To combat anti-Semitism on campus, give the Republican Party a majority in the House of Representatives

Those fighting the rise of anti-Semitism in America owe a debt of gratitude to the U.S. House of Representatives and its narrow Republican majority.

The moral decay in higher education was revealed to the world in December in an unlikely venue: a special hearing of the little-known House Education and Workforce Committee, convened by committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC).

That's when Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) asked the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT a simple question: “Yes or no: Calling for genocide against Jews does not constitute bullying and harassment?”

None of the three could provide a clear and direct answer – and the outrageous exchange went viral and was met with widespread condemnation.

Two of the college presidents soon resigned, and spokesman Mike Johnson launched further investigations as part of a Housewide effort to combat anti-Semitism in the United States.

This important work moved forward for one reason and one reason only: because House Republicans decided to make it a priority.

The opposite is true in the Democratic-led Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, his committee chairs and his colleagues have steadfastly refused to hold hearings solely on anti-Semitism.

Indeed, last month, a half-hearted effort chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) ended with “all lives matter” — and a shouting match as audience members hurled vile insults and curses at Jews in the hearing room.

For me and many others this is something personal.

My Jewish family lives in a suburb of Philadelphia, in a deep blue township in a blue county in Pennsylvania, arguably the most critical swing state of this election season.

Our community is home to tens of thousands of high-earning, left-leaning, self-described progressives who have voted Democratic for most of the last 25 years.

And many of them are both concerned and frightened by the Democratic Party's passive response to the rampant anti-Semitism we have seen over the past year.

I volunteer 20 to 30 hours a week in my community, knocking on doors and advocating for former President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance – and my neighbors are listening.

I tell them that I believe President Trump has been the most effective and consequential president in history for U.S.-Israel relations and remind them of his achievements in combating anti-Semitism, including his 2019 executive order expanding Title VI, are second to none.

I also explain that while the presidential election attracts most of the attention, much of the work to highlight and address important issues begins in Congress, in the committees of the House and Senate – and the party in power chooses the committee chairs , who almost single-handedly determine this agenda.

In other words, if you have an issue that you want the federal government to address, you need a committee chair who will take an interest in it, hold hearings on it, and then do the hard work of drafting, negotiating, evaluating, and approving legislation that should be presented to the plenary session.

Pennsylvania is home to three of more than a dozen House contests this year that will determine whether the GOP retains its majority, as well as a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat.

So when I work to convince my fellow Pennsylvanians to vote Republican, I usually first ask if they remember Rep. Stefanik questioning the three college presidents. Almost everyone answers: Yes, they do.

And then I challenge them with a suggestion: The only reason the world has had the chance to witness the moral decay of our “elite” institutions is because Republicans had the majority in the House of Representatives and Republican committee chairs themselves have made the effort to shine Shed light on anti-Semitism at universities and suggest solutions.

Voting Republicans in this Pennsylvania election will ensure this work can continue beyond January 2025.

I also remind my neighbors that incumbent Senator Bob Casey and his Democratic colleagues did not hold hearings focused solely on exposing anti-Semitism – and that they repealed the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which the House of Representatives passed with broad bipartisan support put ice.

Ending this deadlock requires a Republican majority in the Senate, starting with Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania.

My message is really this simple: If you care about exposing and eliminating the scourge of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our communities, Republicans must have your vote on November 5th.

Jeff Bartos is a Republican strategist from Pennsylvania. X: @Jeff_Bartos