After astonishing and widely shared congressional testimony by the presidents of three prestigious American universities, Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY) — without referencing the testimony directly — published a post in which he agreed with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a rare accord between two New York lawmakers who are usually at odds on policy.
What brings such disparate political actors together? The rare Goldman-Stefanik accord is a result of their mutually held conviction that, as Goldman writes, “There is nothing ‘contextual’ about calls for all Jews to be killed.”
Goldman is responding to Stefanik’s withering interrogation of the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania, during which the Congresswoman repeatedly invited the presidents to answer a simple question about extreme antisemitic speech on campus — and whether it is to be countenanced under the universities’ codes of conduct.
There is nothing “contextual” about calls for all Jews to be killed.
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) December 6, 2023
Jewish students around the country are afraid.
If colleges refuse to protect Jewish students from generalized bullying and harassment then the universities either need a new code of conduct or new presidents.
“At Penn,” Stefanik asked University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, “does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct?”
Stefanik requested a “yes or no” response. All three university presidents declined to give one, offering instead that speech calling for the “genocide of Jews” was possibly harassment, but that it depended on the “context.”
The answers enraged Stefanik and many others, including billionaire investor and Harvard alum Bill Ackman, who called it perhaps “the most extraordinary testimony ever elicited in the Congress.” Ackman, like Stefanik, has called for all three to resign.
The presidents of @Harvard, @MIT, and @Penn were all asked the following question under oath at today’s congressional hearing on antisemitism:
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) December 5, 2023
Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?
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