MIT to host music festival celebrating ‘Jewish joy’ this week

In recent weeks, as headlines have painted an increasingly grim picture of life for Jewish students on many American college campuses, a group of Boston-area Jewish students banded together to try to inject some positivity into that gloomy narrative. 

The result is a just-announced music festival taking place on Thursday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, with a slew of artists who have been outspoken about their support for Israel and the Jewish community in recent months. The four-hour event will feature performances by the Israeli singer Idan Raichel; rapper and reggae artist Matisyahu and his son, LAIVY; singer-songwriter John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting; rapper Kosha Dillz; and a DJ from the Nova music festival. There will also be food trucks on-site, including kosher options.

“Through the power of music and rhythm, the event aims to unite attendees, honor those who have passed, and support those facing challenges while celebrating joyful Judaism,” reads the event description. Tickets are free for college students, and cost $36 for anyone else who wants to attend.

Called “We Will Dance Again,” the event came together in less than two weeks, after MIT graduate student Talia Khan, the co-president of the MIT Israel Alliance, created a GoFundMe with the support of MIT Chabad to raise money to organize the event and cover the cost of student tickets. As of Tuesday night, the campaign has raised $32,000. 

“We invite you to support and join us at ‘We Will Dance Again,’ a vibrant, student-led party,” inspired by the mantra used by survivors of the Nova music festival massacre, “which promises an unforgettable night of music, dance, and solidarity,” Khan wrote in the GoFundMe campaign. The festival is also being supported by several major Jewish nonprofits, including Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Hillel International, the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish National Fund.

Organizers expect 1,500 people at the festival, which is taking place at Hockfield Court, a campus lawn just half a mile from where an anti-Israel encampment stood until a few days ago. MIT’s classes ended this week, but the school year is already over at some other local universities. 

“Security is always, of course, top of mind when we’re bringing large groups together right now on campuses,” said Leora Kimmel Greene, a Boston event planner who is producing the outdoor concert. “The idea of having to go inside because our event feels too political, or too pro-Israel or too Jewish, just feels so sad. While this event is outdoors and in a tent, we have built a perimeter around the area to ensure that only those with tickets can come in and out of the space.”

Rabbi Menachem Altein, director of MIT Chabad, offered a more positive twist: “As they say, haters gonna hate, but we’re proud and loud,” he said on Tuesday. “Being Jewish should invoke a feeling of gladness rather than the feeling of sadness and being a target.”

The organizers hope the event inspires Jewish students at other campuses. “My hope is that, while at Thursday’s event we’re aiming to amplify our message of unity and resilience at MIT, there’s other people on campuses around the country and beyond [who] see this as a model to replicate,” Greene said. “I strongly believe that Jewish college students going back to campus in the fall will need moments that are so focused on Jewish joy and being able to live loudly and proudly Jewish in a safe and meaningful way.”

Matisyahu has faced protests at many of his shows due to his support for Israel, and a handful of stops on his recent tour have been canceled. Ondrasik, who is not Jewish, has emerged as a strong voice against antisemitism since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. He released a single in January, “OK,” that calls out the silence of many leaders and activists in the aftermath of Oct. 7 and traveled to the Jewish state last month. 

“As MIT has created a climate of rampant antisemitism, I look forward to speaking and singing to the students who have been under siege, and telling them personally that people of conscience love and support them,” Ondrasik told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

House committee requests documents from MIT for antisemitism probe

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Friday requested documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the fourth school to be drawn into the committee’s investigation of campus antisemitism.

In a letter to MIT President Sally Kornbluth and MIT Corporation Chair Mark Gorenberg, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee chair, said the committee has “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of MIT’s response to antisemitism on its campus.”

She referenced testimony by Kornbluth in December that “further called into question the Institute’s willingness to address antisemitism seriously” and raised concerns about the MIT Corporation’s continued endorsement of Kornbluth following that hearing.

Kornbluth is the only one of the three college presidents who testified at that December hearing who remains in her position.

