MIT is not the only “elite” school where Jews are unwelcome. At the University of Pennsylvania, anti-Semites put on a light show, projecting hate messages onto the walls of buildings:
Heinous antisemitic slogans were beamed onto buildings at the University of Pennsylvania in the latest disturbing incident at the Ivy League institution — as the school faces a civil rights complaint accusing it of being “a magnet for antisemites.”
Multiple social media accounts Thursday shared pictures of a “light show” that saw anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian messages projected onto the walls of the campus’ buildings.
“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” read one message lit up against the John M Huntsman hall.
“Zionism is racism,” another declared.
“Penn funds Palestinian genocide,” a third said.
One can only imagine what would happen if a student group projected, say, “Kill all the n***ers” on the wall of a campus building.
Penn has a history of virulent anti-Semitism:
On Monday, several UPenn staffers received targeted, antisemitic emails threatening violence against members of the university’s Jewish community.
The emails allegedly “threatened violence” against Jewish members of the school, especially those working at Penn Hillel — a Jewish organization on campus — and Lauder College House, UPenn’s president revealed in a statement Monday.
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The anti-Jewish culture has become so pervasive that the Brandeis Center said it was filing a complaint against UPenn — as well as Wellesley College — with the Office of Civil Rights in the US Department of Education.
The complaint alleges that “Penn has allowed its campus to become a hostile environment for its Jewish students as well as a magnet for anti-Semites.”
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of doubt about who is responsible for the latest outrage:https://www.thedp.com/article/2023/11/penn-pro-palestinian-projections-huntsman-hall-penn-commons
The [Daily Pennsylvanian] has not independently confirmed who organized the projections, although [Penn Against the Occupation] wrote, “in case you missed our light show…” on its Instagram story accompanying photos of the displays onto buildings.
Penn’s president denounced the light show in strong terms:
“For generations, too many have masked antisemitism in hostile rhetoric,” she wrote. “These reprehensible messages are an assault on our values and cause pain and fear for our Jewish community.”
“Penn has a long and rich history of robust debate about complicated issues of the day. Projecting hateful messages on our campus is not debate, it is cowardice, and it has no place at Penn,” Magill wrote.
She has pledged a “full investigation.” I would suggest the investigation start with Penn Against the Occupation and the Philly Palestine Coalition, which also posted photos of the light show on social media. But the real question isn’t whether the perpetrators can be identified, the question is whether anything will happen to them. So far, few if any institutions have shown the backbone to actually crack down on those who threaten Jewish students.
MIT and Penn are two among many institutions of “higher” education who have exhibited a shocking degree of anti-Semitism. For a while now, many have questioned whether our colleges and universities, with a few honorable exceptions, are actually doing more good than harm. Governments both state and federal funnel a lot of money into colleges and universities, including private schools like MIT and Penn. Why? Is that money well spent? Or are taxpayers merely subsidizing a lot of activities that are actually harmful when they are not merely useless? That is a question that needs to be asked, and will be asked much more often going forward.