the Department of Education and the importance of diversity equity and inclusion offices across our schools as we address these incidents of hate speech across our college campuses yes we have a right to speak our minds we have a right to share our views use and be ourselves but free
Speech is an invaluable right that is granted to us by the First Amendment and we must use it to nurture our diverse and everchanging Country however in a nation made up of many cultures and backgrounds hate has no place especially at our schools where the minds of our young people are really being
Nurtured College campuses are places where people expand their knowledge they gain New Perspectives and pursue future success and the recent occur occurrences on campuses where students have used their freedom of speech to harm and intimidate their classmates are despicable and should prove our absolute need to incorporate diversity equity and inclusion education
Throughout all of our school systems Not only would Dei offices and education uh reducing the likelihood of these events happening in the future by bringing awareness and knowledge to students who otherwise otherwise they may not learn about the rich richness of other cultures until well into their
Adulthood but it will also educate and support the diverse interest of our children and I truly believe this at heart because I’m a mother to my for and I mean this with every fiber of my being we are losing our way in addition to Dei offices we need
To fund the office of civil rights to equip students and faculty experiencing intimidation threats of violence and other harmful acts with the tools necessary to protect them without these support resources students will continue to live in fear of harm while they’re while they know that they have little or
No support in the event that they experience such personal and hate filled instances thank you Mr chair for having this hearing today let’s work to protect our students and affirm the value of all cultures by funding the office of civil rights at the Department of Education and supporting diversity equity and
Inclusion programs on campuses all across our country Miss bdet and Dr nadell throughout your professional careers have either of you found that individuals with a better understanding and background of cultures dissimilar to their theirs tend to be more understanding and accepting when speaking to or about someone who’s from a different
Culture you know one of my favorite things about the president’s strategy against anti-Semitism is that it talks about the need to celebrate Jewish Heritage and of course understanding matters matters um and that is where communities can actually stop problems before they happen with understanding and you know you mentioned Dei there are
People out there who want to tell Jewish people that Dei those three letters are our enemy because it doesn’t care about Jews I work with Dei professionals all the time and sometimes they weren’t addressing anti-Semitism in the past and it’s a process to explain it to integrate Jews into Dei work but
Everything I hear these last four weeks tells me Jews want to be welcome and included and that’s what the I stands for thank you thank you Dr nadell what I would add to that is that it is imperative to understand and learn about the diversity of cultures in
American life and so um to respond to one of the things Miss berett said we have had proclaimed in the United States may as Jewish American heritage month at least since um one of the Bush administrations I forget which one maybe at least since 2004 and that this is a
Way in which Americans can learn a great deal about Jewish Americans but we also have an array of specific months dedicated to learning about the different cultures of the United States and so we need to support those efforts thank you and I yield back J Le yields
Back um I should have mentioned this earlier we you’ve been here now couple hours almost three hours if anyone needs a break you know just let us know if you need to step to the restroom or anything like just let us know we probably have about 45 more minutes of questioning
We’d like to keep going because we are going to have to go to the floor for vote so if it’s okay with you we’ll continue to go the chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas Mr Roy um thank the W Witnesses thank you for being here um couple of questions
Particularly for the students and appreciate you all being here um have any of the three of you ever in any meaningful way received support from the Department of Education to perpetuate your viewpoints on campus to the best of your understanding I have not received any supporting sentiments from them no Miss
Jordan I have not received sentiments either I as well have not received any yeah I hear a lot from my my colleagues on other side of the eye about how important it is to have these offices of diversity Equity inclusion and I’m just wondering if uh any of the three of you
Um we have uh you know we dance around these topics all all the time in this thing but we have we have a white male we have a black female we have a Jewish female have any of you felt uh you know exalted or supported or helped by these
Offices of diversity equity and inclusion so that you feel comfortable on campuses no ever actually so the story I was telling earlier about how I have was doxed in a group to have over 800 students those were all black students it was a group chat for black
People on campus and at the time of my involvement as Secretary of Young Americans for Freedom um I served as the first year representative on the black student union which is an organization within the afro house which is a part of the Dei um organization Department within our school and they requested my
Removal and they had a meeting for that and they said if I did want to continue being on the board I’d have to have a discussion with the executive board and their director um on how black students can have different viewpoints I decided to discon discontinue my position because I
Felt like that’s unnecessary you shouldn’t have to have discussion on how people can have different viewpoints because that’s common knowledge M silverine anything to add yes I would just like to point out that I’ve only been at Cornell for about a year and a half now and and this problem far
Exceeds my time at Cornell it has it has been a persistent problem on college campuses for many many years my brother attended the university about 5 years ago and swastikas were posted outside of his dorm following the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in a few years ago um
Three SWAT ofas were found within nine days on campus and then we’re seeing this happening now the university do anything about that the university issued was was in my opinion a weak response and clearly it is evident that it was weak as it has persisted on
Campus and nothing is being done to stop these hateful symbols from being spread around campus Mr so quick question for you and and a question for the three of you so I I have this um concern right now that I believe that we’ve got a world in which students fear disagreeing
With professors don’t feel afraid for calling for the eradication of Jews for example um now there might be some free speech uh uh lanes that are wide enough to have some very hateful uh statements made and I certainly support a very wide Lane of of uh tolerance with respect to free
Speech in the First Amendment but the the point here is something a little bit different because all of us who have gone to law school and have studied the whole idea of uh of yelling fire in a crowded theater right that we all get that there are some limits to speech I
Fully associate myself with the remarks from the gentleman from California Mr mclin talk in our need to defend Free Speech but I feel like there’s something that we are not talking about here that’s actually the center of all this while we just go around the barn and
Saying the same stuff over and over again and that is that in a world in the 21st century with Tik Tock and with a whole lot of say political actors and techn technological actors at play driving retoric and speech and driving what people see as news and information
That we’ve got elements are arising to something akin to yelling fire in a crowded theater I’m looking at Tik Tock data over the last week and I’m seeing a massive ramp up of the stand with Palestine versus the stand with Israel this is not accidental that’s not just something that just
Materializes my point is is when there’s purposeful action designed directly to foment actual response and hate and targeting of individuals you have now stepped into the very action that the gentleman from California Mr mcclint was talking about so my question for you as students to the extent that you think
That these devices are harmful or helpful for society generally and I’ve got my views on that with respect to Tik Tock and the use of Technology can you expand on each of the three of you the extent to which this Tik Tock and others have been used to dox you target you
