Top university presidents plead ‘free speech’ over campus antisemitism

WASHINGTON – The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offered little more than excuses Tuesday for violent antisemitic demonstrations on their campuses in the wake of Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 people across southern Israel Oct. 7 — even claiming such displays were part of a freewheeling culture of free speech.

“Institutional antisemitism and hate are among the poisoned fruits of your institutions’ cultures,” House Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (D-NC) said in her opening statement.

“After the events of the past two months, it is clear that rabid antisemitism and the university are two ideas that cannot be cleaved from one another.”

While many lawmakers have decried the elite universities for allowing pro-Palestinian protesters to attack and intimidate Jewish students, Tuesday was the first time the schools’ top leaders were called to respond.