[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 185 (Wednesday, November 8, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Anti-Semitism

  Now, Mr. President, on another matter, since October 7, a nationwide 
reckoning with the ancient scourge of anti-Semitism has centered on 
America's most elite academic institutions, and the eye of the storm 
has been a cadre of the country's most radical leftist faculty.
  Recently, the University of California's Ethnic Studies Faculty 
Council released a letter condemning Israel as a ``globally 
acknowledged apartheid.'' The council called the UC system's official 
response, which correctly identified the butchery committed by Hamas 
and Palestinian Islamic jihad as terrorism, irresponsible, and it 
claimed for itself the mantle of moral--moral--authority.
  Well, of course, tenured Marxists do not have to worry much about 
real-world consequences, but university administrators, recruiters, 
fundraisers, and students--well, they do.
  So, in response to this faculty group's terrorist propaganda, one 
member of the University of California's Board of Regents published a 
strongly worded letter of his own. Here is what he said:

       Let me be crystal clear with no ifs, ands, or buts--I . . . 
     will do everything in my power to protect our Jewish 
     students, and for that matter, everyone . . . from your 
     inflammatory and out of touch rhetoric.

  Unfortunately, too many other administrators have been unable or 
unwilling to speak with such moral clarity, and the consequences for 
their institutions are actually piling up.
  The billionaire philanthropist who just a few years ago made the 
biggest donation in the history of Penn's Wharton School is now leading 
a revolt among influential donors that stretches across the Ivy League. 
He has pledged to close his checkbook, and by one account, he is 
talking to ``half of Wall Street,'' urging them to do likewise. One 
prominent national law firm has gone as far as setting up a legal 
assistance hotline for students experiencing anti-Semitism on campus.
  Apparently, the most successful alumni of the most elite schools in 
America want nothing--nothing--to do with institutions that aid or abet 
anti-Semitism. Well, good for them. Good for them.
  And it is not just private funding on the line. This week, the 
Secretary of Education called a play from his Republican predecessor's 
playbook and told major universities that he was willing to use title 
VI of the Civil Rights Act to withhold Federal funds if they permit 
anti-Semitic discrimination on their campuses. Of course, the Secretary 
couldn't help but couch his warning in ``both sides'' rhetoric about 
Islamophobia, as has been the Biden administration's practice in the 
past month.
  Well, tomorrow, our colleagues on the HELP Committee will convene a 
roundtable discussion addressing the topic at hand: a glaring rise in 
anti-Semitic hate on campuses. I am very grateful to Ranking Member 
Cassidy for leading this effort to highlight the legal responsibility 
universities have to protect Jewish students.
  As our former colleague, the president of the University of Florida, 
put it without hesitation after October 7, ``our Constitution protects 
the rights of people to make abject idiots of themselves.''
  Fortunately, the Constitution also protects our right to condemn 
these people in the strongest possible terms.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.