Undermine you and undermine your ability to engage in free speech and free thinking as conservative or as freeth thinking Americans uh we also start with you silver scene and go down the line um so from my experience over the past few weeks the the rise in anti-Semitism that
We’ve seen yes it has been around in person at rallies at protests on campuses but a large part of the issue stems from many of the comments made on social media people think that they can hide behind some perceived veil of anonymity and post whatever comments however hurtful however targeted however
Menacing they may be people think that they can post them about Jews with with impunity and in not receive any any ramifications for their actions so I think that social media in general has has been fueling the fire and you know as we’ve seen uh with a Cornell student
Who was recently arrested um that veil of anonymity was pierced and your words have consequences and I think that all students should really take that to heart that what you write online can be traced back to you and people take it to heart Miss Jordan yeah I feel like um
Technology uses usage is a double-edged sword because on one aspect you know you can connect with people especially like-minded people but that can also be dangerous because it can create a mob mentality like the experience I’ve discussed repeatedly and also um I feel like there with social media channels
Especially Tik Tok they can just create targeted things you know once you like something then shows you similar content so like if someone just happens to like a palestin pro Palestine um graphic then they’re absorbed more and more and then you know once people start sharing stuff
On their stories that’s a huge thing um you know like if you’re the only one who shares an Israel one then people start like dming you and attacking you and it’s like a lot of fear because it’s like are you scared to lose friends and followers do you want to stand up for
What you believe in and then that kind of translates to like you know being physical like physically involved um in groups and organizations on campus there’s like so much fear kind of what you share online like you know should you have the which side flag should you
Have in your bio things like that or like hotly discussed and also I feel like a lot of people use online to like kind of organize too which in one aspect you can you know kind of see what they’re up to and what they plan to do
To your event because that’s where we find that a lot of people um want to protest are conservative events but also you know makes them gauge a larger Community um honestly of hate and um it’s just I don’t know it’s a very hard thing to kind of have discretion over
Kind of knowing you know what’s right what should be allowed what shouldn’t be um and then kind of in general it’s very very divisive thank you real quickly Mr gak we’re way over time but if you would answer it really quickly Mr chairman isn’t time yeah I would certainly like to Echo many
Of Miss Jordan’s sentiments about um social media opening up the door to conflicting thoughts and of course there’s no debate that it certainly does open up to more speech however yes it is very unfortunate that it is a common tool of doxing I’ve um been victim of
This my friends fellow y members have um I’m not a user of Tik Tok but ac across both Instagram and Snapchat no shortage of leaking addresses um untrue slurs about myself and others and it is extremely unfortunate that this is the case I know we were well over time here
But I would like to address your previous question regarding Dei if I may we’re going to hold on that I I’ll give you time when I when I get to we’re go to miss ja thank you so much Mr chairman and thank you all so much for being here
And for your testimony every student staff and faculty member deserves a college campus and a world that’s free of discrimination anti-Semitism is wrong I have consistently spoken out against I’ve consistently worked to ensure that we have full inclusion in our society and for people to be able to be who they
Are it’s also why I co-sponsored a factually correct Senate passed bipartisan resolution this week denouncing anti-Semitism on college campuses and have consistently supported legislation and efforts to combat hate crimes and anti-Semitism I’m glad my colleagues are talking about the dangers of fomenting hate um because I think
That is a real problem in our country uh anti-Semitism is not confined to our nation’s universities according to a January 2023 report entitled anti-semitic attitudes in America the Anti-Defamation League concluded that 85% of Americans believe at least one anti-jewish Trope as opposed to 61% in
2019 a more recent ADL report shows a 3 188% rise in anti-semitic incidents in the United States since the Hamas attack and yet our condemnation is not always consistent particularly for my colleagues across the aisle when the former president and 2024 Republican Presidential front runner Donald Trump fann the Flames of anti-Semitism during
His time in and out of office Congressional Republicans failed to call him out on his bigotry for instance as Jews all over the world were celebrating Russia Shana in September of 2023 Donald Trump accused the Jewish people who did not support him in 2020 of voting to quote destroy America and Israel
Professor nadell you mentioned in your opening remarks that you were opposed to Congress legislating any definition of anti-semitism in 2017 and you uh remain opposed today respecting your stance can you briefly explain whether Trump’s recent statement was anti-semitic and why could you give me the recent statement you want me to statement was
Uh he accused in September of 2023 he accused the Jewish people who did not support him in 2020 a voting to quote destroy America and Israel um I absolutely thought that that was anti-semitic and there have been other similar statements that I have thought were anti-semitic because what that
Statement was doing was buying into one of these very classic anti-semitic tropes about the Loyalty of the Jewish people and that the and that the question that they cannot be loyal to the nation in which they live because they hold a higher loyalty to their own
People but to to say that they were being disloyal to the United States because they voted for a different political party is not saying that one is is disloyal to the United States it’s just that they had a different view in terms of the party they preferred unfortunately that wasn’t the
First time that Trump attacked American Jews nor was it the first time the 2024 Republican Presidential FrontRunner engaged with anti-Semitism for political means when white supremacists chanted quote Jews will not replace us end quote in 2017 as they marched in Charlottesville Virginia Donald Trump said and he was president at the time
Said there were very fine people on both sides that is an exact quote very fine people on both sides Professor Nell you discussed this example in your opening statement why are Donald Trump’s words here anti-semitic they are anti-semitic because those people who are Marching In Virginia were deliberately echoing Nazi
Practices they were they the the tiki torch parade that they had that evening was designed to look exactly like a Nazi Stormtrooper parade in the 1930s um they had planned the phrase Jews will not replace us that’s a reference to the notion of white supremacy and the idea that the Jews are
Somehow again one of these conspiracy theories masterminds who were working to replace whites in America because they were they were bringing in immigrants and they were helping African-Americans and and and the the idea underpinning that conspiracy theories is that those groups are not capable of orchestrating something like that by themselves only a
Worldwide Jewish conspiracy could do that miss berett anything you want to add to that you know I I had a great opportunity to work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum down the street with the the least political people you’ll ever meet in your life and I had the opportunity just through some
Amazing historians to learn a lot about Nazi propaganda and the Geral Playbook and one of the key aspects of how Nazi propaganda worked they said try to take all of the negativity about Jews remember their anti-Semitism was just a fake lie to blame Jews for what was
Wrong in their lives that’s what it is today right left Center just a lie to blame me for what’s wrong in someone else’s life but they said try to take all the negative characteristics of Jews if you it’s effective if you can if you can pull it together in the character of
One person and D sturmer very famously would have a picture of one Jew and the historian told me that’s the George Soros conspiracy theory it’s straight out of the gal’s Playbook and so people should criticize him he is a philanthropist it’s okay um we’ve talked about philanthropist before but but we
