The House Education and Workforce Committee has been working to fight Jew-hatred “plaguing” U.S. college campuses and will keep fighting that “scourge,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), the congressional panel’s chair, said at the March on Washington for Jewish Civil Rights at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.
“University leaders must be held accountable when they fail to address antisemitism, which happens far too often,” he said.
“Fighting antisemitism means we must understand it,” the congressman told participants. “We have seen college protesters wave signs with slogans like ‘anti-Zionism does not equal antisemitism’ to justify hostile intimidation of Jewish students and faculty.”
School administrators who “refuse to acknowledge this reality” become part of the problem, Walberg stated. “By refusing to act, university presidents tell the world that antisemitic harassment will not be punished, and in some cases, it may even be encouraged.”
Organizers of the march told JNS via an unnamed spokesperson that they were “especially moved” by Walberg’s speech.
“All Americans for Jewish civil rights took a step forward with the march yesterday,” they told JNS. “We will not allow violence and discrimination against Jews to become normalized. We refuse to remain silent.
The march was held in memory of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, Israeli embassy staffers shot and killed by a gunman last month outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.