MIT $1 Pledge
We are dedicated members of the MIT community spanning generations of alumni and supporters. Our goal is to see MIT thrive as an institution and effectively fulfill its stated mission. We want to see MIT continue to attract the best faculty and students and lead this country’s state-of-the-art research. We also want to see MIT’s continued commitment to the highest standards of academic excellence and rigor in a supportive environment for all students, regardless of their background.
MIT is no longer the institution we once knew and respected. With hateful, antisemitic, and defiant rhetoric commonplace and unchecked, MIT’s central Jewish organization, Hillel, must now draw its curtains, issue warnings to students to avoid certain areas of campus, and remind Jewish students to carry the MIT Police phone number at all times.
In response to the outbreak of antisemitism on campus following October 7, 2023, the MIT administration refused to discipline students who violated its own policies and has continued to maintain a policy of waiting for the crisis to pass. Further, they established a task force to address rising Jewish hatred that mandated the inclusion of other minority groups, thereby diverting attention away from the antisemitism on MIT’s campus. Hiding under a newly found appreciation of free speech principles, the MIT administration has allowed harassment and intimidation of Jewish and Israeli students to continue undeterred. MIT president Sally Kornbluth’s Congressional testimony on December 5, 2023, implied that, depending on context, calls for genocide of Jews may not constitute bullying and harassment under MIT’s code of conduct. Following the ensuing public uproar, the MIT Corporation chose to extend its full support to President Kornbluth.
The MIT administration’s persistent refusal to discipline protesters who violate official policy after repeated warnings must be challenged. The MIT administration’s continued tolerance for antisemitic protests on campus by both MIT affiliates and non-MIT affiliates must be challenged. The MIT administration’s refusal to acknowledge and respond to ongoing antisemitism on its campus and its continued tolerance of acts of antisemitism that are both intimidating and physically threatening to students and faculty on campus following numerous complaints must be challenged.
We cannot continue to financially support MIT while the MIT administration deliberately and willfully pursues policies that create a toxic environment for the Jewish community. We pledge to donate to MIT $1 annually until such time that the MIT administration takes constructive action to address the growing antisemitism and intolerance of Jewish presence on campus.
We cannot ignore the antisemitism on campus and the MIT administration’s continued enabling of it. And we will not go away.
Full list of pledge signatories can be found here.