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MIT Lecturer Resigns Over School’s Response to Oct. 7, Says Campus Showed ‘Open Hostility’ Toward Jews, Israelis
Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Dr. Sally Kornbluth testifies during a US House Education and Workforce Committee hearing at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, Dec. 5, 2023. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
A computer science lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) resigned from his position on Wednesday because of the campus community’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
“The past few months, since Oct. 7, have been deeply disappointing to me,” Mauricio Karchmer wrote in a LinkedIn post. “During a time when the Jewish and Israeli students, staff, and faculty were particularly vulnerable, instead of offering the support they needed, the broader MIT community exhibited open hostility towards them. Like many other college campuses nationwide, the institute clearly failed this test.”
Karchmer, who described his last five years at MIT as “very rewarding,” also cited the fact that, in his view, several departments have jettisoned critical thinking in favor of political ideology.
“Some areas of study at MIT seem to prioritize promoting a specific worldview over teaching critical thinking skills. This seems to have been institutionalized in many of MIT’s departments and programs,” he wrote. “MIT has some work to do if it wants to continue in its mission ‘to educate students in areas of scholarship to best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.’”
Like many other US college campuses, MIT has come under fire for the response by students, faculty, and administrators to the Hamas onslaught on Oct. 7, when Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas invaded Israel, murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 240 others as hostages. Mounting evidence of atrocities committed during the attack — including systematic torture, rape, and other sexual violence — has shocked the world.
Shortly after the massacre, the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid and Palestine released a joint statement that seemingly rationalized Hamas’ violence. “We affirm the right of all occupied peoples to resist oppression and colonization,” the statement read, adding that the campus groups were “committed to supporting decolonization efforts in Palestine.”
Faculty member Michel DeGraff later lauded the Coalition Against Apartheid’s “moral clarity” and advocacy for Palestinians, which, he wrote in the MIT Faculty Newsletter, “inspires us to honor the humanity of us all — from the river to the sea, from Gaza to MIT.”
The slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — popular among anti-Israel activists, especially in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre — has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
The MIT Coalition Against Apartheid has promoted at least 15 protests since Oct. 7. During one such demonstration, students were arrested after occupying a building for a “die-in.” Jewish and Israeli students decried the protest, reporting that the coalition “physically prevented” them from attending class by forming a “blockade” of bodies in Lobby 7, a space inside the main entrance of the university.
“Instead of dispersing the mob or de-escalating the situation by rerouting all students from Lobby 7, Jewish students specifically were warned not to enter MIT’s front entrance due to a risk to their physical safety,” the MIT Israel Alliance wrote in an open letter to MIT President Sally Kornbluth. “The onus to protect Jewish students should not be on the students themselves.”
In the letter, the students warned that radical anti-Zionism and intimidation of Jewish students on campus has become intolerable and even reminiscent of Nazi Germany on the eve of the Holocaust.
Despite such hostility on campus, Kornbluth said of Oct. 7 shortly after the onslaught that “such a deliberate attack on civilians can never be justified.”
Kornbluth later made national headlines — along with the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) — after she was unable to answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated MIT’s code of conduct. She said such genocidal calls would only constitute harassment or bullying if they were “targeted at individuals.”
The other two presidents have since resigned, but Kornbluth has received the support of the university board and the deans. Faculty leaders also wrote an open letter to argue that “as educators, we seek to open minds rather than to close mouths. The approach of MIT’s leadership has not been to make lists of what can’t be said, but to talk directly with our students — both in public and in private — about the meaning and consequences of what they say.”
Karchmer’s departure is the latest fallout from elite universities’ responses to the Hamas attack and ensuing war in Gaza, the Palestinian enclave ruled by the terror group. US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — since Oct. 7. massacre across southern Israel. Top universities have been among the biggest hubs of such activity, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing the Hamas atrocities. As a result, some high-profile donors have pulled their funding to schools such as Harvard and Penn.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses between Oct. 7 and Dec. 18. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.
Karchmer has lectured at MIT since 2019 and taught an Introduction to Algorithms class, which he says 60 percent of undergraduates take.
MIT declined to comment on Karchmer’s resignation, but did confirm to The Algemeiner that he will be departing this month.
The post MIT Lecturer Resigns Over School’s Response to Oct. 7, Says Campus Showed ‘Open Hostility’ Toward Jews, Israelis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. Photo: Alchetron.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for casting doubt on a new report claiming that famine has gripped northern Gaza.
The controversial Muslim advocacy group on Wednesday slammed Lew for his “callous dismissal” of the recent Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report accusing Israel of inflicting famine on the Gaza Strip. The organization subsequently asserted that Israel had perpetrated an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan,’” CAIR said in a statement.
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling, and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza,” the Washington, DC-based group continued.
On Monday, FEWS Net, a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity, released a report detailing that a famine had allegedly taken hold of northern Gaza. The report argued that 65,000-75,000 individuals remain stranded in the area without sufficient access to food.
“Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has resulted in mass starvation among scores of innocent civilians in the beleaguered enclave, the report stated.
Lew subsequently issued a statement denying the veracity of the FEWS Net report, slamming the organization for peddling “inaccurate” information and “causing confusion.”
“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” Lew wrote.
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew continued.
Following Lew’s repudiation, FEWS NET quietly removed the report on Wednesday, sparking outrage among supporters of the pro-Palestinian cause.
