House Judiciary subcommittee hears witnesses on surge in antisemitic attacks and campus incidents

Chairman Jeff Van Drew opened a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Oct. 27 by saying the session would confront “an alarming and a dangerous escalation” in antisemitic incidents in the United States and citing 2023 as the highest year on record for such incidents.

The panel heard four witnesses who described overlapping and sometimes competing explanations for the rise in threats and violence targeting Jewish Americans, and who urged a mixture of stronger federal enforcement, restored funding for prevention programs, and closer scrutiny of online and campus organizing.

The hearing matters because members and witnesses linked recent fatal and violent incidents—including the shooting outside the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, the Boulder attack and an arson attempt at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home—to broader trends in hate speech, campus protests and changes in federal counter‑extremism staffing and grants.

Chairman Jeff Van Drew, in his opening remarks, said the committee convened “to confront a crisis that threatens the very fabric of the United States” and cited FBI figures for 2023. Ranking Member Jamie Raskin said antisemitism has “mutated in ever more dangerous ways” and called for action beyond denunciations. Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, and other members recounted recent violent incidents and supported aggressive measures to protect Jewish institutions and students.

Witnesses gave differing emphases. Deborah Cooper, chief of digital activism at End…