The committee chair highlighted numerous incidents on MIT’s campus since Oct. 7, including disruptions of classes and campus events, blockades of buildings, harassment and assault of Jewish students and chants endorsing violence. She accused MIT of failing to enforce its suspension of a campus pro-Palestinian group that was punished for violating school rules.

Foxx’s letter also includes excerpts from a statement to the committee by MIT Israel Alliance President Talia Khan, who said that MIT’s lack of action “must not be regarded simply as inaction, but rather as a feckless, cowardly, hypocritical, entirely deliberate choice to remain silent.”

The letter requests documents relating to MIT’s responses to antisemitic incidents, disciplinary procedures, internal communications and meeting minutes and foreign donations that the school has received.

The committee previously requested similar documents from Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Accusing Harvard of non-compliance, it issued a subpoena to the school, and declared this week that the university had still failed to properly cooperate.

It’s unclear yet whether Foxx plans to pursue subpoenas of other school leaders, or how it will respond to Harvard.

Jewish students recount a series of campus horror stories at congressional roundtable

For two hours on Wednesday, lawmakers heard from a parade of Jewish students, each delivering the same message: They do not feel safe on their college campuses.

Speaking to a roundtable organized by the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, Jewish students from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia, Rutgers, Stanford, Tulane, Cooper Union and University of California, Berkeley spoke about about the harassment, threats and violence they’ve faced on their campuses since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The students’ accounts were all remarkably similar, despite coming from a range of locations and school types, including openly antisemitic taunts and harassment, angry mobs rampaging through campus and overtaking campus buildings, vandalism and in some cases threats of or actual incidents of violence, all going largely or completely unaddressed by university administrators and campus police, despite repeated and sustained pleas from the students for help and support. 

In some cases, the students said professors and administrators were complicit or actively involved in the antisemitic activity. Students said that they feared for their safety and even their lives.

The students, saying they felt abandoned by their universities and had no faith in them to act to protect them, pleaded for action from Congress. They said that they hoped their testimony could serve as a wakeup call to both Congress and the American public.

“As my friends from Harvard and UPenn can tell you, it doesn’t end simply because presidents are replaced. Systemic change is needed,” Kevin Feigelis, a Stanford student, said. “Universities have proven they have no intention of fixing themselves. It must be you, and it must be now.”

Shabbos Kestenbaum — a Harvard student who said he’d contacted the school’s antisemitism task force more than 40 times without a response and had been threatened in a video with a machete by a still-employed Harvard staff member — called Congress and the courts the students’ “last hope.”

Multiple students and lawmakers said that the current events on campus carry echoes of 1930s Germany or the pogroms in Russia.

Some suggested potential courses of action that Congress and other federal branches could take, including leveraging U.S. taxpayer funding or the schools’ tax-exempt statuses, placing third-party monitors on campus and enforcing diversity requirements in Middle East studies departments requiring them to include pro-Israel views.

Students from Harvard, Penn and MIT all said that little has changed on their campuses since last year’s blockbuster congressional hearing on campus antisemitism, which prompted the ouster of Harvard and Penn’s presidents.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), the committee’s chair, vowed that she and her colleagues would not stop their efforts to tackle antisemitism on campus.

“I was very emotional,” Foxx told Jewish Insider, “I’m a mother and a grandmother. I have one grandchild who went to college and I’m not sure what I would have done if he had come home to say he felt threatened on his campus like these students feel threatened. No student on a college campus, in this country, in the year 2024, should feel threatened.”

Foxx said that the committee’s antisemitism investigation is proceeding deliberately, but that the schools will be held to account. The committee has already requested documents from Harvard, Penn and Columbia and has now subpoenaed Harvard. Foxx suggested that other schools whose students had appeared Thursday could be next.

House Democrats split again over calling for Harvard, MIT presidents to resign

The House voted 303-126-3 on Wednesday for a resolution condemning the testimony by three college presidents before the House of Representatives last week and calling for Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth to immediately resign.