Don’t always think about that direct connection that man and that family pound-for-pound are probably because we have the internet the largest single targets of anti-Semitism and Jewish history and it doesn’t mean you can’t disagree with them but I learned a lot from those apolitical historians educating me thank you thank you so much
I U I I hope we speak out against anti-Semitism everywhere that we see it not just in certain places thank you Mr chairman I yield back uh the general lady yields back the general lady from Indiana is recognized thank you Mr chairman um thank you for being here uh
As someone who grew up in Soviet Union um under tyranny and I also been enlightened you know when Soviet Union fell apart and I went to college of a diversity of ideas and freedom of ideas we had and debate what university should to be should be I was very shocked when
I came here youngan very idealistic learning from Alexis Dell and wter and you know fredman and Hayek and inspired by this idea what a tyranny of opinion we have and unless you agree with who is in charge whether the President of University or who’s in charge of
Government you actually can have a mob Rule and actually you know try to intimidate you so I think it is a very dangerous Trends and I truly believe you know if we do not do something about it we’re going to fail as a republic a lot of people don’t realize that Republic
We’re not a pure democracy for a reason we actually you know Republic to to protect rights of minority to express opinions unless they’re harmful and try to hurt so I was very disappointed also and it was very strange to me when I first came here and was I put people in
Categories you know woman male black white what I was like they only did it to Jews in Soviet Union to oppress them I mean I was like why are we doing that that is was very strange to me because it’s divisive it divides us we all Americans that believe in our country
And our ideas and we have to fight for them so my question is for you Mr Marcus just briefly do you think we should really reink how we’re doing it so how we can unite to country with our ideas instead of separating and dividing us constantly talking about because it it
Shouldn’t matter I’m like why should it matter if I female a male if I am real good at something I’m going to pursue my happiness so what do you think thank you Congressman I agree and here’s the way I would put it when we see the response of so many college
Students to such atrocities the question shouldn’t be do we criticize do we condemn do we punish the speech the question should be how in the world did we get here how did we get to a place where a significant portion of students at some of our best colleges and universities students in
Many cases who view themselves as Progressive leaders have adopted some of the vest values that one could possibly imagine I think we have to say that this is not just a question of do we issue a statement but do we say these institutions have to be completely
Rethought and we have to figure out how is it that the moral fiber has frayed and what can we do to repair it and I appreciate it and listen I’m someone who actually went and you know sometimes not a popular thing I defended some crazy things that Margery says and actually
Was one of the few Republicans I wish actually somebody on the other side who tabled a resolution because it was badly written resolution talking about October 18 event as Insurrection it was an Insurrection as well as was January 6 was an Insurrection so let’s just be
Honest we need to have hears that being honest and not play politics with people’s life and I hope people on the other side also will be able to do something where you go against your own party and get attacked and not to be afraid to do it so my question is for
All of you you know just quickly do you believe that diversity of ideas freedom of speech including conservative speech you know should be protected on college campuses Miss berett just yes or no yes Miss Dr nadell yes Miss Mr Marcus yes Miss Silverstein yes Miss Jordan yes Mr
Ogac if I say it right so do we believe that we do have protection of freedom of speech right now at College on college campuses I’ll site you is you Mr orac completely no Miss Jordan nope Miss Silverstein no Mr Marcus no ma’am Mr nadell nor nadell sorry that’s okay I
Think we have mechanisms put in place to protect fre but do we have it right now protected freedom of speech and ideas and real expression that people are not afraid based on what some of the students have said no M bat yes we do it’s messy and we need to make sure that
The rules are applied fairly to these students so believe a conservative and all speeches are protected right now all speech is protected by the rules and humans implement the rules so when we talk about our implementation we H this diversity in inclusion and it’s becoming like a tyranny you know unless
It the green right is it correct are they effective it’s diversity I talk about giving more money Department of Education also accredits on help you know justifies accreditation but is it being effective just quickly I know that my time is expired quickly are they been effective this diversity inclusion all
Of this initiative no it has not been no Miss Jordan it has absolutely not been Mr Silverstein definitely not no Mr Marcus diversity and inclusion program programs have been a mixed bag at best Dr nadell they’re working on it Miss Bret The Emancipation PL Proclamation didn’t work right away but we had to
Work on it for hundreds of years don’t give up I think we have a difference of opinion between students and adults but thank you g lady yields back the G lady from Vermont is recognized thank you Mr chair um I’ll be honest that many parts of this hearing uh have been extremely
Difficult to listen to my grandfather leopo ballant was murdered in the Holocaust and my family has warned me my entire adult life that anti-Semitism is always lurking just below the surface and we are seeing that today in Stark relief um in this nation but also around the world and so it’s
Been personally difficult for me to sit through this that here we are again here we are again and I also had to pick my jaw off the floor when one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle bemoaned the use of dehumanizing language on college campuses because I have not
Forgotten what was said in a fear-mongering hearing on the dangers of trans Americans right here in this committee it was a hearing full of dehumanizing language it made me sick and as the only member of the lgbtq community on this committee I’ve not forgotten now it’s been a long hearing
So I’m going to just cut to the chase here in these situations it’s best to just follow the money not the rhetoric not the messaging not the talking points just follow the money so there is a clear policy solution to combating the rise of anti-Semitism and other abor discrimination on college campuses and
That is to fully fund the department of education’s office for civil rights budgets when you are in government budgets are a statement of your values how we spend money demonstrates what we really care about and we should care about the rise in hateful speech and dehumanizing dehumanizing language in
America generally and specifically as is the topic of this hearing on college and university campuses fear-mongering and hateful speech isn’t just destroying our communities it’s actually tearing this nation apart and so we all have a part in that as well all of us in Congress so we can point fingers at
College campuses we can point fingers at what’s happening in our elementary schools but I would also say we have a part in that too in putting an end to it now it’s my understanding that the the office of civil rights has already uh had a reported uh dramatic increase in title six
Discrimination claims in the wake of the terrorist attack on October 7th yet many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have proposed a significant funding cut to OCR the office of civil rights is one of the largest federal civil rights agencies in the country it has over 500
Staff who serve as attorneys investigators support staff so it’s been underfunded for years and when it’s underfunded people who have cases people who have claims the staff’s not there to do the investigation to do the followup so I would ask us to put our money where we say our values
Are now a a cut that has been proposed to the tune of reducing from $131 million to $ 105 million that is a significant cut it will have a detrimental impact on the ability of OCR to do its vital work so again I urge us all follow the money
It seems like we are in a lot of agreement here on the things that are making us very uncomfortable the antidote to speech we don’t like is more speech it’s not shouting people down it’s not talking louder it’s not dehumanizing language it is engaging in meaningful conversations when we have
