Austin News

September 17, 2024

WASHINGTON – Today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed with Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder the rise of antisemitism on college campuses following Hamas’ attack against Israel on October 7 and how that has spurred an increase in hate crimes across other religious and ethnic groups.

Cornyn questioned whether tolerating antisemitic behavior on college campuses or in society generally could lead to similar treatment of other groups. He stated, “I just want to ask you if, in fact, antisemitic conduct and behavior is tolerated on college campuses or in our society in general, does that make it more likely that other religious or ethnic groups will also be treated in a similar, abusive manner?”

Rabbi Goldfeder responded by emphasizing the broader implications of antisemitism: “Jews are often called the canary in the coal mine of intolerance. What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews, and it hasn’t taken long already for the public cries from ‘Death to the Jews’ to become ‘Death to America’ and burning flags on our campuses as well.”

Senator Cornyn highlighted issues with university presidents condemning antisemitism and enforcing campus rules against demonstrations. He praised the University of Texas at Austin for enforcing its rules during recent incidents: “I’m proud of the fact [that] when this happened on campus that a number of people not even affiliated with the university threatened to occupy the buildings at the campus and ignored officials’ continued pleas for restraint… the university actually enforced its own rules.”

Rabbi Goldfeder stressed that consistent enforcement is key: “There are limits to what constitutes speech, and there are rules for when it crosses over into actionable conduct. And if you can see those rules when it applies to racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic speech, but not when it comes to antisemitic speech, your problem is not with that line; your problem is with antisemitism.”