Reps. Elise Stefanik and Josh Gottheimer officially launched a new bipartisan congressional caucus on Tuesday aimed at confronting antisemitism on college campuses, unveiling the effort during an event at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The Combating Antisemitism on College Campuses Caucus is designed to give lawmakers a coordinated way to oversee how colleges and universities respond to antisemitism, press schools to enforce their own anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, and spotlight institutions that are getting it right.
The Nashville launch, held alongside Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, brought together leadership from Dartmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Kentucky, the University of Alabama, and Washington University in St. Louis, according to the Office of Representative Josh Gottheimer. Vanderbilt hosted the bipartisan panel to discuss balancing free expression with protecting students, and Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, said he supports schools that are getting their antisemitism responses right, singling out Vanderbilt as an example, per the New York Post.
Gottheimer, who is Jewish, said that since October 7, 2023, Jewish students on too many campuses have been harassed, intimidated, and made to feel like strangers in their own school, the Post reported. He said he and Stefanik, a Republican from New York, are teaming up to launch the caucus and hold universities accountable. Stefanik, who is Catholic, said she has been a leader in Congress on combating antisemitism and anti-Americanism at colleges and universities, and described Gottheimer as a leading partner and legislator on the issue.
A Vanderbilt Model Built on “Principled Neutrality”
Vanderbilt's inclusion in the caucus rollout traces back to Chancellor Diermeier's policy of what he has called principled neutrality — an approach that combines open academic debate with strict enforcement of campus rules following protests tied to the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the Vanderbilt Hustler. That framework has become a reference point in a broader debate across elite higher education over whether universities should take institutional positions on geopolitical conflicts at all.
The caucus's formation comes after a stretch of intense campus unrest tied to the Israel-Hamas conflict. It also follows a sharp shift in the data: an Anti-Defamation League audit released in May found that antisemitic incidents on U.S. college campuses dropped 66% in 2025, falling to 583 incidents from 1,694 recorded in 2024, according to the Los Angeles Times. Nationally, the ADL had recorded a record high of 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, with New York, California and New Jersey posting the highest overall state totals.
Roots in the 2023 Congressional Hearing
Stefanik's national profile on this issue traces back to a December 5, 2023 House Education Committee hearing, where she pressed university presidents Claudine Gay, Liz Magill, and Sally Kornbluth on whether calls for genocide violated their schools' conduct codes, according to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The hearing featured testimony from the three university presidents. Days later, Gottheimer supported a bipartisan House resolution on campus antisemitism, per the U.S. House.
The two lawmakers have continued building on that partnership in the years since. In May 2024, the House passed the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act, co-led by Gottheimer, by a 320-91 vote to require the Department of Education to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism in Title VI investigations, according to CBS News; Gottheimer later planned to reintroduce the bill after it stalled in the Senate. This month, lawmakers also continued work on legislation related to higher education.
Federal Investigations Continue Despite the Drop in Incidents
Even as campus incident numbers have fallen, federal scrutiny of universities has kept expanding. The Justice Department sued UCLA over antisemitism claims, a development Hoodline detailed in its earlier coverage of UC faculty pushing regents to address the issue. Hoodline also covered the broader issue earlier this year.
Stefanik has taken her critique of higher education beyond the House floor. She is the author of Poisoned Ivies: The Inside Account of the Academic and Moral Rot at America's Elite Universities, drawing directly on her congressional committee investigations, according to Moment Magazine. The book adds to a public platform she has built steadily since the 2023 hearing thrust her into the national spotlight on campus oversight.
Both lawmakers framed the caucus as unfinished business rather than a victory lap. Stefanik and Gottheimer said they are committed to saving American higher education for the next generation, with Gottheimer adding that he wants every Jewish student to have a college experience without fear of discrimination or violence, according to the Post. The caucus is intended to track federal legislation targeting campus antisemitism and BDS-driven discrimination while sharing best practices across campuses nationwide.