Disagreements it’s that simple so let’s fund the office that is dedicated to making sure we’re dealing with discrimination on college campuses so I have 33 seconds in that time Miss berdette can you just tell me what would be the ramifications if we were to cut from 13
$ 31 million down to 105 just really quickly just give us a list of what what’s going to happen if that happens we know that when hate crime victims and students like like these have no place to call um of course that’s a secondary victimization it means the law
Enforcement can’t respond to you it means you have no recourse why would we take that away if we are having a hearing this isn’t the PTA that has other tools this is a house Judiciary Committee where I think we should look at what are the tools available and we
Know where we have data about hate and the civil rights office of civil rights does data collection on what’s happening in schools data we’re not a government’s not a university we collect data because when we know what’s happening we can intervene we can put resources there and
If we’re not here to talk about how the federal government can make my my boy safer than we could be at a PTA meeting or at another kind of organization meeting and so the budget is a moral document and I’m even saying it’s not enough to have investigators can we
Please invest in interrupting it before it happens not a single family of a of a victim of the Tree of Life shooting feels better that someone was punished they’d rather have their brother back so thank you so much I Y back gent lady yields back the gentleman from Wisconsin has recognized for five
Minutes we have uh 30 more minutes if if that’s good and like I said if anyone needs a break feel free to take a break Mr chairman I might take you up on that generous off go right ahead right ahead gentlemen from Wisconsin’s recognized well it’s a good time for Mr
Marcus to leave because I didn’t have any questions for you so go that’s fine uh thank you Mr chair uh University Wisconsin system of which is located in my home state uh has has been quite a hot bed for campus Free Speech issues over the years uh some in this room may
Remember in 2016 when protesters blocked conservative commentator Ben Shapiro from taking the stage at Young Americans for Freedom event that was at that was on the campus at W Madison and uh similarly when um in very conservative speaker Matt Walsh came to Madison last year there were uh protesters
And those protesters vandalized the Student Union and the alumni Park uh according to a freedom of speech survey conducted by the UW system itself in 2022 over 14% of W madis Madison students believed it was acceptable to disrupt invited speakers whose messages they didn’t agree with uh I think this
Is unacceptable and universities across the country I think should be doing more to Foster an environment that welcomes kind of an honest discussion and and debate I think there’s muscle memory that should happen here so when we end up in a position where we have elevated and expanded demonstrations that
Universities know how to handle those and do it in a responsible way to keep everyone St safe um there is a bill uh one of my colleagues Congressman Greg Murphy has authored campus Free Speech restoration act uh which requires universities to report First Amendment violations to the Department of
Education uh the bill I think would provide a much needed check on some of the federally funded institutions and uh I’m certainly hope hoping that this Congress could move swiftly on it what I wanted to do was just first ask the students that are with us this afternoon to just are there
Any examp examples of a similar situation that may have happened on your campus where a speaker was invited and then they were shouted down or not allowed to actually deliver their full remarks Miss Silverstein you might go first thank you Congressman um regarding the specific issue of anti-Semitism I’m
Not exactly sure um I’m sure that there have been speakers in the past who were not in invited or accepted onto campus uh for their beliefs but I cannot specifically speak to that Miss Jordan thank you for your question none of our speakers have been shouted down but
Similar situation when we hosted Matt Walsh um PE the protesters were like right outside the venue and they couldn’t enter because they most of them had signs and so they blocked the streets people had a really hard time driving home getting out and then we recently hosted Khloe Cole on campus and
The protesters like blockaded the building so people could not get in or out of the building my best friend could not get to her class which is really disappointing it’s like they ask us like the university they’re like okay do you want police at this event and we’re like
Sure but it’s like not enough to have the police like we need to ensure that all students feel safe and are able to you know access the building that shouldn’t have to be something that’s in question and also another thing I’ve noticed is that left leaning students
Don’t need all this police all this security at their events it’s like why do we get so viciously attacked for what we do very good Mr Oger yes when we hosted Michael nolles there was a protest of about 800 to a thousand community members and students outside
This did um Foster a pretty intimidating environment for the attendees who are waiting to enter um fortunately Mr nolles was able to speak however when we hosted Lieutenant Colonel alen West the second half of that event had opened up to a question and answer session allowing anyone in the audience to pose
A question respectfully if they would like to um however instead of moving forward with that the protesters that were were in attendance began to shout from their seats um Power to both the speakers and microphones were cut and this dead end our session thank you all for being here I think it’s important
Part of this hearing today I yield back gentleman yields back the gentleman from New Jersey Mr van Drew is recognized thank you Mr chairman first of all I want to thank the three of you these three students their bravery their strength their honesty their courage it is not easy to be a
Conservative on a college campus today and yet you stand strong and I swear to God you’re my heroes today I really really am proud of you I know that many of our members are thank you for being here I’m pro-israel I’m unabashedly pro-israel I’m pro-israel because they
Are our partners they are a force of civilization they are are a nation that since its founding has gone through hell and yet they still Prevail so I’m pro-israel and you can check me out you can see anything I’ve ever written anything I’ve ever said I believed in everything I’ve ever voted
For every speech I’ve ever given I am pro-israel yet I still believe that we shouldn’t use these these words to try to say well if you believe that George Soros is involved in our local elections because he is if you believe that he is funding prosecutors and local officials
That have a different vision for America than most Americans do he is that doesn’t make me racist it doesn’t mean that I’m wrong it means it’s my opinion it’s what I believe but what we do now is we use these catch wordss globalism I’m going to tell you what globalism is
You know maybe there’s some people who are bad people that use it I was at a event recently and I spoke and this has happened to me numerous times I talked about americanism American exceptionalism and how we are The Shining City on the hill damn it I
Believe that and I know the three of you do too we are a special place without us the world will go into chaos are we perfect no globalism says and this is a theory that’s put forth by a lot when I was at the event some people came to me
Because I spoke about all those things and they said you’re wrong America is like any other place in the world they said we don’t believe in americanism we don’t believe in American exceptionalism I disagree with them that doesn’t make me racist it means that I can use the
Word globalism I can’t help if there’s a bad person that uses that word I still think it’s a real issue and a real challenge so Dr nadell I’m going to ask you one thing and I would just like a yes or no answer and I’m sorry to do
That to you but we’re so time con restricted do you believe in American exceptionalism I believe that there is an idea of American exceptionalism that has been upheld by Scholars and I ma’am I appreciate I cannot I can’t answer you can’t answer that you believe in American exception okay that’s good Miss
Berett do you believe in American exceptionalism please yes or no um I don’t find the question relevant to this hearing it is very relevant it’s relevant to what’s happening on college campuses but I thank you Mr gosh I have a tough time with you a gric do you believe in American exceptionalism yes
Or no unequivocally yes I do miss Jordan do you believe in American undoubtedly yes I do thank you Miss Silverstein do you believe in American exceptionalism I do these are great young people you have the courage to tell the truth and give an answer so I want to thank you you know I
