UCSF and two other U.S. medical schools are under investigation for allegedly failing to rein in antisemitism that is impacting their students, faculty and patients.
The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce, which is controlled by Republicans, announced the investigation on Monday. The committee has gained notoriety for its combative hearings on antisemitism in American higher education since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and worldwide upswing in antisemitism.
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan), committee chairman, sent letters to three medical schools: UCSF, the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine and the University of Illinois College of Medicine. The letters notify them of possible violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination based on “race, color and national origin” in federally funded programs. A 2019 executive order expanded some Title VI protections to address antisemitism.
The letter to Dr. Sam Hawgood, UCSF’s chancellor, includes a list of more than a dozen alleged examples of “hostility” shown toward Jewish students, faculty and patients at the prestigious school and medical center. The examples include:
- UCSF patients hearing calls for “intifada” from doctors and other staff participating in a pro-Palestinian tent encampment on campus in May 2024.
- UCSF staff applauding Hamas’ terrorist attack and comparing Zionists to Nazis.
- A lab technician allegedly telling a Jewish student that Israel deserved what happened on Oct. 7.
- The defacement of UCSF’s cancer center with antisemitic language invoking the Holocaust.
- A UCSF employee allegedly wearing a jacket with inverted red triangles, a “symbol used to glorify Hamas,” during a staff resource fair.
- A UCSF professor allegedly posting an article citing a false antisemitic claim that Israel steals organs from corpses and also reposting a statement calling Israel a “Nazi state.”
- A UCSF language interpreter allegedly comparing Hamas to the “Jewish people of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.”
- Jewish students and patients feeling the need to conceal their religious identity.
Also included in the list are references to Dr. Rupa Marya, a UCSF professor who was suspended in 2024 and then fired in 2025 after posting an allegation on social media on September 2024 that a first-year medical student from Israel “participated in the genocide of Palestinians.” Walberg’s letter includes other allegations against Marya, including that she called for an investigation of “Zionists” in health care.
Walberg’s letter points out that Hamas is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization that “calls not only for the destruction of Israel but for the murder of the Jewish people.”
He added: “When faculty or staff show support for Hamas’ actions, many Jewish students perceive these statements as threatening not only to the state of Israel but to the Jewish people more broadly.”
In August 2024, J. published a lengthy investigation detailing the experiences of Jewish patients and doctors who felt that the medical campus and hospital had become a “confrontational climate for Jewish, pro-Israel members of the UCSF community.”
At the time, UCSF emailed J. a statement that reiterated its mission to ensure all members of its community feel safe and welcome and that noted actions the university takes to maintain an environment free of harassment and discrimination, including educating and counseling individuals.
UCSF did not immediately respond to J.’s request for comment on Tuesday regarding the House investigation.
A Jewish UCSF employee who asked not to be identified out of concerns over remaining employed, told J. on Tuesday that the letter “represents just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the pervasively hostile climate” at the medical school and called a federal investigation “necessary.”
The employee also shared a concern that the probe would be portrayed as a “Republican witch hunt against academic institutions,” which would be a “mischaracterization.”
Walberg, in his letter to UCSF’s chancellor, noted that the intent of the investigation is to “aid the Committee in considering whether potential legislative changes, including legislation to specifically address antisemitic discrimination, are needed.”
He also hinted that federal funding could be on the line.
“As you know, postsecondary institutions that receive federal funds must maintain a safe learning environment and fulfill all obligations under Title VI and its accompanying regulations,” Walberg wrote. “This includes the obligation to promptly address discrimination, including harassment that creates a hostile environment.”
Walberg included a request that UCSF turn over documents by Sept. 8 that include communications related to reports or complaints of antisemitic acts or incidents received by UCSF from Jan. 1, 2022, to present.
In a letter to Dr. Steven Dubinett, dean of UCLA’s medical school, Walberg noted that a group of medical students denied the Hamas rapes and the kidnapping of Israeli women, children and the elderly into Gaza on Oct. 7. He also highlighted alleged antisemitic tropes described by students and faculty during the mandatory first-year seminar, “Structural Racism and Health Equity,” which has been taught since 2021.
“The Committee has become aware that Jewish students and faculty have experienced hostility and fear at the hands of peers, colleagues, and administrators at UCLA Med,” the letter said. “It has not been demonstrated that the university has meaningfully responded to address and mitigate this problem.”