Leaders of top US universities grilled on anti-Semitism response
The presidents of three elite US unis have been condemned over their stance on anti-Semitism during an extraordinary congressional hearing | WATCH
The presidents of three elite universities have been criticised by the White House and Israel’s Yad Vashem holocaust museum after they dodged a question about their stance on calls for genocide during congressional hearings over anti-Semitism on campus.
Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology acknowledged that anti-Semitism was a growing problem at their institutions.
They said they were taking steps to combat hate, including beefing up security on campuses and taking action against anyone who harasses or discriminates against students, faculty or staff. They also said their schools wanted to ensure the safety of their students while still protecting free speech.
“The right to free speech does not extend to harassment, discrimination or incitement to violence in our community,” Kornbluth said.
However when asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment under their campus policies, they refused to answer the question directly, saying instead that it depended on the context.
In what appeared to be a response to their remarks, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said: “It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: Calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country. “Any statements that advocate for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting – and we should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the most basic values that unite us as Americans.”
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel also lashed the presidents, accusing them of a “wilful lack of accountability” and “basic ignorance of history.”
The memorial centre said in a statement the presidents’ lukewarm response to the rise of antisemitism on their campuses “highlight the wilful lack of accountability when it comes to Jews, Israel and antisemitism on campus and in academia.”
"Any university, institution or society that can 'contextualize' or excuse calls for genocide is doomed. We invite these university presidents to YV to learn what past calls for the genocide of Jews has led to."
— Yad Vashem (@yadvashem) December 6, 2023
@AmbDaniDayan
Full statement: https://t.co/zGbe1CRDTh
“The positions taken by the three university presidents in their testimonies highlight a basic ignorance of history, including the fact that the Holocaust did not start with ghettos or gas chambers, but with hateful antisemitic rhetoric, decrees and actions by senior academics, among other leaders of society,” the statement says.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the centre added: “Any university, institution or society that can ‘contextualize’ or excuse calls for genocide is doomed. We invite these university presidents to YV to learn what past calls for the genocide of Jews has led to.”
Earlier, Republicans on the committee criticised the university presidents and said their actions led to verbal and physical attacks and intimidation that made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome on their campuses.
In one particularly tense exchange, Republican Elise Stefanik challenged Harvard’s Gay on where she draws the line between protected speech and incitement to violence, and whether she would take disciplinary action against individuals who participated in rallies where there were calls for an intifada, or a violent Palestinian uprising.
Gay said the school does give a wide berth to protected speech, but acts when rhetoric crosses into conduct that violates the school’s policies on harassment, bullying or intimidation. Stefanik called for Gay’s resignation.
College campuses have been riled by protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, with hundreds or even thousands of students, faculty and staff at schools around the country joining pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish leaders say chants such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Globalise the intifada” are incitements to violence against Israelis and Jews more broadly.
🚨🚨🚨Presidents of @Harvard@MIT and @Penn REFUSE to say whether “calling for the genocide of Jews†is bullying and harassment according to their codes of conduct. Even going so far to say it needs to turn to “action†first. As in committing genocide.
— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 5, 2023
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND… pic.twitter.com/hUY3SgoOOi
Students and alumni groups say anti-Jewish antagonism has increased amid the rising tensions, prompting calls for schools to do more to protect Jewish students from bigotry. The universities represented at the hearing are all private institutions, but congress has some oversight role because the schools receive significant federal funding for research and student financial aid.
The leaders of Penn, Harvard and MIT each said harassment and discrimination against Muslim and Arab students has also been growing, and the schools are taking steps to support those communities as well.
“We will continue to deploy all the necessary resources to support any member of the community experiencing hate,” said Magill, of Penn.
"This is the same climate of antisemitism that has led to the massacre of Jews throughout the centuries. This is not just harassment. This is our lives on the line." @MIT student Talia Khan highlights the rise of antisemitism at MIT. pic.twitter.com/zXb03xodXb
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
Pamela Nadell, an American University professor of Jewish history who testified on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT), said anti-Semitism wasn’t a new scourge on campuses. A few witnesses and politicians referenced the 2017 rally in which white supremacists marched across the campus of the University of Virginia shouting lines including “the Jews will not replace us.” “Anti-Semitism is a symptom of ignorance, and the cure for ignorance is knowledge,” Gay, of Harvard, said.
“Harvard must model what it means to preserve free expression while combating prejudice and preserving the security of our community.”
College leaders around the country stumbled in their early responses to the October 7 attacks, attempting to appease activists on both sides of the seemingly intractable issue. Some issued updates to their public statements, or clarifications to those updates, as they weighed their responsibility as moral arbiters, protectors of free speech and administrators aiming to keep their campuses safe.
Donors at Penn, Harvard and other elite schools have criticised the schools’ leadership and threatened to withhold contributions, saying the institutions didn’t quickly or forcefully condemn anti-Semitism on campus following the Hamas attack and have done a poor job of protecting Jewish students.
Marc Rowan, Apollo Global Management’s chief executive officer, on Tuesday called out Penn for allowing anti-Semitism to spread on campus. He has pressed his alma mater to make changes to protect Jewish students.
“The underlying culture that permitted this to happen is so strong,” said Rowan, chair of the board of advisers of Penn’s Wharton business school, in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
"I should not be here today...I should be taking in...my senior year of college...I am because 36 hours ago, I, along with most of campus, sought refuge in our rooms as classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews. " - @Penn student Eyal Yakoby pic.twitter.com/fg4InUKj3Q
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) December 5, 2023
A survey released last month by the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, and collegiate Jewish organisation Hillel International found 73 per cent of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism since the start of the 2023-24 school year. About 46 per cent of Jewish students said they felt safe on campus, according to the poll.
Last week, the US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights added Harvard to the list of schools the agency is investigating as part of a federal crackdown on race- and religious-based harassment. Other schools under investigation for possible civil-rights violations include Penn, Wellesley College and Columbia University.
During Tuesday’s hearing, committee chair Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said the current situation illustrates “the grave danger of assenting to the race-based ideology of the radical left”.
Others accused the school leaders of not supporting ideological diversity on their campuses, and asked for figures on how many conservative faculty they employed. Some drew a direct line from schools’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and use of critical race theory in academic study to the current wave of anti-Semitism.
Kornbluth, of MIT, questioned that connection. “I find it hard to understand how equity and inclusion as a concept is a hate inducer,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal
