House votes to condemn college campus antisemitism following last week’s testimony and resignations

The House voted Wednesday to condemn antisemitism on college campuses and urge two elite university presidents to resign.

The nonbinding measure earned the two-thirds majority it needed for adoption, with the House voting 303-126 to approve.

Three Democrats voted “present” on the resolution: Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) Julia Brownley (Calif.) and Jimmy Gomez (Calif.). Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone Republican voting against the measure.

Democrats were divided over the resolution, as they have been on multiple messaging measures about the Israel-Hamas war.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) led the effort, along with two Jewish Democrats, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Moskowitz of Florida.

The move follows testimony last week from the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, during which each dodged questions about whether or not students calling for the genocide of Jews violated the schools codes of conduct or warranted punishment.

The resolution encourages Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth to resign. Penn President Elizabeth Magill resigned last week over her testimony. Harvard’s highest governing body said Tuesday that Gay would remain in her role.

“There is a reason why the testimony at the Education and Workforce Committee garnered 1 billion views worldwide,” Stefanik, a Harvard alum and the fourth-ranking GOP leader, said at a news conference. “And it’s because those university presidents made history by putting the most morally bankrupt testimony into the Congressional Record, and the world saw it.”

The resolution adopted Wednesday states that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, “Jewish and Israeli students have faced physical violence, hate-filled disruptions in the classroom, calls from students and faculty advocating for the elimination and destruction of Israel, and other forms of persistent harassment.”

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, also a Jewish Democrat, spoke against the resolution, calling the language about the two college presidents “a dramatic and unprecedented departure” from congressional history and “an academic scarlet letter and a professional death sentence.” He said previous resolutions adopted since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel condemning antisemitism and groups supporting Hamas on college campuses accomplished the primary goal.