House committee grills Harvard, MIT leaders on antisemitism response

The presidents of Harvard and MIT appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday, facing questions from lawmakers on their response to a reported rise in antisemitic incidents on their campuses.

Alongside Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of MIT sought to condemn antisemitism as they also underscored the importance of protecting Arab and Muslim students facing discrimination and defending a limited right to free expression.

The hearing, which was convened by the House Committee on Education and Workforce, took place almost two months after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent strikes in Gaza that have killed more than 15,000 Palestinians so far.

Campuses across the U.S. have been roiled by pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests since the uptick in violence. Tuesday’s hearing was framed in a committee press release as holding these campus leaders “accountable for antisemitism” on their campuses.

It was hostile from the outset.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and the committee’s chair, opened the hearing by airing video of pro-Palestinian student protestors on campuses set to ominous music. Foxx described the uptick in antisemitic chants and demonstrations as “among the poison fruits” of universities’ commitment to “the race-based ideology of the radical left.”

Over the next several hours, the three university presidents faced leading questions, calls for harsher disciplinary measures against student protestors and at least one call for their resignation.

In her opening remarks, Gay — who became the first person of color to lead Harvard when she started in her role this summer — reiterated her early October condemnation of Hamas’s initial attacks. Gay has faced anger from some quarters, including Harvard’s former president Lawrence Summers, for not forcefully denouncing student groups that blamed Israel for Hamas’ initial attack.

“Our community still mourns” the Israelis killed in those attacks, Gay said on Tuesday. “Words fail in the face of such depravity.”

She also acknowledged what she called “a dramatic and deeply concerning rise in antisemitism” on her campus and nationwide. But she also disputed the idea — frequently invoked by Republican committee members — that Harvard is a bastion of intolerance.

Gay noted that her team has responded repeatedly to a climate of protest and fear since Oct. 7. Her administration has issued a number of public statements, convened a task force on antisemitism and taken steps to educate students and faculty about the dangers of bigotry, she said Tuesday.

“Antisemitism is a symptom of ignorance, and the cure for ignorance is knowledge,” Gay said. “Harvard must model what it means to preserve free expression while combating prejudice and preserving the security of our community.”

Gay acknowledged that the resulting balancing act has been a challenge.

“During these difficult days, I have felt the bonds of our community strain,” she said. “This is difficult work, and I know I have not always gotten it right.”

Kornbluth, who has led MIT since January, struck a similar note of polite defiance.

Saying she was speaking “as an American, as a Jew, and as a human being,” Kornbluth also condemned antisemitism and the atrocity of the Hamas attacks on Tuesday. But she also argued that her campus community is far healthier than many have suggested.

“I cannot tell you how wonderful our faculty have been,” Kornbluth said, alluding to their efforts to engage and protect both Jewish and Arab or Muslim students in a series of lunches and meetings.

Kornbluth added that her campus is now figuring out how to bring those student groups together to foster “constructive and civil dialogue.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, both Kornbluth and Gay also confirmed they have disciplined students in the pro-Palestinian camp, including suspensions from non-academic activities in the case of MIT.

During these difficult days, I have felt the bonds of our community strain ... This is difficult work, and I know I have not always gotten it right.

Harvard President Claudine Gay

But Republican lawmakers and a handful of their Democratic colleagues repeatedly pushed school leaders to draw an even clearer line.

In a Nov. 9 letter, Gay criticized some pro-Palestinian chants, including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which, she wrote, “impl[ies] the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and existential fears within our Jewish community.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, asked what Gay will do going forward to students heard chanting that slogan or in support of the similarly contested phrase “intifada,” which, in general, means “uprising" in Arabic.

Stefanik argued, however, that the term is "a call for violent armed resistance against the state of Israel" and even the "genocide of Jews" — a framing rejected by pro-Palestinian protesters.

After Gay declined to commit to a uniform policy of suspension or expulsion in that case, Stefanik — a Harvard alumna and Trump ally — reiterated a call for her to resign from the top job.

Some alumni and student groups — including Harvard Hillel, a Jewish hub on campus — expressed grave disappointment in Gay's response to Stefanik's question Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday, Gay shared a statement on social media, saying that "calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account."

Some Democratic lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing took time to stress that antisemitism is a longstanding, and bipartisan, national problem.

In his opening remarks, Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia — the committee’s ranking Democratic member — noted that it has been only six years since a right-wing crowd bearing torches chanted “Jews will not replace us” on and around the campus of the University of Virginia. Scott added that House Republicans successfully resisted calls for a hearing on the subject of antisemitism at the time.

Meanwhile, several lawmakers acknowledged the resurgence of anti-Muslim bias since Oct. 7. Rep. Joe Courtney, of Connecticut, noted how on Thanksgiving in Burlington, Vermont, a “coward came out of his house with a firearm” and shot three Palestinian college students, paralyzing one from the chest down.

Gay and the other university presidents played defense during the hearings, while the clearest voice for policy change belonged to a fourth witness: American University historian Pamela Nadell.

Nadell called on lawmakers to support the Biden administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism, unveiled in May — long before the Hamas attacks and the ensuing war.

She also asked that universities follow MIT’s lead by “facilitating dialogues at the student level, at the faculty level” — in courses but also in students’ communal lives.

“That’s what we’re all trying to do,” Nadell said. But she added that healing “doesn’t happen overnight.”