WASHINGTON — Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) gave the following remarks in support of H. Res. 798, Congressman Burgess Owens’ (R-UT) resolution condemning the support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations at postsecondary education institutions.
“I rise today in support of H. Res. 798, a resolution condemning antisemitism on college campuses and encouraging campus leaders to speak out in support of its Jewish students, faculty, and guests.
“The 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 antisemitic demonstration on campus to make the news after Hamas’ October 7 attack, harkening 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 antisemitic behavior. I thank Representative Owens for putting this important resolution forward and I pray that it’s a step towards reversing the abhorrent behavior that has taken over college campuses. We must throw antisemitism into the dustbin of history where it belongs.”
