A Dangerous Precedent : The German American Bund meets the First Amendment

      In the weeks following October 7th, antisemitism exploded and overwhelmed university campuses across the United States, from Columbia to UC Santa Barbara, from UC Berkeley to Harvard. There were many rallies in support of Hamas and calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. So it wasn't long before university administrators were summoned before Congress to testify and explain themselves. On December 5th 2023, the House Committee on Education and Workforce summoned the Presidents of Harvard (Dr. Claudine Gay), University of Pennsylvania (Liz Magill), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sally Kornbluth) and questioned about their actions, or more accurately their inaction against antisemitism on their respective campuses. It is during these hearings one will find a peculiar thought pattern arise from the University Presidents. Below is a rough transcript of two lines of questioning, where Representative Stefanik (R-NY) questions the university presidents. Per the Record, these lines of questioning occurred within 20 minutes of each other, and each line of questioning only spans about 5 minutes each (US House of Representatives). Firstly, A line of questioning where Dr. Claudin Gay of Harvard is questioned.

• “Do you believe that type(Antisemitic, Anti-Jewish, Anti-Israel) of hateful speech is contrary to Harvard’s code of conduct or is it allowed at Harvard?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “It is at odds with the values of Harvard.”... –Dr. Claudine Gay
  
  

• “Can you not say that it is against the code of conduct at Harvard?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “We(Harvard) embrace a commitment to free speech even of views that are objectionable, offensive, (and) hateful. … … It is when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassment or intimidation that we (Harvard Administration) take action.”  –Dr. Claudine Gay

     Now the line of questioning where Ms. Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania is questioned.

• “Does Calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s code of conduct? YES or NO?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “If the speech turns into conduct it can be harassment. Yes.” –Ms Liz Magill
  
  

• “I am asking specifically, calling for the genocide of Jews, Does that constitute bullying or harassment?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “If it is directed and severe or pervasive it is harassment.” –Ms Liz Magill
  
  

• “So the answer is yes?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “It is a context dependent decision congresswoman.” –Ms Liz Magill
  
  

• “It’s a context dependent decision??? That’s your testimony today??? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context? That is not bullying or harassment? This is the easiest question to answer yes, Ms. Magill! So is your testimony that you will not answer yes?”  –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “If it uuhh….” –Ms Liz Magill
  
  

• “YES or NO?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “If the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment. Yes.” –Ms Liz Magill
  
  

• “Conduct meaning committing the act of genocide??? The speech is not harassment? This is unacceptable Ms. Magill. I am going to give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment? YES or NO?” –Rep Stefanik R-NY
  
  

• “It can be harassment.” –Ms Liz Magill
  
  

• “THE ANSWER IS YES…” –Rep Stefanik R-NY

     To summarize the above lines of questioning, Representative Stefanik (R-NY) is asking a rather simple question of wether or not the calling for the genocide of Jews is against university code of conduct. However, instead of actually going to review their university code of conduct, the University Presidents start off by forming arguments for how saying something offensive and repulsive is under free expression and it is only when the speech turns to action that action is required. As much as I can sympathize with a need to protect free expression, this line of logic and thought is absurd at its core. It is almost as if the university presidents are defending the demonstrators. If you find this a new and peculiar line of thought on antisemitism, think again, it's not. The precedent for this line of thinking dates back to 1939 in one of our nation's darkest moments.

     In 1936, The German-American Bund was founded by Fritz Kuhn, a World War One Soldier and Nazi party member. This organization had maintained ties with its proverbial parent the Nazi Party back in Germany and spewed its propaganda into the American Right and held many ‘youth camps’ where participants would be indoctrinated into national socialist thought(Dr. Mark Felton). Though it was still a fringe extreme organization, it managed to have as many as 25 thousand members at its peak, mostly concentrated in the North East of the United States. It is the time period, spanning January to February of 1939, that is of interest to us. In February of 1939, the German American Bund planned a massive rally at Madison Square Garden. Despite massive opposition from Jewish organizations and various members of Congress, then Mayor La Guardia approved this rally and authorized the deployment of 1700 NYPD officers for crowd control (Dr. Mark Felton). La Guardia defended his actions stating,

“If we are for free speech, we have to be for free speech for everybody, and that includes Nazis.” (Dr. Mark Felton)

     As much as the hindsight of history is clearer now, it is clear what La Guardia's line of thought might have been. If you take the above quote and take it into the context we have just mentioned, one can figure out that La Guardia more or less did not care for what was spoken at the rally, and only cared if that speech turned into conduct, hence the 1700 NYPD officers at the rally. Does this line of thought sound familiar? This line of thought is the exact same line of thought expressed by the university presidents who were summoned before Congress on December 5 2023.

