The most ominous hour I have spent in the state Capitol came the day three students from Pitt, Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania shared details of the threats, harassment, and abandonment they experienced at their schools for being Jewish.
You read that right: for being Jewish.
Not since Germany in 1938 has a nation seen such efforts to demonize, harass, and banish a Jewish presence on college campuses. It should be a source of shame. That it is happening in Pennsylvania should be a cause for legislative action as the new academic year gets underway.
The scandal of antisemitism on campus led to the ouster of two Ivy League college presidents, including Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania. What has not yet happened is clear and decisive actions to halt campus mob rule aimed at Jews, and this inaction is unacceptable when confronted with the hateful behavior directed at Jewish students on Pennsylvania campuses.
At Penn, Hamas sympathizers erected a tent encampment and proceeded to harry and threaten Jewish students. And in an especially egregious account, a Penn student described how protesters gathered around a video of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and cheered at footage of a woman being raped by the terrorists.
Penn State had no such encampments, but enough harassment surfaced to create major unease among Jewish students.
And at Pitt, extremists took over the lawn outside the iconic Cathedral of Learning, demanded the banishment of Jewish student groups, and scuffled with campus police. One of those arrested, a non-student charged with riot, was quickly elected vice president of his local chapter of the Young Democrats and is now working for local political candidates who seem indifferent to his ugly worldview.
These protesters, who shut down a major city street in January, also blocked the Hillel Jewish University Center that serves both Pitt and neighboring Carnegie Mellon University in an attempt to halt an event with a visiting speaker. With Jewish students unable to enter the building, Hillel director Dan Marcus said Pittsburgh city police told campus police not to intervene.
When authorities fail to act against an antisemitic mob, even telling other police not to act, it’s time for lawmakers to step in.
More scandalous still are the attempts to shrug off antisemitic conduct and invoke freedom of speech as if hatred was just another form of civil conversation. It is not. Anyone who fails to see that is toying with disaster. Pittsburgh discovered this in 2018, when 12 worshippers were murdered at a synagogue. It should not take more violence to prove that Violent language leads to violent action, whether it’s in an online chatroom or a college green.
The general assembly needs to establish policies that stop religious and ethnic hatred in its tracks. We cannot stop people from hating, but we can protect others from that hatred. To that end, I support several efforts currently underway in the General Assembly to do just that.
Specifically, Senate Bill 1185 would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism and prohibit any higher education institution that authorizes, facilitates, or otherwise supports any event promoting antisemitism on campus from receiving tax dollars.
We should also pass Senate Bill 1100 which mandates age-appropriate education on the Holocaust in our public schools. Our curriculum must reflect the core values of tolerance and decency. This bill is an important start.
And in June, I was proud to vote in support of the Stand With Israel Act which would specifically forbid the commonwealth from making any investment decisions designed to penalize Israel. Our state treasurer, Stacy Garrity took a brave stand in emphasizing our existing practice of purchasing Israel Bonds. Legislators should back her up in law.
Most important, though, as a society we must isolate Israel-haters and call them out when we see them. Voters must reject politicians who don costumes and reflexively denounce the Jewish state for defending itself. Self-described “activists” who engage in antisemitic language should find no place in the political system.
And as a legislature, we should cast a cold eye on any university that fails to stem the tide of antisemitism on campus. It is troubling that university campuses can provide students with vegetarian dining options but can’t give them a campus free of ethnic hatred. It’s time for the legislature to fix that.
We can start by demanding colleges and universities reject antisemitism on their campuses, refuse demands to isolate Israel, and implement a curriculum that reminds our young why that nation exists. As the examples of antisemitism spread across the United States and right here in Pennsylvania, it is time for the legislature to act. As Elie Wiesel warned, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
(State Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster, is co-founder of Building a Stronger Pennsylvania, a pro-growth group dedicated to free market solutions to Pennsylvania’s needs.)
