• 2 days ago
At today's Senate Health Committee hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) questioned witnesses about how the government should respond to antisemitism on college campuses.

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Transcript
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all for your time here and all your work. I think we've
00:11covered sufficiently to say that all of you agree that every student should feel safe
00:16on their campus. Certainly, the troubling rise of anti-Semitic incidents on campuses
00:23over these past two years is troubling and should not be accepted. Students barricading
00:31in their rooms to protect themselves is unacceptable by any standard. But we've cut the Office
00:41of Civil Rights dramatically, and we seem to be pitting two of our fundamental goals
00:47against each other. You know, one is the necessity to stop anti-Semitism, but also
00:55making sure that we uphold the First Amendment rights. And I think American universities
01:03are trying to do that. I went to a little college in Connecticut, Wesleyan, where there's
01:06been a lot of effort about going out and trying to have discussion with both sides, and at
01:14the same time, always keeping students safe. That is their constant priority. And so I
01:20thought, Rabbi Saperstein, do you agree that university leadership should work harder at
01:29making sure we have, not just keeping them safe, but making sure that that dialogue can
01:33help create that safety? I do. There are a number of things that are going on at universities
01:40that would be very helpful now. Exactly the university encouraging and structuring those
01:48kinds of dialogues. Having courses that teach about both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism,
01:55so that people can hear it from an academic point of view. Having opportunities that there
02:03can be an open space and safe space where these dialogues can be held. And the one thing
02:08I would say to your statement and to some of the others, it is always difficult to come
02:14up with a perfect answer of when something steps over speech into harassment or into
02:22intimidation, which are clearly not allowed. What's really important is for the universities
02:29to make clear what their standards are and what kind of protests will step over the line
02:37to be public about it, transparent about it, and consistently enforce it. Nothing is more
02:43important in terms of actually being able to tone down things. For everyone to know
02:48what the rules are, what the limits are, and to see it consistently enforced, no matter
02:56who the perpetrators may be. Great. Any other comments on that? Yeah. Rabbi? Yeah. I think
03:05that, you know, I'm obviously a supporter of the First Amendment. I'm a very deep beneficiary
03:12of the First Amendment. I believe that discussion between peoples is always important. One thing
03:19I'm proud of is the numerous relationships I have with Muslims and Arab leaders who come
03:26to this country. But you got to go a little faster. I'm going to understand them. It will
03:29be three sentences. On the campus of the George Washington University, I was just told
03:35firsthand by a student that they were taught in the first session of a class they needed
03:42to take that just to balance things out, there will be no Israeli written materials allowed
03:49in this course. I believe that. I hear that. I hear that argument, but that's not answering
03:54my question. Dr. Small? I just want to start by saying my family friend's daughter goes
04:00to Wesleyan, and she withdrew because she couldn't stand the pressure of being a young
04:05Jewish woman in this space. That's the first point. No, no, no. I got to get to the question.
04:13I apologize. I wish I had six minutes. Michael Roth, the president there, is one of my heroes.
04:18What he said when there was an encampment, he said, you want to camp? Camp. You harass
04:22somebody. You intimidate. It's a different story. We're going to use this as a learning
04:25experience. One other thing. No, no, no. I just want to get to this last question. Sorry,
04:31Ms. Gamble. You get your one sentence. I think we have to stop hiding behind free speech.
04:37What we are seeing on campuses is not a matter of speech by and large. I hear you. That's
04:42come through. And I don't disagree that that balance between free speech and what we're
04:47talking about. I want to just a quick yes or no right down the line because this is
04:51a crux. Do you think it's appropriate that the federal government threatens to withhold
04:57research money that has nothing to do with any of this issue from major universities
05:02across the country based on how they're addressing this specific issue? The federal government
05:07has the authority to condition how it spends its money. So you think that's OK? When institutions
05:13are violating the law, yes, it is OK. OK. I believe they can reapportion the funding
05:18to institutions that will abide by the law and will protect Jewish students and other
05:23students and not have intimidation on their campus. So research dollars are very hard
05:27to reapportion, but OK, I hear you. There should be a way to do that. It's against the
05:31federal law to fund private or public entities that discriminate against American citizens.
05:38The money is there to do what you're talking about, the rabbi here. To take it from here
05:44is punitive. It's really just aimed at undermining universities to do things that we can find
05:51a better way to get them achieved. Senator, I see it as an existential threat to universities.
05:57They're going to kill cancer research and diabetes research. Some of the researchers
06:01are Jewish. They're doing it without due process. That is not the way to deal with this problem.
06:07That's only going to make it worse. Thank you all. I appreciate it. Yield back.
06:14I just wanted to point out that there's a fine line between free speech and violence.

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