House probes MIT over antisemitism on campus and reveals Kristallnacht attack on Jewish students
A powerful congressional committee accused Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday of a systematic “failure to protect Jewish students” — which includes an antisemitic incident on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
The Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce said it has “grave concerns” about how the Ivy League college has dealt with antisemitism since the October 7 massacre of hundreds of Israelis by Hamas terrorists and demanded that the school hand over evidence of its conduct.
It demanded that MIT president Sally Kornbluth and the chair of the MIT Corporation, Mark Gorenberg, turn over a host of documents by March 22 or face a subpoena.
These include police records and disciplinary memos as well communications related to the funding of anti-Israel groups on campus, according to a letter from the committee.
The move comes after it subpoenaed records from Harvard University on its response to antisemitism as part of a probe opened after disastrous testimony on antisemitism from Kornbluth, Harvard’s then-president Claudine Gay and the University of Pennsylvania’s then-president Elizabeth Magill.
All three of the presidents failed to condemn calls for the death of Jews at their schools, saying it depended on the “context.” Magill resigned soon after her appearance, and Gay resigned in January amid mounting allegations of plagiarism, leaving MIT’s Kornbluth the sole survivor.
The 12-page letter, from committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC), warned MIT that 73 percent of Jewish students said they “did not feel comfortable publicly being Jewish, Israeli or supportive of Israel on MIT’s campus.”
A campus group, Coalition Against Apartheid (CAA), “has disrupted classes, harassed Jewish students, promoted violence, and violated other MIT rules in the course of conducting anti-Israel demonstrations,” the letter said.
On November 9, 2023, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, CAA blocked students from attending classes. MIT’s response was to warn Jewish students to avoid engaging the protesters for the sake of their own “physical safety and wellbeing,” the letter also said.
Kristallnacht, or “the Night of Broken Glass,” was a pogrom carried out by the Nazis across Germany on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938.
Jewish stores, buildings, homes and synagogues were attacked and destroyed, leaving the pavement littered with shards of glass.
And it said that 59 percent of Jewish students said they had experienced some form of hate since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist strikes in Israel.
When Jewish faculty members tried to take action, they weren’t taken seriously, the letter said.
An advisory group of Jewish faculty members set up to combat antisemitism disbanded following the school’s announcement of a lecture series featuring an antisemitic speaker.
“MIT invited Dalia Mogahed, who has endorsed Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel to lecture on Islamophobia,” the letter said.
Foxx takes aim at MIT’s leaders for praising Kornbluth after her disastrous appearance before Congress. “Despite widespread public criticism of Dr. Kornbluth’s testimony, the MIT Corporation issued an endorsement, writing that Dr. Kornbluth ‘has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophia and other forms of hate…'”
A spokesperson for MIT said: “We have received the Committee’s letter and are examining it. MIT is committed to providing a response to the Committee’s questions.”
