WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives called on the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to resign after they declined to say clearly in a congressional hearing that their schools would take action against those calling for the genocide of Jews.
The vote Wednesday night was 303-126, with three voting “present.” All but one of the votes against the resolution were by Democrats, including seven of the caucus’ 24 Jewish Democrats. The three voting “present” were likewise Democrats, and the one Republican voting against was Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
The lead initiator of the resolution was Rep. Elise Stefanik, the New Yorker who is the third-ranked Republican in the House and whose questioning of the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania last week elicited their qualified comments on what they would do if people at their universities called for the genocide of Jews. Two lead co-sponsors were Jewish Democrats, Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida.
Liz Magill, the Penn leader, has since resigned and the resolution called on the other two to follow suit. Harvard President Claudine Gay has apologized for her remarks at the hearing, and following a lengthy meeting earlier this week, Harvard’s board chose to keep her in office. MIT’s board has likewise affirmed its continued support of President Sally Kornbluth, who is Jewish.
A number of the Jewish Democrats said the resolution was disingenuous because Stefanik has failed to confront antisemitism in her own party, echoing conflicted sentiments some liberal Jewish figures have expressed in the wake of the hearing.
Jamie Raskin, from Maryland, was one of the seven Jewish Democrats voting against. He took aim at Stefanik, a leading supporter of former President Donald Trump, for never calling out Trump for his associations with antisemites, including Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who recently called for the execution of Jews.
“Still waiting for a serious response from Rep. Stefanik. Will she denounce virulent antisemitism in the GOP, including calls for Jewish genocide from Trump’s dinner guest at Mar-a-Lago Nick Fuentes, leader of the America First Political Action Conference?” Raskin wrote Wednesday on X.
Other Jewish Democrats voted for the nonbinding resolution because they agreed with its contents, but said it was meaningless political posturing.
North Carolina’s Kathy Manning, who voted for the measure, called for practical legislation instead of nonbinding resolutions. She previously accused Stefanik of copying portions of a letter Manning had circulated about the hearing.
“I have no interest in meaningless resolutions that do nothing to address the underlying issue of antisemitism,” she said on the House floor before the vote. “We don’t need throwaway resolutions, we need effective solutions.”
Stefanik lambasted those Democrats who did not support the bill.
“The world is watching as Members from both sides of the aisle stand resolutely with the Jewish people to condemn antisemitism on university campuses and the morally bankrupt testimony of the Harvard, MIT, and Penn university presidents during last week’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing,” she said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “It is disappointing and revealing that 128 Democrats chose to vote against condemning antisemitism on college campuses and the pathetic and abhorrent testimony of the university presidents.”
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