The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jim Jordan, will hold a hearing later this month on the issue of antisemitism on America’s college and university campuses. Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, antisemitic hate crimes have skyrocketed around the globe. 

The hearing, titled “Free Speech on College Campuses,” will “examine the current state of the First Amendment on the campuses of American colleges and universities,” according to a hearing notice posted by the committee. “The hearing will also examine the rise in antisemitism, anti-Israel sentiment, and violence towards students supporting Israel.” The hearing will take place on Wednesday. 

Participants include two current college students and one recent graduate who are involved in free speech and Jewish issues — Jasmyn Jordan of the University of Iowa, Amanda Silberstein of Cornell University, and Connor Ogrydziak of the University of Buffalo. Committee members will also hear from the founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Kenneth Marcus.

Many horror stories have emerged from America’s colleges and universities in recent weeks. At George Washington University, a student group projected the phrases “glory to our martyrs” and “free Palestine from the river to the sea” on the side of a university campus building, which the school’s administration later condemned. 

At Cornell, a student, Patrick Dai, was arrested by federal law enforcement officials for posting antisemitic messages on a school online forum. He said he would “stab” and “slit the throat” of any Jewish men he sees on campus and also promised to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish women. He also said he would “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.”

Nationwide, antisemitic incidents have spiked since the war began a month ago. The Anti-Defamation League reported on October 24 that there were 312 antisemitic incidents in America since the beginning of the October 7 war. “By comparison during the same period in 2022, ADL received preliminary reports of 64 incidents, including four that were Israel-related,” the ADL writes.

“When conflict erupts in Israel, antisemitic incidents soon follow in the U.S. and globally,” the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, says. “From white supremacists in California displaying antisemitic banners on highway overpasses to radical anti-Zionists harassing Jewish people because of their real or perceived support for the Jewish state, we are witnessing a disturbing rise in antisemitic activity here while the war rages overseas.”

The White House has condemned not only the dangerous rise in antisemitism at home and around the world but has called out antisemitic attacks on campuses at American universities explicitly. 

“Just over the past week, we’ve seen protests and statements on college campuses that call for the annihilation of the State of Israel; for genocide against the Jewish people,” the deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates, told the Times of Israel. “Jewish students have even had to barricade themselves inside buildings.”

“Delegitimizing the State of Israel while praising the Hamas terrorist murderers who burned innocent people alive, or targeting Jewish students, is the definition of unacceptable — and the definition of antisemitism,” Mr. Bates said.