Lawmakers questioned the leaders of the University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University and the City University of New York (Cuny) in the final antisemitism hearing the House of Representatives has held since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza that broke out afterward.
Georgetown University’s interim president, Robert Groves; Cuny’s chancellor, Félix V Matos Rodríguez; and UC Berkeley’s chancellor, Rich Lyons, faced scrutiny from Republican representatives – who questioned the universities’ hiring practices, faculty unions, Middle East study centers, foreign funding, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Congress’s preceding antisemitism hearings featured tense questionings from Republican lawmakers such as Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, and precipitated the resignations of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Columbia.
While denouncing antisemitism, Democratic lawmakers spoke out against the focus of the hearing, calling it “political theatre” and criticizing the Trump administration’s gutting of the government agencies that enforce civil rights protections.
“I’d be remiss if I did not point out that this is our ninth hearing on antisemitism in 18 months,” said ranking member Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia. “I’ll also note that since this committee’s first antisemitism hearing in December 2023 we have not held a single hearing addressing racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia or other challenges affecting other student groups on American college campuses.”
Campus leaders denounced antisemitism
In their opening statements, each of the university leaders present at Tuesday’s hearings began their remarks by condemning antisemitism, and in many cases listing actions their campuses had undertaken to prevent future antisemitism.
Georgetown was one of the first campuses to condemn the 7 October attacks, Groves said, adding that “antisemitism is incompatible with living our mission; the same applies to Islamophobia and racism”.
“Berkeley unequivocally condemns antisemitism,” Lyons echoed. He added: “I am the first to say we have more work to do. Berkeley, like our nation, has not been immune to the disturbing rise in antisemitism.”
Matos Rodríguez shared a similar remark: “Our university has not been immune, but let me be clear: antisemitism has no place at Cuny.” He added that the university now has a zero-tolerance policy toward encampments, like those which students established at City College and Brooklyn College in 2024.
Democrats criticized the Trump administration’s approach
Democratic lawmakers and witnesses noted that the Trump administration’s decision to shutter federal agencies tasked with enforcing civil rights protections will not protect Jewish students on college campuses.
“Antisemitism in America and on campuses is real” but “this administration’s approach is contradictory and counterproductive”, said Matt Nosanchuck, a former deputy assistant secretary for the education department’s office for civil rights under the Obama administration. He urged that “Congress must fulfill its core responsibilities” to give agencies appropriate resources, not conduct political theatre.
In his opening remarks, Scott criticized his fellow committee members for saying “nothing about the firings attacking the office of civil rights” or the supreme court decision allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education. The Trump administration closed seven of the 12 regional offices of civil rights in March.
“If the majority wanted to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish students, they should condemn antisemitism in their own party and at the highest level of government,” said Democratic representative Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon. “They have failed to do so. Multiple White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists.”
Republicans questioned faculty hiring and union practices
To begin the hearing, the chair, Tim Walberg, said that the committee would “be examining several factors that incite antisemitism on college campuses” including faculty unions and faculty membership in the group Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.
He later questioned Matos Rodríguez about a Hunter College faculty job posting looking for candidates who could “take a critical lens” to issues such as “settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid” and others. Matos Rodríguez called the listing “entirely inappropriate” and said he ordered it revised immediately upon learning about it.
Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, focused her questions on faculty hiring and union practices. She questioned Matos Rodríguez on the fact that the president of Cuny’s faculty union personally supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She also questioned Lyons on Columbia’s hiring practices, which she said had allowed antisemitic faculty to join the staff.
“We use academic standards to hire faculty. We don’t use ideological conditions to hire faculty,” Lyons said.
Democrats called the hearings part of a greater move to defund higher education
“I’m concerned by what I see happening here. Because instead of solving a problem, we’re watching some try to use antisemitism as a reason to go after higher education,” said Representative Alma Adams, a Democrat from North Carolina.
“Let’s not forget as we sit here today, the Department of Education is withholding more than $6bn in congressionally mandated funding from our K-12 schools,” she added.
During her questioning, Bonamici also questioned whether the antisemitism hearings were motivated by “plans to defund colleges and universities”.
Tensions ran high between Republican and Democratic committee members
Following an exchange between Representative Elise Stefanik of New York and Matos Rodríguez, Representative Mark DeSaulnier of California yielded his time so the Cuny chancellor could “respond to that outrageous attack by my colleague”.
Stefanik had denounced the university for having on its staff an attorney also leading the legal defense fund for Mahmoud Khalil, whom she called “chief pro-Hamas agitator that led to the antisemitic encampments at Columbia”.
Earlier in the hearing, Representative Mark Takano of California called the committee’s hearing “a kangaroo court”.
• This article was amended on 16 July 2025 to further clarify that Virginia Foxx asked about the Cuny faculty union president’s personal support for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). In a statement issued after the hearing, the president (James Davis) said: “As a union, we do not have a position on BDS and do not have Israel divestment policies.”
