Following the attacks on Israel that occurred on October 7th, antisemitism has increased drastically in the United States. A setting that has faced an extremely large amount of antisemitism in recent months is college campuses. Many Jewish students no longer feel safe on their college campuses, and many feel that their school’s administration is not doing enough to prevent these antisemitic incidents or reprimand the people doing them. Some Ivy League schools, Harvard and UPenn most notably, have been facing a lot of controversy regarding their presidents.
Claudine Gay, the President of Harvard was accused of plagiarism and was constantly criticized for her insubstantial action towards the surge of antisemitism on Harvard’s campus. The accusations and criticism became too much, leading Gay to resign from her presidency. While she may no longer be the university’s president, she will continue to work as a professor.
Similarly, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Magill, resigned following a hearing during which she failed to answer whether or not the students who were arguing for the genocide of Jews deserved to be punished.
During the hearing, Gay was asked by Elise Stefanik if “…calling for the genocide of Jews violate[s] Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?” to which Gay responded by saying “It can be, depending on the context” (New York Times). In Magill’s hearing, a similar conversation occurred, and both conversations struck up a lot of controversy and anger.
Although not an Ivy League school, it should be mentioned that M.I.T. president, Sally Kornbluth, was also faced with a hearing about the antisemitism on campus. Kornbluth, however, is the last of the three to still hold her presidency. It seems, however, that the people who argued for the resignation of Gay and Magill will continue to push for Kornbluth’s resignation as well.
Antisemitism has faced a drastic increase following the October 7th attacks on Israel and has ultimately led to an increase in controversy over numerous university presidents, even going as far as to drive two to resign.
