Jewish students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a federal lawsuit Friday alleging the prestigious Cambridge institution has failed to take any meaningful action to stop the “spreading wildfire of antisemitism, including antisemitic conduct” in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice (SCLJ) and two MIT students filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts District Court describing how MIT allegedly turns a blind eye to “hateful antisemitic discrimination and harassment” on its campus, refuses to enforce policies to protect Jewish and Israeli students and faculty, and has thereby created a hostile environment for Jews.
“In enabling this discriminatory conduct, MIT has directly and intentionally contributed to a pervasively hostile campus environment in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and breached its duties to Plaintiffs, to its other Jewish students, to its Israeli students, and, indeed, to the entire MIT campus community,” the complaint says. “Any alleged ‘action’ taken by MIT in response to discriminatory and harassing speech and conduct was not designed to have any meaningful impact in stopping the spreading wildfire of antisemitism, including antisemitic conduct.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to MIT for comment on the lawsuit.
HOUSE REPS DEMAND MIT HAND OVER RECORDS ON ‘PERVASIVE’ ANTISEMITISM: ‘WE HAVE GRAVE CONCERNS’
Hundreds walk down the streets of Boston while protesting the siege on Gaza and demanding an end for U.S. funding to Israel. The rally was part of a national gathering of students including BU, MIT, Tufts, Wellesley and Emerson. (Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The lawsuit calls on MIT to implement “comprehensive, meaningful remedial measures,” including terminating administrators, professors, or other university employees or staff “responsible for the antisemitic abuse permeating the school,” as well as suspending or expelling students and student groups, and to communicate broadly that MIT will “condemn, investigate and punish ant conduct that discriminates against or harasses members of the Jewish community.
MIT’s “blatant and intentional disregard for its legal obligations to its students, Plaintiffs and other students have suffered injury, including in their educational experience,” the lawsuit says.
The presidents of UPenn, Harvard and MIT testified before Congress last year about surging antisemitism on their campuses in the wake of Oct. 7. (AP)
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The complaint alleges that Jewish professors reported incidents where MIT students disrupted the academic environment and intimidated faculty by yelling outside their offices while rattling the doors. One professor described incidents where Jewish and Israeli MIT students were physically prevented from attending a class by a hostile group of pro-Hamas and anti-Israel MIT students.
Pro-Palestine student protesters, including those from MIT, marched down the streets of Boston demanding an end for U.S. funding to Israel. (Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Jewish students attested that rather than dispersing antisemitic mobs on campus, MIT warned Jewish students to steer clear of certain areas – effectively sending Jewish and Israeli students underground at their own university – with no repercussions for the students violating school policies and creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students, according to the complaint.