The resolution was the second time in two weeks that the House Democratic caucus has split nearly down the middle over a resolution relating to antisemitism. Eighty-four Democrats voted to support the resolution and 125 voted against it, with three Democrats voting present. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) also voted against the resolution.

The resolution focuses specifically on responses by Gay, Kornbluth and former University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill l — who already tendered her resignation in the hearing’s fallout —equivocating on whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their campuses’ policies on bullying and harassment.

Some of the Democratic votes against the resolution came in spite of concerns about the university presidents’ comments. Some also came from lawmakers who prominently opposed last week’s resolution describing anti-Zionism as antisemitic. A majority of the votes for the resolution came from more moderate-leaning members of the Democratic caucus but some progressives also supported it.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), in a speech on the House floor, called the presidents’ answers to the question about genocide “overly legalistic” and “tone deaf.” He said they also lacked the  “common sense” that anyone calling for genocide could pose a physical threat to Jewish students and would also create a “hostile learning environment and deserves disciplinary action.”

But, he argued, using the power of Congress to call on the presidents of private colleges to resign was unprecedented, inappropriate and borderline unconstitutional. And he noted Congress had already voted numerous times since Oct. 7 to condemn antisemitism, including on college campuses.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), the ranking member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, went further in defending the university leaders.

Scott argued that, while calls for genocide of Jewish people are “reprehensible” and have “no place in reasonable discourse,” the presidents’ answers had been taken out of context and that the presidents had made clear their commitment to fighting antisemitism. He said that their answers were correct, in light of free expression protections, accusing Republicans of acting in bad faith.

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) lambasted the resolution in a speech on the House floor but voted for it anyway.

“I was appalled by the failure of the three college presidents to simply say ‘yes, a call for the genocide of Jews is wrong. Period,’” Manning said. “But I have no interest in meaningless resolutions that do nothing to address the underlying issue of antisemitism… Nonbinding, politically motivated resolutions are not worth the paper they’re written on.”

House to vote on Wednesday on resolution calling on Harvard, MIT presidents to resign

The House is set to vote on Wednesday on a resolution calling for the presidents of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to resign in the wake of their controversial testimonies during a hearing on campus antisemitism last week, a spokesperson for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Jewish Insider.

The bipartisan resolution is being sponsored by Scalise along with Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). The resolution could prompt another divide among Democrats, a week after the House — including 95 Democrats — voted in favor of a resolution linking antisemitism and anti-Zionism, while a nearly equal number voted present.

The nonbinding resolution was announced hours after Harvard’s leadership announced it stood behind its president, Claudine Gay, and rejected calls for her resignation.

The resolution “strongly condemns the rise of antisemitism on university campuses” and “strongly condemns the testimony” by the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania on whether calls for Jewish genocide violate their schools’ codes of conduct.

Language in the preamble of the resolution says that Gay and MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, should “follow” former Penn President Elizabeth Magill in tendering her resignation.

“When the Presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology were asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violates university policies on bullying and harassment, Presidents Elizabeth Magill, Claudine Gay, and Sally Kornbluth were evasive and dismissive, failing to simply condemn such action,” the legislation reads.

The resolution could once again split the Democratic caucus. Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), a Jewish Democrat who chairs the House’s antisemitism task force, split with Stefanik last week over whether to call for the university presidents to resign in a letter to the schools’ leaders on antisemitism.

“All [Stefanik] cared about was calling for the resignation of university presidents to score political points,” Manning said on X yesterday. “I am working to make real changes to university codes of conduct so Jewish students and faculty are protected from hate. Rep. Stefanik is trying to get a soundbite & media hits.”

Manning ultimately sent a letter calling for changes to campus policies to combat antisemitism, along with a dozen Democrats, while Stefanik sent a similar letter with 73 other lawmakers, including Democrats Moskowitz and Gottheimer. 

Other Democrats have also accused Stefanik of being insincere in her concerns about antisemitism, in light of her support of former President Donald Trump.

The resolution will require support from two-thirds of the House to pass.

