A bipartisan group comprising 74 congressmen urged the governing boards of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania to dismiss their respective institutions’ leaders, days after the three university presidents testified before the House on a recent surge in campus antisemitism.
A letter by Representatives Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) and Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.) called for the immediate removal of Harvard president Claudine Gay, MIT president Sally Kornbluth, and UPenn president Liz Magill. It also demanded the higher-education institutions provide an action plan that protects Jewish and Israeli students, professors, and faculty on their campuses. Seventy-two Republicans and two Democrats in the House signed the letter Friday.
“Given this moment of crisis, we demand that your boards immediately remove each of these presidents from their positions and that you provide an actionable plan to ensure that Jewish and Israeli students, teachers, and faculty are safe on your campuses,” the letter read. “Anything less than these steps will be seen as your endorsement of what Presidents Gay, Magill, and Kornbluth said to Congress and an act of complicity in their antisemitic posture. The world is watching — you can stand with your Jewish students and faculty, or you can choose the side of dangerous antisemitism.”
The correspondence comes after Stefanik and fellow Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee pressed Gay, Kornbluth, and Magill during a contentious Tuesday hearing on the rise of antisemitic threats and rhetoric in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
In their testimony, the leaders failed to answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate university policy. All three “were evasive and dismissive, failing to simply condemn such action,” according to the letter. “This should have been an easy and resounding ‘yes.'”
Kornbluth responded to the question by saying MIT would deem calls for Jewish genocide as harassment only if it was “targeted at individuals, not making public statements” and if it was “pervasive and severe.”
Magill said “it is a context-dependent decision” for UPenn. Asked to provide a “yes” or “no” answer, she added, “If the speech becomes conduct. It can be harassment, yes.”
Gay similarly said “it depends on the context” of the situation.
“There is no context in which calls for the genocide of Jews are acceptable rhetoric. Their failure to unequivocally condemn calls for the systematic murder of Jews is deeply alarming. It stands in stark contrast to the principles we expect leaders of top academic institutions to uphold,” the congressmen wrote. “It is hard to imagine any Jewish or Israeli student, faculty, or staff feeling safe when presidents of your member institutions could not say that calls for the genocide of Jews would have clear consequences on your campus.”
“If calls for genocide of the Jewish people are not in violation of your universities’ policies, then your universities are operating under a clear double standard,” they continued.
In recent weeks, reports of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. and around the world have skyrocketed. According to the Anti-Defamation League, at least 1,481 such incidents have been reported. Of those instances, 292 occurred on college and university campus grounds. Additionally, 73 percent of Jewish college students said they experienced or witnessed antisemitism on campus since their fall semester began, as found in an ADL-Hillel International study.
Gay, Kornbluth, nor Magill have stepped down yet, but calls for their resignation are growing. Magill, for instance, was told by UPenn board members to immediately resign after her testimony. As for the other two hearing witnesses, Gay made a public apology for her remarks amid public criticism, and Kornbluth has the “full and unreserved support” of the MIT board.