On Monday, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, sent a letter to Columbia University demanding that the university hand over documents and other information relating to the school’s response to anti-Semitism following the October 7th terrorist attacks in Israel.
As Fox News reports, the 16-page letter was addressed to several high-ranking officials at the university, including President Minouche Shafik. In the letter, Foxx listed several examples of “an environment of pervasive antisemitism” that “has been documented at Columbia for more than two decades before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.”
Foxx is seeking information regarding “Columbia University’s response to antisemitism on its campus and its failure to protect Jewish students, faculty, and staff.” She added that “Columbia has consistently allowed anti-Israel groups to violate university policies and shown its commitments on antisemitism to be hollow.”
The congresswoman’s request demands that the university turn over to the committee all reports of anti-Semitism on campus, and any other related documents or communications with the school administration, since January 1st, 2021. She also requested information “relating to or reflecting sources of funding for Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia-Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Law Students for Palestine, Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine, and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, including, but not limited to university, departmental, faculty, and student organization funds, as well as foreign donations.”
In addition, Foxx’s request includes information on the total annual amount of foreign donations that Columbia has received since January 1st, 2021, by country, with a particular focus on donations exceeding $50,000 and any donations coming from sources in Qatar, whether they by governmental or nongovernmental.
The investigation is part of a broader probe into the spike in anti-Semitism on college campuses across the country since the aforementioned terrorist attacks in October, which launched the ongoing war Israel is engaged in with the Islamic terror group Hamas. Since then, there have been numerous protests featuring explicitly anti-Semitic signs, chants, and other motifs, as well as multiple attacks against Jewish individuals. The culprits are overwhelmingly younger Americans, and most of them are minorities.
The failure by most top universities to adequately respond to the rise of anti-Semitism has led to many high-profile donors withdrawing their support, and the subsequent resignations of several university presidents, including Harvard’s president Claudine Gay.