Claudine Gay and Elizabeth Magill were the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, when they appeared in December before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workplace. They found themselves unable to answer with a simple “Yes” a question posed to them by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, which was “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s Code of Conduct?” Instead of firmly giving an honest kersey “Yes,” they responded with the disturbingly noncommittal “It depends on the context.” Magill was promptly pressured to resign, and she did. Gay held on some weeks longer, until her astonishing record as a serial plagiarist came embarrassingly to light, and tipped the scales against her. She, too, then felt the pressure to resign and did so, after securing the assurance that, despite her double disgrace, she would continue to receive her presidential salary of $900,000. The third university president to testify that day was Sally Kornbluth of MIT. Like the others, she answered Stefanik’s question about whether a call for the genocide of Jews on the MIT campus would violate the “Code of Conduct” with the same “it would depend on the context” response — “I’ve heard chants which can be antisemitic depending on the context when calling for the elimination of the Jewish people” — but unlike the others, she was not asked to resign; instead, the MIT Board swiftly came out with a statement of unequivocal support for her.
More on the antisemitism that has been flourishing at MIT, and the failure of Sally Kornbluth to deal with it, can be found here: “Massachusetts Institute of Technology Accused of Ignoring Antisemitism,” by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, March 1, 2024:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ignored numerous complaints of antisemitic discrimination, according to harrowing testimony provided during a “round table” meeting on campus antisemitism at the US Capitol on Thursday [Feb. 29].
Held by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the meeting marked another phase in Congress’ investigation of antisemitism at US colleges and universities, an inquiry that aims to determine whether administrators have willfully ignored bigotry when Jews are its victims.
In December, the committee questioned three presidents of elite universities — Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Elizabeth Magill of University of Pennsylvania, and Sally Kornbluth of Massachusetts Institute of Technology — about their efforts to address the problem. While Gay and Magill were ultimately forced to resign from their positions, Kornbluth evaded scrutiny. The testimony of one of Kornbluth’s students, Talia Khan, suggested that higher education watchdogs should have focused on her as well.
“In the past five months, I’ve become traumatized,” Talia Khan, a student, told the committee. “MIT has become overrun by terrorist supporters that directly threaten the lives of Jews on our campus. Members of the anti-Israel club on our campus has stated that violence against Jew who supports Israel, including women and children, is acceptable. When this was reported to President Kornbluth and senior MIT administration, the issue was never dealt with. Then, administrators pleaded ignorance when we reminded them that no action had been taken, saying that they either forgot about it or missed the email.”
Khan went on to recount MIT’s efforts to suppress expressions of solidarity with Israel after Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, which included ordering Jewish students to remove Israeli flags from public display while allowing Palestinian flags to fly across campus campus. It is a “scandal” Khan explained, alienating both Jewish students, staff, and faculty, many of whom resigned from an allegedly farcical committee on antisemitism. Staff were ignored, Khan said, after expressing fear that their lives were at risk, following an incident in which a mob of anti-Zionist amassed in front of the MIT Israel Internship office and attempted to infiltrate it, banging on its doors while “screaming” that Jews are committing genocide.
“No action was taken to discipline this behavior,” Khan explained. “We have DEI administrators, an inter-faith chaplain, and faculty who have openly supported Hamas as martyrs, harassed individual Jewish students online, and publicly supported antisemitic blood libel conspiracy theories. The MIT administration seems only to listen to those faculty and members of the MIT corporation who help them continue to gaslight Jewish students and faculty, telling us we’re being overly dramatic and should just, quote, ‘Go back to Israel if we don’t feel safe studying here.’”…
In light of this testimony from MIT students, Sally Kornbluth should be asked to again testify before the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workplace, so that she can explain what she now intends to do about this intolerable — but so far tolerated by her — situation. In particular, why did the MIT administration prevent students from expressing their solidarity with Israel after the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7? Why were Jewish students ordered to take down Israeli flags while Palestinian flags were allowed to be displayed everywhere on the campus? And what about the threats of physical harm mad to Jewish students, that the MIT administration refused to take seriously?
Sally Kornbluth, please explain. And if you have trouble giving a straight answer, then why not follow the example of Claudine Gay, make a sweetheart deal that will allow you to keep receiving your presidential salary, and do the right thing — resign?