House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) convened a press conference on Tuesday to give a platform to Jewish students at American universities where jarring scenes of antisemitic demonstrations have played out in recent weeks amid Hamas terrorists' barbaric war against Israel.
There is a truly historic press conference going on right now on Capitol Hill featuring Jewish students from America's top universities sharing with the country the state of antisemitism on college campuses. The Speaker of the House is in attendance. Only Fox News taking live...
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) December 5, 2023
The students, from schools including MIT, NYU, Harvard, and UPenn, spoke out against the administrators who have failed to address such antisemitic incidents or condemn the hate-filled chants of support for the intifada and Hamas terrorists who slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis on October 7.
The experiences recounted by the Jewish students were harrowing, disappointing, and an ongoing wake-up call about the situation at America's institutions of supposed "higher" learning — as well as American society as a whole amid a disturbing spike in antisemitic targeting and attacks.
"I should not be here today...I should be taking in...my senior year of college...I am because 36 hours ago, I, along with most of campus, sought refuge in our rooms as classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews. " - @Penn student Eyal Yakoby pic.twitter.com/fg4InUKj3Q
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
"Mulitple times a week on my way to class, I walk by mobs of people chanting 'from the river to the sea'...I talk to my Jewish friends on campus every day. They tell me how afraid they are to go to class..." - @Harvard student Jonathan Frieden. pic.twitter.com/t8uy94rQoD
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
"I am the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. We are not going anywhere. Antisemitism and the support for terror should have no home at NYU or any other college campus. We made the promise of 'never again.' And never again is now." - @nyuniversity student Bella Ingber. pic.twitter.com/I5XiYH6P4Q
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
"This is the same climate of antisemitism that has led to the massacre of Jews throughout the centuries. This is not just harassment. This is our lives on the line." @MIT student Talia Khan highlights the rise of antisemitism at MIT. pic.twitter.com/zXb03xodXb
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
The stories shared in the clips above of Eyal Yakoby of Penn, Jonathan Frieden of Harvard, Bella Ingber of NYU, and Talia Khan of MIT are also, as Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News noted, a "PR disaster for universities" where administrators have remained silent in the face of hateful attacks and failed to condemn the antisemitic actions that have escalated to endangering the physical safety of Jewish students.
House Republican leadership has a number of students from MIT, Penn, NYU at a news conference recounting antisemitism on campus. A PR disaster for universities.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 5, 2023
Antisemitism has no place on campus — or anywhere in America.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) December 5, 2023
@HouseGOP applauds, Talia, Bella, Eyal, and Jonathan for standing against vile hatred at their colleges and for speaking out at the Capitol today in defense of the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. pic.twitter.com/clyUYZ5uZV
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