Six members of the U.S. House of Representatives contacted the head of the J. David Gladstone Institutes with concerns about reports of inadequate responses to antisemitism.
“The Gladstone Institutes, an independent biomedical research organization, claims that it takes an active stance against serious issues like discrimination and harassment,” the lawmakers wrote in a Thursday letter to the nonprofit’s president, Dr. Deepak Srivastava. “However, these values do not seem to be reflected in the actions of leadership in response to recent concerns of antisemitic harassment and discrimination within the Institutes.”
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, led the letter. Other signatories included Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Burgess Owens (R-Utah).
“The reports of antisemitic harassment at Gladstone coupled with the inadequate response by leadership is concerning to the committees,” the representatives stated. “Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe environment for all trainees, faculty, and staff is a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as president of Gladstone.”
The institutes are based in California and affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco; University of California, Berkeley; and Stanford University. The representatives note that the National Institutes of Health had provided Gladstone with $41 million in 2023.
Examples of antisemitism cited include a mass email sent by a graduate student that blamed Israel for Hamas murdering 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, and that administrators reportedly failed to respond adequately. The legislators say that Srivastava failed to respond when Jewish faculty told him directly they feared working with the author of the email.
The legislators warned that “failure to respond appropriately to and prevent harassment and discrimination, no matter the cause, may be grounds to withhold federal funds from the university. Congress has an obligation to exercise oversight of recipients of federal funds when blatant and ongoing Title VI violations appear to be happening.”