Just want to talk about some of my personal experiences real quick and I’m running out of time cona rice some people may remember her it was back uh she was a national security adviser the highest ranking American African-American in history at that time uh and of the Federal Executive Branch
And she was supposed to speak at my alma moer ruter University a great school I was Premed predent and you know got a great education but Moy if you had a different opinion even back then and this is not I’m further back than that and I watched in dismay as the
Professors at my alma mater led the charge opposing her appearance because they didn’t want to hear another opinion every student at ruter regardless of their political stance liberal conservative socialist libertarian Democrat Republican man it’s an exchange of ideas it’s the marketplace of ideas do you agree with that yes I do M Jordan
Do you agree with yes I do miss Silverstein yes I do and you know why I’m going to wrap up with this you know why we don’t want to fund Dei you know why we’re concerned about the office of civil rights because they don’t protect their rights they you know now recently
They’re starting to talk about the Jewish issue more but basically it was just certain groups certain left-wing groups certain groups that were in you know it was inv Vogue to protect certain groups but damn it it’s not in Vogue to protect conservatives they don’t have the same opportunity in their University
Experience that every single other person does that is wrong it’s unamerican and that’s why it doesn’t get funded bad things happen when you do bad things and that’s bad Mr chairman I yield back gentleman yields back Mr Marcus do you believe in American exceptionalism thank you Mr chairman I’m
Sorry SK you I’m sorry yes I didn’t want you left out and I figured that was you I figures your respond that was a great line of questioning I appreciate the gentleman from Alabama has recognized Mr Moore thank you Mr chairman thank all the witnesses for being here today I’m
Certainly proud of my Almer ma it’s Auburn University and recently been ranked one of the top colleges in the country that advocates for free speech and robust debate unfortunately that is not the case throughout many campuses across the country with shout downs and immediate conservative voices the
Heckers veto if you will has the adverse effect of what the first amendment is supposed to support some extreme groups use this silencing meth method under the guise of Tolerance yet their definition of Tolerance is ironically not tolerant at all the heckler’s veto effectively silences the speech and messages through
Fear and disinformation or intimidation I should say 56% of the students Across the Nation fear stating their views would put them Harm’s Way actually and even my nephew he went to Auburn and there were times in class classrooms he he was afraid to speak out because he
Knew that it would affect his grade do y’all experience that have you experienced that Miss silvertine and then I’ll go down the line with the students so I am a a business major so I personally have not experienced that but many of my friends have Miss Jordan any
Of your friends do you experience that I know my friends have experienced it and then like personally you know like first day of class they always ask us to say our pronouns I’m the only student usually who doesn’t say any pronouns because it’s unnecessary um and then
Just in general in class they you know often just have discussions that more people um support liberal viewpoints and sometimes I do like get that like my heart starts beating fast I’m like should I say something should I not because a lot of students just know my
Face I’m one of the only black conservatives on campus so it’s kind of hard just you know making friends talking to people because once they find out you’re conservative you know they also ize you yeah I mean I can imagine cuz I know I can’t keep my mouth shut
Sometimes so I couldn’t imagine being in a classroom nowadays being a conservative and actually having to say something maybe contradictory to what the professor might be saying Mr O you had that experience as well similarly to miss Silverstein um just based on my major those topics were often left out
Of the classroom I can vouch for my political science friends and say that they were not so lucky say these conservative University you know General Schwarz said about Auburn University he said I sent my sons to West Point and my daughters to Auburn and I noticed like
My son he is Auburn he’s at Auburn now he’s building science major so he doesn’t have he’s like you Miss Jordan or I guess Miss Silverstein you don’t have the the issue of politics does not come off up often in the classroom but uh it’s it to me like my son’s roommates
Are from New York now he his buddies are from New York and Arizona they’re coming to these universities where they they feel they have a right to have an opposing Viewpoint and actually speak up so uh first Miss silver I have a question for you how has your life been
Affected by the threatening rhetor rhetoric of these activist groups groups on Cornell’s campus every day when I walk outside I question what I do I question how I appear I question what I say out of fear that someone might hear me who disagrees or who who disagrees with my very
Existence and could threaten me with with any actions um I I’m as the chairman mentioned I’m on the kabad board for U my University and I go to Shabbat dinner every Friday night and I’m scared to walk walk outside I’m scared to walk alone without police
Protecting us silver let me say this uh it’s e easi as 1 123 Genesis 12:3 says if you’ll bless Israel you’ll be blessed and if you curse Israel you’ll be cursed and so you know judeo Christian values we understand Jesus was Jewish but uh that we we want to Rally behind the
Jewish nation and the nation of Israel and I was over there recently traveling and the thing that I noticed about the nation of Israel is most of their weapons are defensive weapons whether it’s reactive armor on their tanks or the Iron Dome or the iron beam those are
All weapons to push back against attacks and so they they are people they’re peaceful people and so I I just want you to know that uh as a Christian we certainly support the nation of Israel and it’s as easy as one two three just remind all your Christian friends and so
Miss Jordan have you had opportunity like do you feel sometime intimidated on your campus does it feel like maybe that you just well you couldn’t stand up I guess you had to stand up and not say your pronouns is that kind of that is so
Weird to me as old as I am I guess you know Mr chairman but I never had that so tell me about some experiences yeah so for me with the pronoun thing you know I just you know say my name Hometown all everybody look at you when you stand up
And don’t say your pronoun typically not I don’t know if people notice like as a mental thing or not you know I kind of hope they don’t but yeah with my experiences um I guess could you repeat the question again so have have you had an opportunity where or an experience
Where you felt maybe intimidated by other students like Miss Silverstein says she’s a little bit nervous sometime now going to certain events and yes so the second time that I was doxed my photo and name along with several of our other what’s dox for us old people yes
So it is when your personal information is released so the first time I was dox in that 800 person group chat my Instagram profile was screenshotted and sent to all those people it had my name um personal information things like that the second time um it was a screenshot
From a group chat and it had my name and photo along with several other yaf members names and photos and so this was printed out and put all around downtown Iowa City and campus and on my birthday um we me and some yaf members were walking downtown to get frozen yogurt to
Celebrate and this girl walks right by us you know don’t think anything out of nowhere she starts screaming her head off and she’s like f you um you don’t belong here get out of Iowa City um we don’t like your people stuff tolerant left as we call them yeah very Mr
Chairman I need sorry Mr didn’t get to this Mr chairman I’ll yield back I’m over Time gentleman yields back to chair I’ll recognizes the gentleman from California Mr Kylie a truly terrible sickness has Afflicted colleges and universities in this country uh which has reached horrifying levels over the course of the
Last month and we have to ask how is it that in the United States of America in the 21st century have our supposedly most elite institutions been gripped by one of the most ancient retrograde prejudices that the world has ever known how is it that universities that have systematically suppressed free
Speech for years how have they suddenly discovered the first amendment and invoked Free Speech as a reason not to condemn terrorism and anti-Semitism how is it that institutions that have proliferated their diversity equity and inclusion bureaucracies are turning a blind eye now to attacks on Jewish
