Antisemitism at university – worse than you think

Yesterday the House Education and Workforce Committee held a hearing on antisemitism on campus. They invited the Presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) to testify. Incredibly, those university presidents answered Congress with weasel words – showing they do not want to condemn antisemitism on their campuses. When an educator shies away from such judgment, at least some of his (or her) sympathies lie with the bullies. This also means that Jews – and Gentiles of good heart – face a crisis of trust, and of the soul.

Antisemitism “depends on context”?

The Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) covers televised proceedings in the House of Representatives and all its committees. They carried the hearing, which ran for more than three and a half hours on the afternoon of December 5.

Bill Ackman, co-trustee of the Pershing Square Fund, offered this scathing summary and critique of the university presidents’ testimony.

The three presidents involved are Claudine Gay (Harvard), Sally Kornbluth (MIT), and Liz Magill (UPenn). Ackman embedded a three-and-a-half-minute clip from the hearing, in which Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) ask the three one simple question:

Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?

Dr. Kornbluth answered that only the direct targeting of individual students would break this code. Mere public statements would not. When Rep. Stefanik pressed further, Kornbluth at first denied hearing any direct calls for killing Jews. But then she admitted to hearing “chants,” which, she said, could be antisemitic, depending on the context. She then said that such “chants” would bear investigation as to whether they constituted harassment of specific students.

The other two repeat Dr. Kornbluth’s statements

Likewise, Ms. Magill said that such speech would be actionable harassment if it turned into conduct. Again when the Congresswoman pressed her, she stood on “context.” She might want to check with certain guests of Todd Starnes’ radio program. They told of Jews at her university, hiding in their dormitory rooms, as their classmates – and some professors – chanted “Death to Jews!”

Rep. Stefanik reacted in outrage:

This is the easiest question to answer, “Yes”!

Magill repeated her earlier statement about the speech becoming conduct. That only outraged the Congresswoman further, and she asked Magill whether she would wait until someone actually committed mass murder. All she got back was the statement that such speech could constitute harassment.

Finally Rep. Stefanik turned to Dr. Gay – who proceeded to say, “It can be [violative], depending on the context.” Which is exactly what Liz Magill had got finished saying – and what Dr. Kornbluth had said earlier. When the Congresswoman pressed her, she said the context would be the targeting of “an individual.” In reply, Rep. Stefanik flatly accused her of making a dehumanizing statement. Then she asked, “One more time…!” and Dr. Gay repeated yet again her statement about dependence on context. Whereupon Rep. Stefanik called on her to resign as President of Harvard.

What has university become?

Rep. Stefanik was not the only one to subject the university presidents to a withering cross-examination. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) asked Dr. Gay straight-out whether she could guarantee the safety of Jewish prospective students. And she would not give a single straight answer.

Interestingly, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Chairwoman of the committee, asked each university president point-blank:

Do you believe the State of Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state?

Each answered, “Yes.”

Afterward, Rep. Foxx granted an interview to Dagen McDowell and Sean Duffy, hosts of Fox Business Bottom Line. She accused the presidents of equivocating on the subject of antisemitism – and on the atrocities by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Arabic Harakah al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah, abbreviated HAMAS).

They cannot condemn HAMAS; they cannot condemn the atrocities that occurred on October 7. They’ve had groups that want to meet with them, to show them what happened – and they woujld not admit to being willing to meet with those people. So, they equivocated a lot… We tried to push them into being moral leaders on their campuses… But we’re not sure that’s what they’re going to do. They need to teach the difference between right and wrong.

And as I said to them: I don’t call it higher education anymore. I call it post-secondary education. Because I don’t think they’re teaching higher-order skills, or critical thinking skills.

Actually, Harvard, on December 4, hosted a screening by the Maccabee Task Force of 45 minutes of raw footage from the October 7 attacks. The Task Force has previously shown this footage to selected Senators and Representatives. Task Force leadership report having two campuses expressing interest in showing the footage this month, and 8-10 more who might want to show it within a “few months.” They would not name the universities involved.

Todd Starnes, in his coverage, mentioned an earlier hearing at which several Jewish students testified. One Harvard student told of walking to class past mobs chanting,

From the river to the sea, / Palestine shall be free!

He also mentioned that several schoolmates are afraid to go to class.

Reaction to antisemitism at university

Bill Ackman, in his long-form post, called on the three university presidents to “resign in disgrace.” He also gave kudos to the members of the Education Committee for holding the hearings and asking the right questions.

Erick-Woods Erickson recommended that executives like Ackman go further. They should hire, not from the Ivy League, but from the Southeastern Conference. The University of Georgia, in Erickson’s home state, is a member. Thus far the National Collegiate Athletic Association has not commented on whether “football schools” might be a more fertile recruiting ground for executives not wanting to risk hiring antisemitic college graduates. Ackman already has put Harvard on a hiring blacklist but has thus far not expanded this to other schools. He has, however, talked of withholding money.

The Southeastern Conference is only one of about 33 Division One multi-sport conferences that belong to the NCAA. Nor is the NCAA the only multi-conference umbrella organization for college sports. Erickson’s point is that “football schools” are, thus far, not known to host such antisemitic attitudes or demonstrations.

Antisemitism at university has provoked much commentary, often scathing, ever since the Fourth Arab-Israeli War began. Here are some samples:

The spectacle of three university presidents not wanting to condemn atrocious actors, or their students (and faculty!) who cheer them on, is final shame to the pride of American higher education. Then again, American higher education has precious little to be proud of, anyway.