“We ask FEWS NET not to submit to the bullying of genocide supporters and to again make its report available to the public,” CAIR said in its statement.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has been repeatedly accused of inflicting famine in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Despite the allegations, there is scant evidence of mass starvation across the war-torn enclave.
This is not the first time that FEWS Net has attempted to accuse Israel of inflicting famine in Gaza. In June, the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected claims by FEWS Net that a famine had taken hold of northern Gaza. In rejecting the allegations, the FRC cited an “uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis.”
Meanwhile, CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the onset of the Gaza war last October.
CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the Oct. 7 atrocities. The head of CAIR, for example, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’s rampage across southern Israel.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago in November. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
The post Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
The international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack on Israeli soccer fans that took place in Amsterdam last month has joined many voices in lambasting a Dutch court for what they described as a mild punishment for the attackers.
“These sentences are an insult to the victims and a stain on the Dutch legal system,” The Lawfare Project’s founder and executive director Brooke Goldstein said in a statement on Wednesday. “Allowing individuals who coordinated and celebrated acts of violence to walk away with minimal consequences diminishes the rule of law and undermines trust in the judicial process. If this is the response to such blatant antisemitism, what hope is there for deterring future offenders or safeguarding the Jewish community.”
On Tuesday, a district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men for their participation in the violent attacks in the Dutch city against fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv. The premeditated and coordinated violence took place on the night of Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov 8, before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch soccer team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The five suspects were sentenced to up to 100 hours of community service and up to six months in prison.
The attackers were found guilty of public violence, which included kicking an individual lying on the ground, and inciting the violence by calling on members of a WhatsApp group chat to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. One man sentenced on Tuesday who had a “leading role” in the violence, according to prosecutors, was given the longest sentence — six months in prison.
“As someone who witnessed these trials firsthand, I am deeply disheartened by the leniency of these sentences,” added Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project. “The violent, coordinated attacks against Jews in Amsterdam are among the worst antisemitic incidents in Europe. These light sentences fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes and do little to deliver justice to the victims who are left traumatized and unheard. Even more troubling, they set a dangerous precedent, signaling to future offenders that such horrific acts of violence will not be met with serious consequences.”
The Lawfare Project said on Wednesday that it is representing over 50 victims of the Amsterdam attacks. It has also secured for their clients a local counsel — Peter Plasman, who is a partner at the Amsterdam-based law firm Kötter L’Homme Plasman — to represent them in the Netherlands. The Lawfare Project aims to protect the civil and human rights of Jewish people around the world through legal action.
Others who have criticized the Dutch court for its sentencing of the five men on Tuesday included Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum; Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell; and The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.
The post Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gwyneth Paltrow Talks Hanukkah Family Traditions, Jewish Heritage With Noa Tishby
Gwyneth Paltrow lighting a menorah to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah with Noa Tishby. Photo: YouTube screenshot
Jewish American Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow joined author and activist Noa Tishby in celebrating the first night of Hanukkah on Wednesday, as part of the latter’s new Hanukkah-themed video series on YouTube called “#BringOnTheLight.”
Paltrow — whose late father Bruce Paltrow was Jewish while her mother, actress Blythe Danner, is Christian — also talked with Tishby about her Jewish faith and holiday tradition. When Tishby asked the “Iron Man” star and Goop founder and CEO about a childhood memory from Hanukkah that she holds dear, Paltrow recalled being at her grandparents’ house in Long Island, New York, and getting Hanukkah gelt.
“I have such a strong memory of the gold, round coins, and my brother and I just tearing into them,” she reminisced, talking about the coin-shaped chocolates that are typically given to children during Hanukkah.
The “Contagion” star also told Tishby that in her home now, she makes latkes for Hanukkah and lights the menorah with her family. “We always light the menorah, we always gather together after we light the candles; it’s very sweet actually. We all hug and we bring in the light,” she said. “And ever since [my kids] were little, they would sit on the floor, close their eyes, and then I would give them their present. We do eight presents. I’m a spoiler.”
Paltrow has two children — Apple, 20, and Moses, 18 – with her ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. She is now married to American television writer, producer, and director Brad Falchuk, both of whose parents are Jewish. His mother was previously the national president of the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America.
In 2011, Paltrow discovered that she comes from a long line of rabbis on her father’s side of the family and that her great-great-great grandfather was Rabbi Tsvi Paltrowitch, a Kabbalah master and the Gaon of Nitzy-Novgorod in southwest Russia. She told Tishby she comes from 17 generations of rabbis.
Paltrow also discussed what it was like growing up with a Jewish father and Christian mother. “I grew up in a time in the 70’s where I think interfaith marriage was a big deal, so it was really hard for both of my parents’ parents that they were marrying each other. So it was a big scandalous. Nobody was happy about it,” she said.
“They definitely grew to accept it later in life,” the actress added, talking about her grandparents. “They kind of let go of all that. But I felt so fortunate because I got to grow up with these two very different worlds and very different faiths. I always felt an incredible pull to my Jewish family and I still do. And the traditions, and the warmth, the unconditional love, the food, the yelling, the family … I’m so close to everybody on that side of my family. We are all kind of interwoven and important to each other and just show up for each other again and again and again.”
Tishby’s eight-part video series “#BringOnTheLight,” which coincides with the eight days of Hanukkah, launched on YouTube on Wednesday and promotes Jewish pride and unity. A new video will be released each day of Hanukkah at 11 am ET.
The post Gwyneth Paltrow Talks Hanukkah Family Traditions, Jewish Heritage With Noa Tishby first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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