Students on their own campuses how is it that University administrations that have waded into every political issue of the day are now suddenly Bound by instit tional neutrality when it comes to the murder of children perhaps the Intolerable irony and hypocrisy of it all is best ill illustrated by Harvard University whose
Leadership remained silent and said nothing for days after October 7th meanwhile 24 student groups filled the vacuum with a statement explaining that Israel itself was solely to blame for the attack and it was only after enormous criticism from alumni like myself and representative Alise stefanic that Harvard president Colleen gay came
Out with a very tepid statement which still refused to condemn the student groups and instead said that Harvard is committed to free expression the thing is Harvard is not committed to free expression there was a recent ranking of how committed 248 universities are to free expression and Harvard was ranked
Dead last number 248 the only institution to receive the abysmal rating but I actually think that these things are not unrelated and uh Mr Marcus I think your testimony established that that uh the suppression of free speech and the rise of anti-Semitism actually in some ways go hand inand uh do you
Believe that the systematic suppression of free speech on college campuses has served to fuel the rise of anti-Semitism by silencing and excluding Jewish students on campus uh yes sir Congressman I think that there is is a culture of intolerance in which certain viewpoints and certain identities are privileged
And certain other ones are condemned we no longer have on even our greatest college campuses a sense that we should have a reason debate among all or that every group should be treated with the same degree of equality what we have is a kind of Orthodoxy uh which is taken
Over from the faculty and also the student body and this has implication not only for conservatives but for other groups who are disdained within the institution including uh Jewish Americans I’d like to uh read a portion of a letter from the legislative Jewish caucus uh in California uh to show just
How dire the situation is at the public universities in my own State this is a letter addressed to the CSU California State University and the leader and the UC leaders it says among numerous other examples we have heard from Jewish students at UC Berkeley UC Davis and San
Jose State who report being physically attacked for expressing support for Israel Jewish students at UC San Diego who required a police escort in order to safely leave a student meeting obscene anti-israeli graffiti on a Jewish ritual space at kyp humble anti-israel rallies at UCLA that interrupted classes with
Hate filled rhetoric a social media post by a UC Davis faculty member with knife Axe and blood emojis calling for violence against zionists in their homes and in their kids in school and an increased name for Need for armed security at Jewish student centers on multiple camp campuses shockingly the
Letter continues anti-israel student groups immediately celebrated the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th while the UC ethnic studies faculty Council glorified the largest mass murder rape and kidnapping of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust as worthy of support as part of the Palestinian Freedom struggle the letter goes on from these 18
Legislators that Jewish students and faculty have shared with us disturbing examples of Jewish students being denied opportunities afforded to other student groups examples includeed administrators providing space on campus to various identity and effiny groups but not to Jewish student organizations and at least one Israeli student UC Berkeley
Being told she could not participate in a class related conference because of her nationality uh given your experience at the Civil Rights division at the department of education do you believe there is more uh that the department could be doing uh about this sort of uh uh discrimination uh and activity on
Campuses absolutely uh there is more that the department can be doing and it can do it tomorrow uh the department has sent out links for Jewish students to file complaints uh it is added language to its complaint forms that’s fine but there is no reason why the department
Needs to wait for Jewish students to come to them the dep department has the authority to initiate self-directed investigations anytime it opens the newspaper and sees that there is a problem at an institutional that receives federal funds and that’s every single day if they’re reading the papers moreover secretary of education has the
Authority to commence Nationwide compliance reviews in particular areas that are of concern and again there’s no way that one can pay attention to higher education today and not realize that this is a serious National problem these are things that can be done quickly that don’t require legislation they don’t
Require significant infusions of funds they can be done with the current resources and that can be done with the authority that the Secretary of Education already has thank you I Y back gentlemen Yi’s back gentleman recognizes uh uh or the chair recognizes gentleman from South Carolina Miss
Fry thank you Mr chairman thanks for having this hearing today actually um freedom of speech for me but not the I think is the central theme for conservatives on college campuses that’s the unfortunate Truth uh that we really see uh perpetuated by college and university administ rators across the
Country think about the few examples we’ve kind of hit on today a little bit including yours Riley Gaines was attacked twice uh when she went to San Francisco State University and it didn’t to stop there the school kind of glossed over it by saying that students took tremendous bravery for the students who
Participated peacefully uh on campus or when the acting associate Dean for administrative Affairs at the University of Arizona sent an email to students that they may be impacted by Charlie Kirk coming to the school and provided them with counseling for anyone who was considered that I guess violence of some
Flavor or most recently just last month in the classroom at Stanford University a lecture asked Jewish students to raise their hands if they were Jewish and put them in the corner of the room and said that is what happens in Palestine College universities should be epicenters of American freedoms schools
Should robustly protect the right of students students to defend their position to articulate their position to express those viewpoints on campus these are the these are the labyrinths of our future of this Republic but many College University administrators have shown that their commitment is not to protect Free Speech
Unless it is speech in which they agree with let’s play a video real quick it was a terrifying night Campus Police issuing a shelter in place order colleges Across America are in turmoil he’s a fascist and Berkeley did not welcome him College swimmer physically hit by trans rights protesters after speaking at San
Francisco State University intimidating and bullying a Jewish kid Pro Palestinian protesters storm a New York College they pound on the doors threatening 11 Jewish students I didn’t think I was dis intimidating believe that gentleman just threw paint on me yeah no you just support the genocide of trans kids
And a group called the NYU anti-fascist arguing that mcginness is a hate speaker with a track record of using incendiary language so these are our college campuses in America today is this your experience the three of you collectively I personally have not experienced thank God violence towards
Myself but the rhetoric being spread and the incitement to violence yes yes this is very similar to what we have you know when we’re tabling also the lectures that we host on campus unfortunately yes it is we had a a violent mob chase us across campus
Following one of our lectures and I have had um literature comparing me to a Nazi to a fascist with many other obscenities written in the letter sent to the address of my parents house these issues need extend off campus see see that’s that’s the problem I think we what most
Of us see is that colleges should be the the environment in which you learn that you learn how to debate that you learn how to defend your ideas to grow as a person but that doesn’t seem to be the case here you know Scholars have said that the purpose of the American public
School system is to prepare futures of the future citizenry of this Republic but that doesn’t seem to be taking place uh Miss Jordan uh and Mr ogac as I pronounced that right okay I know there was a lot of variations of that I heard today I just wanted to confirm that uh a
2022 report from the foundation for individual rights and education revealed that roughly three and five students expressed worry about damaging their reputation because someone of someone misunderstanding what they have said or done roughly one out of two students reported that they feel discomfort expressing their own views on college campuses on controversial political
