For Supporting These Bigoted Presidents – Chair Scott Bok at Penn, Meredith Hodges At Harvard, Scott Gorenberg At MIT Should Immediately Resign Or Be Fired As Well
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The December 5, 2023 Congressional Hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism,” led by House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, displayed the frightening university leadership failings that have turned U.S. college campuses into a dangerous bastion and incubator of anti-Jewish hate, intimidation, bullying and violence.
University of Pennsylvania Presidents Elizabeth (Liz) Magill, Harvard President Claudine Gay and MIT President Sally Kornbluth made clear that they are frightened moral pygmies after Congresswoman Elise Stefanik repeatedly asked those top university leaders whether calling for genocide against Jews – that is, the mass murder of Jews – violates their universities’ rules or codes of conduct on bullying and harassment. The answer should obviously have been “yes.” But, incredibly and shockingly, none of those university presidents took a stand against calling for the annihilation of all Jews, even after Congresswoman Stefanik gave them multiple opportunities to do so. Magill, Gay and Kornbluth should all resign or be fired immediately. They demonstrated antisemitic and anti-American bigotry. Jews have civil rights too. Jewish lives matter.
Liz Magill insisted that determining whether calling for genocide against Jews violates Penn’s rules “is a context-dependent decision,” and “if the speech becomes conduct, it can be harassment.” Shocked, Congresswoman Stefanik appropriately responded: “Conduct, meaning committing the act of genocide? The speech is not harassment? This is unacceptable, Ms. Magill.” We agree. And notice that Magill did not even say that genocidal conduct against Jews necessarily violates Penn’s rules!
MIT’s Kornbluth similarly answered that chants calling for the destruction and massacre of the Jewish people “can be antisemitic depending on the context,” and only indicated that such genocidal chants would be investigated as harassment “if pervasive and severe.” What context would ever legitimize genocide of a people against whom it’s already been attempted in the Holocaust. How can a chant for the massacre of the Jewish people not be severe? And why the “pervasiveness” requirement? How many times does an antisemitic lynch mob have to chant for Jews to be murdered for MIT’s president to consider investigating and taking appropriate action against that mob’s members? They would never have made these frightening bigoted responses if they were asked about calling for genocide of Blacks, Muslims, gays or women.
Similar to her immoral colleagues, Harvard’s Claudine Gay repeatedly insisted that “it depends on context,” and that “conduct” is required. Apparently, threatening Jews with death is not enough; campus Jew-haters need to actually carry out their threats before any action may possibly be taken against them. Here is the Q&A with Claudine Gay:
Congresswoman Stefanik (a Harvard graduate): And Dr. Gay at Harvard? Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no?
President Gay: It can be, depending on the context.
Congresswoman Stefanik: What’s the context?
President Gay: Targeted at an individual target, as at an individual.
Congresswoman Stefanik: It’s targeted at Jewish students, Jewish individuals. Do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? Do you understand that dehumanization is part of antisemitism? I will ask you one more time. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment? Yes or no?
President Gay: Antisemitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct, that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct, and we do take action.
Congresswoman Stefanik: So the answer is yes. That calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard Code of Conduct. Correct?
President Gay: Again, it depends on the context.
Congresswoman Stefanik: It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board.
There is of course no question that universities would throw the book at anyone who called for genocide against any other group, such as Blacks, Muslims, LGBTQs, etc. Calling for genocide against any other group would not “depend on context.” The failure to take threats against Jews seriously is utterly deplorable.
It is also astonishing that calling for death to the Jews does not per se violate university rules when relatively minor infractions do violate university rules. A pro-Israel group at Penn posted: “Calling for the genocide of Jews doesn’t necessarily violate Penn’s rules, but these 5 things do: Riding scooters in university buildings; holding fraternity/sorority orientation past midnight; moving into fraternity house a day early; vaping outside; and playing drinking games.”
The five-hour Congressional hearing provided much more grist demonstrating university leadership’s failures to properly address the dangerous antisemitism situation on campuses. For instance:
Congressman Jim Banks (R-Ind.) rightly took Penn president Magill to task for allowing Penn to host the antisemitic “Palestine Writes Festival,” using the rationale of “free speech” while U Penn hypocritically regulates speech (such as that of Professor Amy Wax) that Penn doesn’t like. (ZOA had campaigned and sent an open letter to Elizabeth Magill and other Penn leadership demanding cancelation of the terror-inciting Palestine Writes” hate-fest, and documenting that the organizers and numerous speakers were terror supporters (and at least one speaker was a convicted terrorist), and that the announced program fomented anti-Jewish terror and blood libels.
Shamefully, Magill again tried to defend her indefensible “Palestine Writes” decision. Rep. Banks correctly told her: “You’re speaking out of both sides of your mouth. You create a safe haven for this type of antisemitic behavior.”
The universities’ abject failure to strongly discipline students and faculty who harass and violate Jewish students’ rights was also made clear at the Congressional hearing. Congressman Aaron P. Bean told the university presidents that “the evidence doesn’t support your testimony” that the universities were striving to create a safe environment for students on campus, and condemned the anti-Israel groups that “harass and intimidate Jewish students into retreating from campus life.” Congressman Bean then challenged the university presidents: “So, here’s your chance to tell America who’s gotten fired, what organizations you’ve kicked off your campus.” The Harvard, Penn and MIT presidents remained deafeningly silent.
It’s time to fire these Jew-hating, bigoted presidents as well as the chairs or presidents of the boards who oversee and support them – Meredith “Max” Hodges at Harvard; Scott Bok at Penn; and Mark Gorenberg at MIT. Keeping them in their positions is a danger and threat to Jewish students, sends a terrifying message to other universities that Jewish Lives Don’t Matter, and remains a continuing stain on their universities’ reputations.