Members of Harvard's Jewish community expressed shock and horror Tuesday, one day after the institution's president, Claudine Gay, refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews violated the school's harassment policy.

During a congressional hearing of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Gay, along with University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, was repeatedly asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) if calling for the "genocide of Jews" rose to the level of harassment and violated the code of conduct at each college.

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All three university presidents refused to say outright that it did, with Gay saying that "it can be, depending on the context."

Video of the exchange was met with incredulity online, with many expressing shock at the Harvard president's words. Billionaire Bill Ackman, a Harvard alum, said that the three president's handling of the question betrayed a "profound moral bankruptcy" on their part.

"The presidents’ answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership," Ackman wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "They must all resign in disgrace. If a CEO of one of our companies gave a similar answer, he or she would be toast within the hour."

On Harvard's campus, students from the Harvard Hillel, the campus Jewish center, called Gay's testimony "profoundly shocking given explicit provisions within the conduct code prohibiting this kind of bullying and harassment."

"A call for genocide against Jews is always a hateful incitement of violence," Harvard Hillel President Jacob Miller and Hillel rabbi Getzel Davis said in a statement. "President Gay's failure to properly condemn this speech calls into question her ability to protect Jewish students on Harvard's campus. Chants to 'globalize the intifada,' an endorsement of violent terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli civilians, and 'from the river to the sea,' an eliminationist slogan intended to deprive Jews of their right to self-determination in Israel, have become tragically routine at Harvard."

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They continued, "President Gay's testimony fails to reassure us that the University is seriously concerned about the antisemitic rhetoric pervasive on campus. We call on President Gay to take action against those using threatening speech that violates our community standards."

Miller and Davis said that they are "ready to work with the administration" on educating students, faculty, and staff about antisemitism and the "history of the Jewish people," but added, "We will continue to hold the University administration accountable to make Harvard a place that Jewish students can learn, live, and thrive without fear and intimidation."