House lawmakers demand Harvard, MIT, Penn fire their presidents over antisemitism testimony

Seventy-four House lawmakers  wrote to the boards of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania on Friday demanding that they immediately fire their presidents in response to widely criticized congressional testimony they delivered on antisemitism on their campuses earlier this week.

The presidents of the three schools have come under increasing scrutiny this week amid growing speculation that their jobs could be on the line following their refusal to say earlier this week that calls for Jewish genocide would violate their schools’ codes of conduct.

“Testimony provided by presidents of your institutions showed a complete absence of moral clarity and illuminated the problematic double standards and dehumanization of the Jewish communities that your university presidents enabled,” the letter reads. “Given this moment of crisis, we demand that your boards immediately remove each of these presidents from their positions and that you provide an actionable plan” to ensure the safety of the Jewish community on campus.

“Anything less,” than the steps they requested, the lawmakers continued, “will be seen as your endorsement… and an act of complicity in their antisemitic posture.”

The letter was led by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who questioned the presidents on the genocide issue, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL). Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is the only other Democrat who signed the letter; the rest are Republicans.

The lawmakers said that the testimony makes it “hard to imagine” any Jewish or Israeli person feeling safe on their campuses when the presidents “could not say that calls for the genocide of Jews would have clear consequences on your campus.”

It adds that subsequent social media statements seeking to clarify or walk back those comments “offered little clarification on your campus’ true commitment to protecting vulnerable students in this moment of crisis,” describing them instead as “desperate attempts to try and save their jobs” and “too little too late.”

Shortly before the Stefanik-Moskowitz letter was released, a group of thirteen House Democrats wrote to the boards of the three schools urging them to re-examine their codes of conduct to make clear that calls for the genocide of Jews are not acceptable.

This second letter, led by Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and Susan Wild (D-PA), includes similar language to the bipartisan letter regarding the presidents’ testimony and how it would make Jewish campus members feel unsafe, but stops short of directly calling for the presidents to be fired.

The lawmakers wrote that they felt “compelled to ask” if the presidents’ responses “align with the values and policies of your respective institutions.”

“The presidents’ unwillingness to answer questions clearly or fully acknowledge appalling and unacceptable behavior — behavior that would not have been tolerated against other groups — illuminated the problematic double standards and dehumanization of the Jewish communities at your universities,” the letter continues. “The lack of moral clarity these presidents displayed is simply unacceptable.”

The lawmakers requested that the schools update their policies to “ensure that they protect students from hate” and describe their plans for protecting Jewish and Israeli community members.

“There is no context in which calls for the genocide of Jews is acceptable rhetoric,” the letter reads. “While Harvard and Penn subsequently issued clarifying statements which were appreciated, their failure to unequivocally condemn calls for the systematic murder of Jews during the public hearing is deeply alarming and stands in stark contrast to the principles we expect leaders of top academic institutions to uphold.”

The letter notes that federal civil rights law prohibits discrimination against Jews on campus, and that criminal law bans hate crimes, violence and incitement to violence.

“Students and faculty who threaten, harass, or incite violence towards Jews must be held accountable for their actions,” the lawmakers wrote. “If calls for genocide of the Jewish people are not in violation of your universities’ policies, then it is time for you to reexamine your policies and codes of conduct.”

Signatories to the Democratic letter include Manning, Wild, Auchincloss, Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Grace Meng (D-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).

All of the signatories to the Democratic letter are either Jewish or deeply involved with Jewish community issues on the Hill. 

Earlier this week, a third letter by six House Republicans from Pennsylvania — Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA), alongside Congressmen John Joyce, M.D. (R-PA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and Dan Meuser (R-PA) — called for University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill specifically to be fired.

Rabbi David Wolpe resigns from Harvard’s antisemitism committee

Rabbi David Wolpe, the Anti-Defamation League’s rabbinic fellow, announced on Thursday that he will step down from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard University amid an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at Harvard and other Ivy League universities.

Wolpe said his resignation is due to the role not allowing him to make the difference the school needs, which he realized after Harvard President Claudine Gay made widely criticized statements about her university’s handling of antisemitism as she appeared before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce earlier this week.  

