Jon Husted Discusses Failures Of Colleges To Protect Jewish Students Amidst Uptick In Antisemitism

4/1/2025

At last Thursday's Senate Health Committee hearing, Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) spoke to witnesses about combating antisemitism on college campuses.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Husted. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate everybody being here today.

00:05While anti-Semitism is millennia's old, the flashpoint was October 7th for the

00:12issues that we're currently dealing with. I was on college campus at Ohio State

00:18in the days after that occurred. The students very scared there. It seemed as

00:24though it was a coordinated effort in many cases just in the days following as

00:30if there was an organization ready to go as soon after October 7. I do believe

00:36that for all the sake of the Palestinian people and peace throughout the Middle

00:42East, if Hamas would just simply release the hostages and and the bodies of those

00:48who are deceased, that we could take a step forward. I hope we all can condemn

00:53them for failing to do that. However, a couple of quick questions we're talking

00:57about. Is our universities protecting students from anti-Semitism?

01:03I'll ask each one of you a quick answer, yes or no. Are all of our college

01:08campuses doing enough to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism? No.

01:15Definitely not. Absolutely not. No. No, but the better answers for the

01:23long term are educational as opposed to discipline. Well, that may be the case, but

01:29it seems like the circumstances where we see the most anti-Semitism are on

01:34some of the most elite campuses in this country, so it's clearly education

01:37doesn't do enough. There seems to be some coordinated agenda. Let me ask about the

01:44students on those campuses. If a student is here on a student visa and it is

01:50proven that they are involved in anti-Semitic activities and that they

01:54are connected to a foreign government or a terrorist organization, should they

01:58have that student visa revoked? If it's a violation of their visa terms,

02:03absolutely. Foreign government, I can't say, but terrorist organization,

02:08definitely. If they're supporting a terror organization in the United States,

02:11they must have lied on their visa application, which is against the law.

02:16I agree with that. If it's a terrorist organization and they are supporting it,

02:22the law is quite clear. Senator, I think the law is clear if there's material

02:27support, but advocacy is something different. Let me share with you a quote

02:31from Justice Brandeis in the Whitney case when there was a conviction of a

02:37woman for belonging to the Communist Party because they were advocating

02:40political violence. He said, those who want our independence believe liberty to

02:45be the secret of happiness and courage should be the secret of liberty. They

02:49believe the freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means

02:53indispensable. I understand that, but we're not talking about American

02:56citizens here. We're talking about people who have the privilege of being here. The

02:59question is First Amendment rights, how much it applies, especially to a green

03:04card holder, people like Nadine Strossen say it does, but the

03:08question is policy. There could be a real debate about that, but these are not

03:12citizens of the United States. Do you want students that come to

03:17America because of what we offer, including freedom of speech, to decide

03:22they don't want to come here? I would not want them to do it if they were indeed

03:26connected to a foreign government who is trying to influence situations here in

03:31America or a terrorist organization. What if they're misinformed about what River to the Sea

03:35means and they're on a campus and they're 18 years old and they see what's

03:39happening in Gaza? I'm asking you the questions, you're not asking me the

03:42questions. Okay. That's how this works. My apologies. So as we look at this situation,

03:51and again I was on college campuses in the days after the students were very

03:56concerned, I'll let Rabbi Semtoff, you may want to answer this, Ms. Gamal, you may

04:07want to answer this. Do you believe that there were coordinated

04:12efforts in advance with American citizens or people who are here that had

04:19knowledge of the October 7 attacks and were working to coordinate anti-Semitic

04:25activity here in America? Of the October 7th massacre, I have no idea. Of the

04:33post-October 7th anti-Semitic violence thinly veiled as anti-Zionist or

04:41anti-Israel activity, absolutely yes, and I'm sad to say some of that support came

04:46from within the Jewish community, including, many people say, and there's

04:51circumstantial and better evidence, including from Mr. Soros' circle, which

04:57is why I was so reticent to answer the Ranking Member's question before. I'll

05:02just add that I likewise have no specific information about what

05:06knowledge individuals here in the U.S. had. I can say that with absolute

05:10certainty that immediately following October 7th there was clear evidence of

05:14a concerted campaign in the form of a toolkit for individuals on campus to

05:19follow in order to be in lockstep with Hamas and its ideas. Thank you, Mr.

05:24Chairman, thank you.

Jon Husted Discusses Failures Of Colleges To Protect Jewish Students Amidst Uptick In Antisemitism

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