In a new parody skit, Saturday Night Live mocked GOP lawmakers’ recent interrogation of prestigious university presidents over their mishandling of and blasé attitude toward rampant antisemitism on their campuses.
During a congressional hearing last week, Republican House members grilled the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about growing anti-Jewish hate in their student bodies. The trio emphasized the importance of free speech when asked how such noxious viewpoints gained a footing in their institutions and acceptability by their administrations.
When Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) confronted Harvard president Claudine Gay over the chants of “intifada” at student protests, Gay said the calls for violence do not breach the university’s code of conduct.
Representative Kevin Kiley (R., Calif.) pressed Gay to explain why she suddenly felt the need to defend free speech at the college when it has such a notoriously bad record on free speech. Gay repeated that Harvard has a strong commitment to free speech and ideological diversity.
In its interpretation of the hearing, SNL derided Stefanik for her passionate questioning of the presidents. Stefanik was portrayed as a nagging, unintelligent interlocutor who was looking to score political points in probing the presidents about antisemitism. The Stefanik character interrupted the Gay character when she said the university condemns Islamaphobia in addition to other forms of bigotry.
After three university presidents were universally panned for their testimony about anti-Semitism on campus, SNL decided that @EliseStefanik was the one who embarrassed herself.
pic.twitter.com/wSympwPfEj— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 10, 2023
“Elise did not watch it,” Alex DeGrasse, senior advisor to Stefanik, told National Review of the skit. “However, her office was flooded with messages from thousands of Americans across the political spectrum – Democrats and Republicans – who were appalled and disgusted by the antisemitic trash spewed by unfunny, morally bankrupt ‘comedians.'”
“SNL made history with the worst cold open ever because everyone knows there is absolutely no humor in the vile answers from the university presidents regarding their failure to condemn calls for the genocide of the Jewish people,” DeGrasse added.
The presidents received intense backlash after their poor presentation before Congress. On Saturday, a bipartisan group of 74 congressmen, led by Stefanik, urged the college’s governing boards to remove the leaders and demanded action to protect Jewish and Israeli students, professors, and faculty. University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill then resigned from her position following accusations that she downplayed the rise of antisemitism on her campus.
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 surged. According to the Anti-Defamation League, at least 1,481 such incidents have been documented, including 292 involving 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.