Topics can genuine learning transpire in such repressive academic uh institutions Miss Jordan sorry could you repeat the question again please can genuine learning transpire in such a repressive academic environment like are you asking if learning can happen from how these students are kind of acting out right so
I mean if if one out of two students feel that they can’t express themselves because of discomfort of of a controversial political topic can you truly be learning absolutely not because you know you’re just running away from the conversation you’re not engaging in dialogue you’re learning nothing like
Recently me and a fellow yaf member had been accosted by two pro Palestine people and when we were sharing our viewpoints and someone else who actually had a personal connection to two hostages started sharing our viewpoints the two students just ran away they learned nothing got nothing out of the
Discussion because they can’t tolerate a different point of view and can’t be exposed to another side they for you know it’s just a constant Echo chamber of echo echo chamber of misinformation Mr Agri isn’t that self-censorship basically and that you’re not allowed to to participate or express your viewpoints isn’t that concerning yeah
That is that is concerning to me of course true education true understanding um you know questioning your own morals can only come when every everyone in the room everyone who is um in that Center for Learning is able to completely Express their values their viewpoints
You know if you are unable to do so I I don’t understand how new ideas can form thank you and just in conclusion Miss Silverstein I noticed in your written testimony um that you talked about how uh relatives from Israel have called you uh to see how you were doing here and
And this is in light of the the recent events that are going on in Israel right now how insanely ironic that is that they are calling you to check on you and your status at Cornell University thank you Mr chairman with that I yield back gentleman yields back uh I apologize I
Have to get to I’m 10 minutes late for another engagement I have to get to I want to thank all of you for being here the chair would ask Miss Hegman if you could come up and and and take the the chair while we go to Mr Moran and um
Then miss Hegman will close out our hearing but I did have two quick things uh Mr O you had a um you had a point you wanted to make earlier and I said I’d give you time you can make that point if you haven’t committee will be in order we get the
Capital he decided to be become the not wait for the police uh so if you wanted to do that real quickly then I did have a question for Mr Marcus of course yeah I just wanted to touch on representative Roy’s question regarding you know application of Dei offices and why they
May not be so effective I mean of course my biggest problem with these offices is the and Dei inclusion of course I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that everyone here wants the inclusion of all viewpoints um however I I don’t understand how such offices can pretend to facilitate that when it’s so
Unequally applied you know when we hosted alen West on our campus he came to spoke about to speak about race and this was heavily protested especially by members of this office the university itself in their distinguished speaker series which is pretty well known in the Buffalo area was able to host Nicole
Hannah Jones who is the founder of the 1619 project these speakers each came to talk about race they each have large followings but the response to them was vastly different you know if Dei offices were committed to handling these topics equally I I failed to see why there was
This discrepancy so one of the things I’ve just recently learned about you made me think of it um you know I know on campuses we had these safe spaces we have free speech and all this stuff that does me it seems to me the freee speech Zone should be everywhere it’s called
The First Amendment but we have these things but I learned about this issue called no contact orders have any of the three of you students experience that Dynamic on campus where someone says they don’t like your point of view they report to the Dei office or someone in
In campus in authority and then there’s a there’s an order that you’re not allowed to have contact with another student because that student is somehow offended by what you believe or what you may have said have any of you had any experience with that um I personally have not had any
Experience that okay I also have personally not experienced that okay I have not either that’s good to hear maybe it’s maybe it’s not very prevalent which would be a good thing Mr Marcus in your opening statement you talked about four things you thought should happen that you were suggesting the committee
Do if you could just and I just I just wrote down one to four but I didn’t get all didn’t get those if you could just recite those for me again that’d be great uh certainly Mr chairman I suggested that um Congress could provide the education department with tools to
Address violations of the freedom of speech similar to the way in which it handles uh violations of the right to be free of discrimination okay second um that um there could be a special advisor or coordinator for free speech within the Department of Education reporting to the
Secretary uh third uh I promoting Free Speech promoting the First Amendment not not the disinformation governance board that the Obama or that the Biden Administration tried to set up that would limit speech is that right that’s right Mr chairman got it um free speech is addressed if at all by the office of
General counsel by the office for civil rights there are implications of work done by the Office of post-secondary Education and other components but there is no institutional repository of knowledge on how it is that free speech can be protected okay um third uh I suggested that the uh anti-Semitism
Awareness act um would provide important tools for the education uh Department uh and I believe the fourth one is that the there could be a check on whether the Biden Administration is indeed planning to issue uh the promised regulations implementing the Trump executive order 13899 next month as um promised uh in
The oira unified agenda um and Regulatory plan but for which there’s been no talk in uh that’s something that’s that’s you know current that we need to you know pressing right now I want to thank all of our Witnesses particular our students Miss Silverstein especially and what you’ve had to endure
But thank you all for being here the chair and I recognize the gentleman from uh uh Texas for 5 minutes thank you Mr chairman um I would like to address in the context of this hearing my concerns about diversity equity and inclusion offices on campuses in particular we’ve heard some of that
Today but I I noticed a trend that’s very disturbing to me and then I want to come to some of the students and ask you about your experiences on campus as well but seems to me that staff at diversity Equity inclusion departments on many college campuses today are noticeably
Anti-semitic and go about their work in a manner contrary to the stated intent of treating all with equality or Equity uh in 2021 Heritage did a report on the anti-Semitism of Dei staff at universities that objectively validates my hypothesis on this matter in conducting its study Heritage Sears the
Twitter feeds of 741 Dei Personnel at 65 universities to find comments regarding Israel and for comparon also looked at their comments about China those Dei staff tweeted retweeted or liked almost three times as many tweets about Israel as tweets about China but here’s what’s disturbing notably of the tweets about Israel 96%
Were critical of the Jewish State while 62% of the tweets about China were favorable towards China so consider that it appears to me through that data that Dei staff simply across our college campuses University are favoring China and disfavoring Israel in my view this explains in large part the lack of
Response towards anti-semitic instances by Dei staff on college campuses seems clear to me that there are a number of higher education institutions whose Dei staff are disconnected with the values and the Strategic objectives of the US and what’s more they are clearly anti-semitic one of the most painful
Videos from The Fallout of the Hamas attack on Israel uh on this issue in particular is from UC Berkeley and in the video you can watch Jewish students pleading with the vice Chancellor of Dei to do something to protect Jewish students on campus that Dei administrator talks about uh how they
Didn’t have enough time to work with Jewish students and that they were overworked but despite the unwillingness of the Dei administrators to assist the students themselves put together a vigil for Israel within 24 hours despite their busy schedules and despite their workload and despite the fact that
