October 1, 2024
Sent to President Kornbluth and other members of the administration.
Dear President Kornbluth,
With tensions rising as we approach the one-year anniversary of the massacre of October 7, with the coming of the Jewish New Year, and with continued concerns regarding MIT’s current strategy for addressing unrecognized sources for the spread of antisemitism throughout the MIT community, we share with you the attached letter.
Sincerely,
The Executive Committee of the MIT Jewish Alumni Alliance
Shana Tova,
As Rosh Hashanah 5785 approaches, the members of the MIT Jewish Alumni Alliance (MIT JAA) are reflecting on the past year and thinking of the year to come. The Year 5784 was a trying time for Jews at the Institute. After the horrendous terrorist attack of October 7, MIT, along with many other universities throughout the US, saw numerous incidents of antisemitism across its campus. These incidents traumatized, terrorized, and marginalized MIT’s Jewish students and larger Jewish community. With threats for more already being posted, this year could see a heightening of tensions and an increase in safety concerns.
As we enter the new year, the MIT JAA appeals to MIT’s leadership and administrators to reflect upon their past actions (and in many instances – inactions) that have allowed antisemitism on MIT’s campus to flourish and grow. We encourage MIT’s currents leaders and administrators to reflect on the following:
Students continue to protest on and off campus. While there have been no encampments yet this academic year such as the one last semester that forced MIT Hillel to hold Passover seders away from its own space, the lack of consequences for those students who participated in the unsanctioned encampment does not bode well for prevention of a future recurrence. At the conclusion of the last academic year, the Committee on Discipline dismissed ALL suspensions levied on students for participating in the unsanctioned encampment. Effectively, individuals charged with leading MIT gave students who defied official MIT policy and procedure tacit consent to continue executing their stated agenda of harassment of Jewish students and the MIT Jewish community at large.
Certain MIT faculty members continue to contribute to maintaining a hostile environment for Jews on campus. Utilizing groups such as the “Alliance of Concerned Faculty at MIT” and “mitstaff4palestine”, these MIT faculty members often conceal their personal identities while being actively engaged in behaviors that promote Jew-hatred and encourage, support, and promote antisemitism. They are often to be found – sometimes masked – among the student campus protesters, cheering and amplifying chants of historically recognized antisemitic tropes. Most egregiously, these faculty members recently promoted and disseminated among the MIT students and broader MIT community – using personal links and social media – antisemitic flyers.
The pro-Palestinian MIT non-student group, mitstaff4palestine, recently joined the National Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network, which, according to its website, “supports and amplifies the work of Students for Justice in Palestine”, an organization which openly endorses violence against Israelis, praises terrorist acts, and disseminates hateful propaganda aimed at delegitimizing Israel. According to a number of recent media reports, including from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism, the group, Students for Justice in Palestine, has received support from organizations linked to Hamas.
The MIT-affiliated “pro-Palestinian” groups are now actively targeting Jews for simply being Jewish. The group mitstaff4palestine posted on its Instagram account a flier that was distributed to MIT freshmen during the 2024 Orientation. This flier provided information on various antisemitic organizations and initiatives, including the Boston Mapping Project. The Boston Mapping Project identifies names and addresses of approximately 500 Jewish organizations in Massachusetts, including their directors and administrators, for condemnation and attack. Among its many antisemitic elements, it expressly calls for disrupting Jewish life. The Boston Mapping Project has been universally condemned, including by Massachusetts senators, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. The Boston Globe described it “vile and sinister,” and linked it to a “larger effort by anti-Zionist groups who increasingly call for the ostracization of Zionists and Zionist organizations.” While we applaud President Kornbluth’s strong condemnation of the promotion and distribution to incoming freshmen at MIT Orientation of the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist materials, little progress will be made unless appropriate action and discipline, similar to that for students, is taken against institutional faculty and staff, imbued with powerful influence, who are encouraging, supporting, promoting, and mis-educating vulnerable MIT students to take up and join what can only be defined as an anti-semitic crusade.
In 5785, we appeal to those now charged with leading MIT forward, that they replace what has been a passive and reactive strategy towards individuals intent on spreading Jew-hatred, with a forward-looking, proactive approach that will ensure that the antisemitic culture that has taken hold of a portion of the MIT community is extinguished. Without addressing and taking firm and definitive steps to combat and end the insidious poisoning of its own student body and faculty, and without meting out disciplinary action commensurate with obvious breaches of university policy and conduct, those in leadership will continue to encourage and inflame what can only be defined as an antisemitic agenda. While the situation is calm for the moment, we anticipate that with the approach of the Jewish High Holy Days and with the upcoming anniversary of the October 7th massacre, more anti-semitic actions will follow.
We call on MIT’s leaders and administrators to be vigilant and to take proactive steps to prevent any further harm to the MIT Jewish community.
We wish the entire MIT community a peaceful 5785.
The Executive Committee of the Jewish Alumni Alliance
- https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116625/documents/HHRG-118-ED00-20231205-SD003.pdf
- https://thetech.com/2024/06/13/pro-pal-student-suspensions-lifted
- https://sites.mit.edu/allianceofconcernedfaculty/
- https://www.instagram.com/mitstaff4palestine/
- https://isgap.org/post/2024/05/for-immediate-release-new-comprehensive-research-reveals-hamas-linked-funding-to-students-for-justice-in-palestine-and-groups-growing-web-of-influence-post-october-7/
- https://www.adl.org/boston-mapping-project
- https://mapliberation.org/articles/zionism_policing.html