A swastika graffitied in the basement of the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design on Sept. 14, 2023. Photo taken by student.

University of Pennsylvania was ordered on Wednesday to hand over documents relating to a federal investigation of antisemitism.

The letter, sent by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), on behalf of the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, cited two reports by The Algemeiner as well as others to explain the basis of the committee’s inquiry.

“An environment of pervasive antisemitism has been documented at Penn dating back to well before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks,” said the letter. “Penn has demonstrated a clear double standard by tolerating antisemitic vandalism, harassment, and intimidation, but suppressing and penalizing other expression it deemed problematic,” Foxx continued.

Foxx is seeking from Penn “all reports of antisemitic acts or incidents” and “related communications” going back to 2021 that were sent to the university’s offices of the president, general counsel, dean of students, police department, human resources, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, among others. In addition to those items, she asked the university to “produce” all correspondence, including meeting minutes, shared by members of Penn’s University Task Force on Antisemitism, which was created only after anti-Jewish hatred at Penn reached crisis proportions.

Penn has had numerous antisemitism scandals during fall semester, before Oct. 7, starting with a torrent of outrage over its decision to host an extreme anti-Zionist festival that featured a mass of individuals accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracies and tropes to undermine the State of Israel. Several more incidents occurred over the following weeks, including the graffitiing of a swastika in a campus building and raiding of the school’s Hillel building by a crazed student who vandalized property and screamed antisemitic remarks.

Foxx went on to cite numerous examples of antisemitic hate speech Penn would not punish, including students’ chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a slogan widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, a professor’s saying during a rally held after Hamas’ atrocities became public that Israel “desecrates the memory of Holocaust victims,” and a political science professor’s promotion of Hamas on his Facebook page.

The Algemeiner has reported on several other incidents Penn’s administration ignored long before its former president, Elizabeth Magill, resigned after telling Foxx’s committee during a hearing that deciding whether calling for a genocide of Jews would violate school rules would be “context-dependent.” In March, for example, the anti-Zionist group Penn Against the Occupation (POA) hosted Mohammed El-Kurd during its “Israeli Apartheid Week.” Currently a columnist for the left-wing magazine The Nation, the 25-year-old El-Kurd has trafficked in antisemitic tropes, demonized Zionism, and falsely accused Israelis of eating the organs of Palestinians.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is also investigating other elite universities, including Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to determine whether administrators at those schools ignored antisemitic discrimination. The probes were announced after the committee grilled the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT about their plans to respond to rising anti-Jewish hate in their communities.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.