The issue of antisemitism on US campuses is getting bigger with each passing day. In the latest round of developments, Pennsylvania University President Elizabeth Magill has resigned from her position in the wake of massive criticism following a Congressional hearing on the alarming rise in antisemitism on the campuses of US universities.
Three top Ivy League universities have been under the scanner following widespread anti-Israel protests on US university campuses that bordered on hatred of Jews and had students chanting slogans calling for the genocide of Jews. A congressional hearing led by Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, a Harvard graduate recently took place in which the Presidents of Harvard University, Pennsylvania University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asked if the calls for genocide of Jews on the university campuses amounted to violation of the university’s policy on harassment, and they struggled to say a clear yes. They evaded a clear-cut answer by saying things like, it depends on the context, and that if the calls issued result in real-life harassment, then yes, and if the statement is targeted at an individual, then yes.
Following the outright disgrace over the fact that the Presidents of the world’s topmost universities refused to outrightly condemn calls for genocide of a community by their students, there is increasing pressure on the Presidents by the top donors, investors, and the Jewish American community at large to resign from their positions. The Pennsylvania University President has already resigned while pressure is mounting on Harvard University President Claudine Gay to resign. According to recent media reports, a faction of Harvard’s faculty members is supporting the President and thinks she is being unfairly targeted while the final decision reportedly lies with the Harvard Corporation that’s set to convene sometime next week.
And according to fresh news reports coming in a couple of hours after this story was first written, the Harvard University’s Governing Board has announced that it will support President Claudine Gay and won’t ask her to step down.
The Congressional Hearing seeking testimonies of the three University Presidents was reportedly preceded by accounts from four Jewish students. One of these students was Talia Khan, a student at MIT. Talia Khan, the daughter of a Jewish mother and an immigrant Afghan Muslim father, said that the antisemitic rhetoric had forced 70 percent of the Jewish students to conceal their identities. She further added that an Israeli student had not left his dormitory room for weeks and lived in constant fear as he was continuously getting death threats.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based Jewish advocacy group, antisemitic incidents in the US have increased by about 400 percent since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Pro-Palestine and Pro-Hamas protests started taking place on the campuses of US university campuses days after the horrific Hamas attack on Israel that led to the killings of 1,400 civilians and kidnappings of more than 200 Israeli citizens including women and children.
Shocked over these protests that demonized Jews instead of condemning the attacks by Hamas, many major donors of top universities including Harvard pressured the university administration to officially condemn the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, stating unequivocally that they would withdraw funding worth millions of dollars, if the wave of antisemitism hatred continues to pervade US campuses.
Jewish billionaires and investors have played a pivotal role in calling out the blatant antisemitism on US campuses and forcing these universities to take a more neutral stance on the Israel-Hamas issue.
Bill Ackman, the US billionaire investor of Jewish descent is one of the most important Jewish voices proactively critiquing the wave of antisemitism on US campuses following the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent retaliation. He had previously called for the Presidents of MIT, Harvard, and Pennsylvania University to resign. He wrote an open letter to Harvard University’s governing board of directors on December 10th. Bill Ackman has posted the open letter on his official X account in which he reiterates his call for Harvard University President Claudine Gay to resign.
“In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage to the reputation of Harvard University than any individual in our nearly 500-year history.
Because of her failure to condemn the vilest and the most barbaric terrorism the world has ever seen, for supporting rather than condemning 34 Harvard-branded student organizations who hold Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ barbaric acts, for failing to enforce Harvard’s own rules on student conduct, and for her other failures of leadership, President Gay catalyzed an explosion of antisemitism and hate on campus that is unprecedented in Harvard’s history”, he stated in the open letter.
As Jewish billionaires literally bring down so-called top-class universities like Harvard on their knees over their blatant encouragement of antisemitism on campus, perhaps Bharatiya billionaires should take some lessons from them.
Top western universities like Harvard have become woke bastions of Hinduphobia. Rashmi Samant in her book, “A Hindu in Oxford” talks about her harrowing experience at the University of Oxford wherein she was targeted for her Hindu origins and beliefs and despite winning the Oxford Presidential elections, she was pressured to resign as she became the victim of a vile and hateful smear campaign.
Yet, Rashmi’s incident has not got the kind of attention it deserves. Had this happened with a Jewish student, one would see a concerted effort by the influential members of the Jewish community to take the university administration to task and make them issue a public apology, at least. But Rashmi is a Hindu and unfortunately, Hindu billionaires funding the likes of Harvards with millions of dollars still seem to be stuck in the colonial mindset.
As bestselling author and a pioneer in the research on civilizations, Rajiv Malhotra has brought to our notice so many times, that Bharatiya billionaires seem to be blissfully unaware of the kind of dangerous anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat narrative being propagated by the South Asian studies, Indology and Post-Colonial Studies Departments of top western universities funded by them.
Rajiv Malhotra has also shared a post on X recently in this regard.
“We called out Harvard as the nest of snakes for many years. Exporting wokeism, Hinduphobia, Antisemitism, … Now Jews are fighting back. When will Indian industrialists like @anandmahindra stop sucking up to Harvard and others?”, he says.
According to an article published in the online edition of the Times of India, many Bharatiya billionaires have donated millions of dollars to US universities. The article makes a list of the billionaires who are a member of the Bharatiya diaspora community and have donated generously to top US universities.
The article states that UK-based steel magnate and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and his family donated 25 million dollars to Harvard University in 2017 to support an endowed fund for the university’s South Asia Institute. The article lists the names of several Bharatiya businessmen like Madan Lal Sobti and Sumir Chadha who funded various chairs related to India studies at top US universities.
The book “10 Heads of Ravana: Critique of Hinduphobic Scholars” edited by Rajiv Malhotra gives a critical insight into the anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat biases that systematically pervade the works of some of the most influential Bharatiya and western names in social sciences and humanities. His book “Snakes in the Ganga: Breaking India 2.0” also gives a nuanced understanding of the woke forces at work in international universities like Harvard that systematically work to disintegrate Bharat and attack the core of its civilizational and cultural ethos.
Despite the fact that a lot of awareness has been created on the hijacking of the humanities and social department of top western universities by the woke leftist and Islamist forces, Bharatiya billionaires seem to be funding these universities with closed eyes. Bharatiya business tycoons like Anand Mahindra, Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, etc. are all Harvard University alumnae. These are just a handful of names.
There must be so many influential Bharatiya businessmen and thought leaders who would have studied at the top Ivy League universities. Yet, we never see any of these Hindu Bharatiya businessmen raise their voices for Hindu issues like the Jewish billionaires are openly doing for issues affecting the Jews. When will Bharatiya business tycoons wake up, smell the coffee, and call out the systematic Hinduphobia that has pervaded western universities?