“As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard,” Wolpe wrote on X.

“Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short explanation is that both events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped,” he wrote.  

“Still, there are several points worth making. I believe Claudine Gay to be both a kind and thoughtful person.  Most of the students here wish only to get an education and a job, not prosecute ideological agendas, and there are many, many honorable, thoughtful and good people at the institution.  Harvard is still a repository of extraordinary minds and important research.”  

He continued, “However, the system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil. Ignoring Jewish suffering is evil.  Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe.  Denying Israel the self-determination as a Jewish nation accorded unthinkingly to others is endemic, and evil.” 

Wolpe’s resignation came just hours before the start of Hanukkah, a story he invoked in his message. 

“In this generation, outside of Israel, we are called to be Maccabees of a different order,” he wrote. “We do not fight the actual battle but we search for the cruse of oil left behind… of course the first night was the greatest miracle — because the motivation to light the initial candle, to ensure the continuity and vitality of tradition in each generation, that is the supreme miracle.  Dispute but also create. Build the institutions you value, don’t merely attack those you denigrate.  We are at a moment when the toxicity of intellectual slovenliness has been laid bare for all to see. Time to kindle the first candle.  Create that miracle for us and all Israel.” 

For many years, Wolpe headed Sinai Temple, the largest Conservative congregation in Los Angeles, until he retired in June. He started a visiting scholar position at Harvard Divinity School in Boston upon leaving Sinai Temple, while also joining the ADL in May. 

Wolpe was one of eight members on Harvard’s antisemitism advisory committee, which was formed at the end of October as the school faced fierce criticism over its response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Gay appeared before the House Committee on Tuesday to crack down on the backlash against the university, but her testimony only fueled the controversy. 

When asked if a call for genocide of Jewish people would be considered harassment at Harvard, Gay said such a call could violate the school’s policies “depending on the context.” The hearing, at which MIT President Sally Kornbluth and University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill also testified, ended with members of Congress demanding Gay’s resignation. The leadership of Harvard Hillel called her remarks “profoundly shocking” and said it doesn’t trust her to protect Jewish students.

House committee calls Harvard, UPenn, MIT presidents to answer for campus antisemitism

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is calling a hearing next week with the presidents of Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, where the university leaders will be asked to answer for antisemitic and violent incidents against Jewish students on their campuses, the committee announced on Tuesday.

“Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen countless examples of antisemitic demonstrations on college campuses. Meanwhile, college administrators have largely stood by, allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow,” committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said in a statement. 

“College and university presidents have a responsibility to foster and uphold a safe learning environment for their students and staff. Now is not a time for indecision or milquetoast statements. By holding this hearing, we are shining the spotlight on these campus leaders and demanding they take the appropriate action to stand strong against antisemitism.”

According to an announcement from the committee, the presidents will be asked to “answer for mishandling of antisemitic, violent protests.”

Harvard President Claudine Gay, UPenn President Liz Magill and MIT President Sally Kornbluth have all faced criticism for their responses to anti-Israel and antisemitic demonstrations and other incidents on their campuses.

Scores of schools across the country have taken similar flak for their responses to antisemitism on their campuses. 

A committee spokesperson told Jewish Insider Foxx had chosen these schools because they had been “at the center of the rise in antisemitic protests.” The committee also contacted Columbia University which declined to attend due to a scheduling conflict. All three presidents are appearing voluntarily.

“President Gay has accepted the invitation to testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee on Dec. 5,” Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton told JI. “President Gay looks forward to sharing updates and information on the university’s work to support the Harvard community and combat antisemitism.”

MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen told JI that Kornbluth “welcomes the opportunity to engage with the Committee Members” and referred JI to past statements on “recent events on campus.”

A UPenn spokesperson said in a statement, “President Magill understands the critical importance of fighting antisemitism and other forms of hate on Penn’s campus and looks forward to sharing the actions Penn is taking at next week’s hearing.”