     As for Mayor La Guradia, one could make the argument that his hands were tied as he was a government official and must adhere to the 1st amendment to the furthest extent possible. However, this line of thinking is harmful for one important reason, words have consequences. The fact that university presidents think this line of thinking is acceptable is baffling. Imagine for a minute, if the rallies in question were not against Jews, but calling for the mass expulsion of Korean students, those rallies would be deemed absolutely unacceptable and shut down faster than I can order fried rice off DoorDash. This double standard is absurd. In addition, we need to consider the actions that accompanied the antisemitic rallies. In addition to the increase in mass demonstrations and rallies in support of Hamas, there have been reported incidents of harassment, physical attacks on Jewish students and faculty, the tearing down of mezuzahs off dorm rooms of Jewish students, and that's the tip of the iceberg. Let's reconsider then President Claudine Gay's response to Representative Stefanik (R-NY) which basically sums up her and Mayor La Guardia's line of thought,

“We(Harvard) embrace a commitment to free speech even of views that are objectionable, offensive, (and) hateful. … … It is when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying, harassment or intimidation that we (Harvard Administration) take action.”

     Based on this line of thought, and the acts perpetrated by anti-Jewish demonstrators that I have mentioned, the speech has absolutely violated university policies according to the above quote. More importantly, these rallies and the rhetoric used are calls to action, much more different than a simple lecture and expression of thought, this is because calls to action often result in acts. The fact that this even has to be explained in detail makes me wonder if our leaders are simply playing dumb, or are they simply willing to do absolutely nothing for their Jewish students? Is this in the name of being politically correct? It is the duty of administrators to protect their students, including their Jewish students, and to keep the peace. Not to be a good virtue signal.

    So what can we, students do? Here’s my best guess, but please do your own research and ensure you are doing this in a safe manner. Students should consider these things if antisemitism goes seemingly unchecked. Firstly, call it out. Write open letters and get the word out about administrator incompetence and campus violence. It doesn’t have to be on scene taking video, but gathering evidence is important. Secondly, Who do you know? Who do your friends know? Do you or a confidant know someone who could help? Who can you trust to relay the information you have accurately and safely? These are all considerations one must answer oneself to figure out how they can act and how quickly. Thirdly, is the campus administration open to your input? If it takes a million hoops to secure a meeting with a student government member or senior administrator, you need to go over their head. Lastly, if no one will do anything, how can you be proactive? Every student is different, their major’s different, personality, social circles etc. So it is really up to you as the reader as to how you can act on your own. After all, as much as this above article was critical of free expression, I, the writer, recognize that it is a double edged sword. Free expression and the 1st Amendment in the United States has been exploited by groups like the German American Bund and Pro-Hamas Student mobs to spew their hateful calls to action and let it manifest in violence. But it also allows us to freely spread light and become beacons of hope in an ever darkening word. The 1st Amendment has been abused for far too long, it's time to use it for good, and not to enable terrorism.

E. L.

Sources 

• Mark Felton Productions. (2021). American Nazis - The German American Bund. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDy05QotN_g

• Today in Civil Liberties History. (2015, December 26). NYC Mayor La Guardia Allows Huge German-American Bund Rally. Today in Civil Liberties History. https://todayinclh.com/?event=nyc-mayor-la-guardia-to-permit-german-american-bund-meeting

• HOLDING CAMPUS LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE AND CONFRONTING ANTISEMITISM. (2025, April 1). https://www.congress.gov/event/118th-congress/house-event/LC72923/text