They’re not getting paid to do that as part of their job simply put Jewish students in many cases received disproportionate push back and opposition by Dei staff on college campuses it’s atrocious to me uh Dr nadell earlier defined anti-Semitism in a number of different ways but on
Campuses she said quote it it involves threats violence intimidation and discrimination on campuses that was part of her definition so I want to come to you Miss Silverstein because it appears to me you’ve you’ve experienced this have you indeed experienced such threats violence intimidation and discrimination on
Campus yes I have um as I’ve spoken about before threats were made saying that they would come to our only kosher dining hall on campus um and shoot it up shoot all of the people who were in it uh bomb all of the Jewish houses and Facilities on campus that I regularly
Attend um so yes I was directly threatened and I’m curious do you have a you do have a Dei um office at corn located there on campus correct yes um actually a few weeks ago um the former now former Dei chair um who I’m not sure
If his leave was related to this or unrelated um but was found to have made anti-semitic remarks and support of Hamas online yeah did that office provide you any support in response to the intimidation that you faced on campus no yeah and that’s amazing to me
Because when I when I Googled Dei and Cornell the first thing that came up on their web page Cornell’s web page is a big highlight from this last week that says Cornell awarded excellence in diversity and inclusion first paragraph of that says Cornell University has been awarded the 2023 higher education
Excellence and diversity award by insight into diversity magazine for its outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion would you agree that they have outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion so I I was made aware that they recently added um added anti-Semitism to their Dei training that every student and I believe faculty
Member must go through but I haven’t seen tangible results yeah and this is just emblematic I think of what’s going on across the nation I I note that it’s Stanford University Professor was recently suspended for forcing Jewish students in two classes uh to stand in a corner while he called them colonizers
That Professor Shrugged off the deaths of six million Jews in the Holocaust and called homas terrorists Freedom Fighters uh Joseph mad a professor at Columbia University called the Hamas Massacre of Israeli and American citizens quote awesome and quote a stunning Victory these are horrific statements zaren gral
A professor at Yale University stated on X formerly Twitter that Israel is quote a murderous genocidal settler State and Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle to me this is disgusting it’s being propagated by the de offices Dei offices on our college campuses which are actually working
Contrary to their stated intent and with that Mr Speaker I yield back in disgust thank you the chair now recognizes herself for five minutes um giving more money to the Federal Department of Education isn’t the answer it never has been and it never will be in fact it’s the Federal Department of
Education that’s largely responsible for the free spee crisis that we’re seeing on our campuses both in grade school high school and college what do I mean by that the testimony that you’ve provided today has been very enlightening very fascinating very disturbing and we must identify what the
Real cancer is here so that we can actually at some point start addressing it and it is our federal department of education um now don’t get me wrong I come from a long line of Educators my grandmother my mother my sisters my aunts great aunts sister-in-laws I come
From a I I am a product of public education in the state of Wyoming but they used to focus on that education not indoctrination and I have watched with absolute horror especially as a constitutional attorney over the last 10 years or so as those on the left being
Unable to defend their noxious ideas in the Free Speech Marketplace are now working overtime to Pro prevent us from speaking at all they are the fascists they are the ones that are preventing our students from engaging in the free Marketplace of ideas so forgive me if I don’t necessarily believe you when you
Talk about wanting to fight for free speech on campus when I watch University after University after University and people just like you go in and say yeah we believe in free speech but we don’t necessarily agree with these young people people have to say so we don’t know that they should be
Allowed to bring their speakers to the to to campus the way that others should we spent an awful lot of time talking about what happened over the last 30 days and what happened on October 7th and it’s definitely at the Forefront of our minds but the very purpose of this
Hearing was to talk about the importance of free speech on on campus and how it has been uh squelched how our campuses have been preventing people from engaging in that free Marketplace of ideas Miss Jordan I’d like to talk to you for a moment I very much appreciate your experience and what you’ve
Described you are some very brave young people very brave young people much braver than the people who were sitting in the back of the room with her faces covered um you highlight that because of your conservative and Christian values other students felt you were you were capable of committing a hate crime or
Hateful or that you supported oppression this seems to be part of a larger Trend we are seeing on campuses where opposing views are redefined as violence just to justify attacks by attacks on certain viewpoints alog together through your experiences at college do you think your fellow students actions in condemning
Your beliefs are part of that broader Trend could you please repeat the question sure through your experiences in college do you think your fellow students actions in condemning your condemning your beliefs are part of that larger Trend the larger trend of that we are seeing at people attack you simply
Because of your beliefs that’s the trend that I’m seeing on University campuses they don’t want to engage you about your conservative ideas your conservative ideals so they attack you personally and accuse you of things such as that you’re being hateful or that you support oppression do you see that as part of a
Larger Trend yes I definitely do okay and why do you think your fellow students view your belief system in this manner I think a majority of the students are afraid of the truth that’s simply put it they can’t agree that there’s only men and women I had a student tell me
Chromosomes don’t matter which is the most one of the most Preposterous statements I’ve ever heard and a lot of students you know when they’re faced with this truth they know it’s true but they just want to deny it because they want to continue living in their
Delusions and it just causes a lot of chaos honestly which is really disappointing because you know the con constant denial of the truth is why our country is in such a disarray as it is uncertainty that’s exactly right um as a as a recent graduate yourself I think
Your perspective on this growing issue and witnessing it for the entirety of your college experience is incredibly important in your testimony you covered the hurdles that you faced as a member of Young Americans for freedom I want to make sure that I want to address the classroom situation as well you have
Outlined the threats and direct acts of violence that you witnessed due to the speakers your group was bringing in and clearly your student group’s differing Viewpoint was not accepted by some on campus did this also translate into the experience in the classroom either by you or other people that you
Know it did yes others and and how how did that happen yep other students in class have been called out for wearing you know yaf memorability yaf shirts a yaf hat in classes related to their major un fortunate that this was not happened to me but it did happen to
Others so our professors are o engaging in the suppression of freedom of speech unfortunately yes contrary to my um my preferences political beliefs of professors are not being left at the door Okay I uh uh with unanimous with unanimous consent I have two articles I would like to submit for the
Record your speech is violence the left’s new mantra to justify campus Violence by Jonathan Turley and the diversity problem on campus by D Dorian s Abbott and Ivan Marin marovic without objection that concludes today’s hearing and we thank our Witnesses for appearing before the committee today without objection all members will have five
Legislative days to submit additional written questions for the witnesses or additional materials for the record without objection the hearing is adjourned yeah
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