University Presidents to Testify Before US Congress on Rampant Campus Antisemitism

The presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been called to testify before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Dec. 5 about rising antisemitism on college campuses in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen countless examples of antisemitic demonstrations on college campuses. Meanwhile, college administrators have largely stood by, allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow,” the committee’s chair, US Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), said in a statement.

“College and university presidents have a responsibility to foster and uphold a safe learning environment for their students and staff,” the congresswoman continued. “Now is not a time for indecision or milquetoast statements. By holding this hearing, we are shining a spotlight on these campus leaders and demanding they take the appropriate action to stand strong against antisemitism.”

The announcement of the hearing came days after a new poll, released last week by Hillel International, found that 37 percent of Jewish college students have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus since the Hamas atrocities, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were murdered and 240 others taken as hostages into Gaza. The survey also found that 35 percent of respondents said there have been acts of hate or violence against Jews on campus. A majority of those surveyed said they were unsatisfied with their university’s response to those incidents.

Kenneth Marcus — founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, who recently appeared before the committee himself to discuss campus antisemitism — told The Algemeiner on Wednesday that the hearing stands to give the college presidents a “dose of reality.”

“My sense is that a lot of college leaders are working within echo chambers,” said Marcus, whose organization filed a lawsuit this week against the University of California, Berkeley alleging the school failed to respond to “unchecked” antisemitism. “They’re surrounded by ‘yes men,’ and they can lose touch with reality. The fact is that their handling of antisemitism on their campuses has been extraordinarily deficient. Considering the quality of their respective institutions, they should be embarrassed.”

Presidents Claudine Gay of Harvard, Liz Magill of Penn, and Sally Kornbluth of MIT have been beset this academic year by accusations that their administrations refused to rein in extreme anti-Zionist protesters, many of whom have uttered hate speech, disrupted class, and harassed and even intimidated and assaulted Jewish students.

The problem of campus antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred has worsened in the weeks since Oct. 7, but it began receiving considerable attention in September, when the University of Pennsylvania hosted the “Palestine Writes Literature Festival.” The event featured several speakers who have been accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracies and violence against Israel. The school refused to cancel the event or ask that it be hosted off-campus. Last month, Magill expressed regret and apologized for not promptly condemning the festival.

Harvard has come under fire for what Jewish and pro-Israel voices have described as allowing antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred to proliferate on campus since Oct. 7. After Hamas’ attack, the university waited days to condemn the Palestinian terrorist group’s mass slaughter and rape of civilians. The administration also declined to censure 31 student groups, led by the school’s Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), who seemingly blamed Israel for the attack and accused the Jewish state of operating an “open air prison” in Gaza, despite the Israeli military having fully withdrawn from the territory in 2005.

Earlier this month, Gay condemned the popular anti-Israel phrase “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 Sen — and elaborated on plans to combat antisemitism on campus.

The school is currently being investigated by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to determine whether it failed to act after an Israeli student was encircled by a mob — which included Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — of pro-Palestinian students who screamed “Shame!” into his ears and tried to prevent him from escaping.

Jewish and Israeli students at MIT recently warned in a letter to Kornbluth that radical anti-Zionism and intimidation of Jewish students on campus had become intolerable and reminiscent of Nazi Germany on the eve of the Holocaust.

The letter, shared on X/Twitter by MIT professor Retsef Levi, recounted a recent incident in which students from the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA), a campus anti-Israel group, “physically prevented” them from attending class by forming a “blockade” of bodies in Lobby 7, a space inside the main entrance of the university. Non-students were invited to attend CAA’s demonstration, and together the entire group spent hours chanting “Intifada” — a term used to describe violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel — and declaring solidarity with Hamas.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post University Presidents to Testify Before US Congress on Rampant Campus Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.