OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Condemning the Support of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Other Terrorist Organizations At Institutions of Higher Education, Which May Lead to the Creation of A Hostile Environment for Jewish Students, Faculty, and Staff

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 1, 2023
Location: Washington, DC

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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 798, a resolution condemning anti-Semitism on college campuses and encouraging campus leaders to speak out in support of their Jewish students, faculty, and guests.

One word that comes to mind is ``regression.'' The extreme rhetoric on college campuses is, sadly, yet another chapter in the troubled history between Jewish students and American universities. It started with quotas. In 1922, Harvard President Abbott Lowell proposed a cap on the number of Jewish enrollees each year. Many other universities adopted similar policies.

Out of Jewish quotas, alternative Jewish education opportunities were born. In 1948, Brandeis University was founded. It was named after Lowell's great enemy, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis. The initial 107-student class at Brandeis was overwhelmingly Jewish and just 12 miles down the road from Cambridge. It stood as a stark reminder of ethnic discrimination.

The world progressed greatly in the post-war period, but the events of the past month have ripped open a wound in American postsecondary education that had been festering.

There is no better example than modern Harvard. The coalition student group letter from Harvard was the first anti-Semitic demonstration on campus to make the news after Hamas' October 7 attack, hearkening back to Harvard's Jewish quotas. Harvard is a bellwether, for better or for worse.

H. Res. 798 condemns the support of terrorists and condemns anti- Semitism behavior. I thank Representative Owens for putting this important resolution forward, and I pray that it is a step toward reversing the abhorrent behavior that has taken over college campuses.

Madam Speaker, we must throw anti-Semitism into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

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