WASHINGTON (TND) — Jewish students at top American universities shared their experiences with rising antisemitism on campus during a visit to Capitol Hill.
Talia Khan, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said there's been a dramatic shift in campus culture since Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks, "to such an extreme intolerance that 70% of MIT’s Jewish students polled feel forced to hide their identities and perspectives.”
Khan said she was forced to leave a study group when members told her the people at the Nova Music Festival deserved to die because they were partying on stolen land.
Reports of antisemitism are spiking at New York University (NYU) as well.
Today, in 2023 at NYU I hear calls to gas the Jews and I am told that Hitler was right," said Bella Ingber a student at New York University. "Being a Jew at NYU means being physically assaulted in NYU’s library by a fellow student while I was wearing an American Israeli flag and having my attacker still roam freely throughout the campus.
“A Jewish student accosted. 'Jews are Zazi’s' etched adjacent to Penn’s Jewish fraternity house. Why doesn’t the university hold the perpetrators of such acts accountable?” asked Eyal Yakoby, a senior at UPenn.
Critics are comparing Harvard president Claudine Gay’s passionate fight against African-American racism to her current approach to antisemitism.
In 2020, Gay wrote about the need to work against the “old hatreds and the enduring legacies of anti-black racism” with a “new sense of urgency.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., asked Gay if calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard's code of conduct.
Gay responded, "It depends on the context."
Harvard has taken down Gay’s 2020 statement on George Floyd’s death.
This week’s congressional testimony by the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT only ramped up calls for them to resign. Hedge fund billionaire and Harvard graduate Bill Ackman is among those leading the charge.