On Dec. 5, presidents from top U.S. universities including Harvard University’s Claudine Gay, University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sally Kornbluth were called to testify before Congress. They were questioned for more than five hours on the rising anti-semitism on their campuses.
Recently, on college campuses around the country, and especially on those of the three presidents testifying, antisemitic incidents have spiked amid disagreements over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In response to such abhorrent behavior from college students, instead of standing up against this and calling these events out for what they are, the presidents did the exact opposite.
In response to Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s question on whether calling for the genocide of Jews is against the colleges’ code of conduct, all three of the presidents deflected the question, saying that “it can be” or that it “depends on the context.” This is summarized in this clip, along with laudable commentary from MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.
This comes in the wake of other acts of anti-semitism around the world: a new Kanye West song featuring anti-Jewish lyrics, a 320% rise in antisemitic crimes in Germany, antisemitic social media posts from congresspeople, and more.
In fact, some of this hatred is coming straight from nearby. A popular Kosher pizzeria, EJ’s Pizza in Skokie, IL, was vandalized with a swastika a week ago. The restaurant is enjoyed by many within the Niles North community, as well as around the greater Chicagoland area.
Sophomore Spencer Pearl talked about college campus anti-semitism.
“It’s definitely affected my opinions on where I want to go to college,” Pearl said. “I’m not going to apply to Harvard or similar places anymore because of it [the anti-semitism].”
Overall, the trend is a worrying one. Hopefully, such conduct will not be encouraged and will stop once and for all.
