Leaders of three elite American universities have told a House committee that antisemitism had surged on their campuses since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel but attempted to rebut Republican claims that leftwing ideology at their institutions was to blame.
Instead, they cast the rise in hostility towards Jews as part of a broader increase in antisemitism across the US, citing an accompanying rise in Islamophobia. They also touted vigorous efforts to counter hatred and protect their students.
“We have seen a dramatic and deeply concerning rise in antisemitism around the world, in the United States and on our campuses — including my own,” Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard, told the House committee on education and the workforce on Tuesday. “I know many in our Harvard Jewish community are hurting.”