A powerful congressional committee accused the University of California, Berkeley, of fostering “an environment of pervasive antisemitism” — which included an anti-Jewish “riot.”
The Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce said Tuesday it was formally investigating the San Francisco Bay Area college as part of an escalating probe into antisemitism.
And the committee chair, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), revealed she had “grave concerns” about Berkeley because of the “inadequacy” of its “response to antisemitism on its campus” even before the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel ignited anti-Jewish demonstrations.
The committee outlined a list of antisemitic incidents in a 15-page letter sent to the school’s chancellor, Carol Christ, president of the University of California Michael Drake and Richard Leib, chair of its Board of Regents.
The letter to UC Berkeley cited a “riot” that took place last month on campus organized by Bears for Palestine, an anti-Israel student group, that resulted in shattered glass, assaults on Jewish students and the cancellation of a lecture by an Israeli speaker.
Up to 200 protesters shouted “Intifada” outside the Zellerbach Playhouse and smashed glass in windows and a door
“I saw a girl get grabbed by the neck and shoved,” said a Jewish student who was at the event.
“I saw my friend get spat at, and I saw just how much anger and hatred they had towards us at this moment.”
The letter also noted the resignation of Berkeley Law professor Steven Davidoff Solomon as chairman of UC Berkeley’s Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Life and Campus Climate because he felt “the university has failed to respond to what’s been persistent and deep-rooted anti-Jewish bias and antisemitism.”
Solomon also received an email with the subject line: “You are a dirty Jew.” The message noted “[i]f the Holocaust were happening right now, you’d be the first one to be gassed.”
It cited a written statement submitted to the committee by UC Berkeley MBA student Hannah Schlacter identifying “no less than 13 instances in which university officials failed to respond to Jewish students’ reports and concerns.”
During the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel, Bears for Palestine issued social media statements supporting the attack and “glorifying it as ‘resistance,'” the letter says.
It also cited a December Brandeis University study of 51 universities that ranked the school in its worst category for “highest antisemitism hostility.”
“Pervasive antisemitism” has been documented at the school since well before Oct. 7, the letter from Foxx says.
In 2016, a Brandeis University research study of antisemitism on college campuses found that more than a third of students surveyed at UC Berkeley and other University of California campuses “perceived a hostile environment toward Jews on campuses.”
The letter is demanding documents related to antisemitic incidents, disciplinary protocols as well as funding to the liberal college from foreign governments, including Qatari sources, or face a subpoena.
The committee has recently sent similar letters to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
MIT president Sally Kornbluth appeared before the committee in December. Kornbluth, University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Harvard president Claudine Gay all told the committee that calling for the genocide of Jews depended on the context.
Magill resigned soon after the disastrous testimony and Gay resigned in January amid mounting allegations of plagiarism.
UC Berkeley did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
