Fact Sheet: Supporting MIT’s Jewish Community

MIT leadership has in the strongest terms rejected antisemitism and taken thoughtful and steadfast action to prevent it, to promote student-wellbeing, to respond to complaints raised by community members, and to address policy violations. Examples of actions MIT has taken since 2023 to address concerns of antisemitismMIT President Sally Kornbluth and other senior leaders have sent multiple campus-wide letters and video messages condemning reports of antisemitism on campus. Prior to October 7, MIT joined the Hillel Campus Climate Initiative, which helps universities build awareness of and take action against antisemitism. Learnings from that engagement continue to guide MIT’s campus response. MIT increased security around campus, including at the Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life building, which houses MIT Hillel.MIT participated in the Brandeis Leadership Symposium on Antisemitism in Higher Education.MIT created multiple opportunities for training, education, and dialogue, e.g.: American Jewish Committee training on antisemitism for Academic Council, which comprises the Institute’s senior leadership ADL training on antisemitism for MIT’s Bias Response Team Institute-level educational programming, including an event featuring Professor Pamela Nadell—director of the Jewish Studies Program at American University and a scholar of antisemitism in AmericaThe Institute updated, publicized, and enforced its policies on protests and demonstrations and posters/displays.MIT helped create and provided financial support for two years of weekly lunches focused on supporting MIT’s Jewish community.MIT provided support for the faculty-created MIT-Kalaniyot program, which brings Israel-based faculty and postdocs to MIT with the intent of building and strengthening ties between Israeli researchers and the MIT community.The Institute established a cross-functional team with representatives from the Institute Discrimination and Harassment Response Office (IDHR), Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS), Division of Student Life, Human Resources, and the Office of General Counsel to promptly and fairly triage reports of antisemitism and other forms of bias relating to the conflict in the Middle East. Instituted disciplinary proceedings for policy violations stemming from campus protests and related activities, which resulted in significant sanctions for a number of students, including suspensions, expulsions, and numerous individual bans from being on campus, as well as permanent derecognition of a student organization. And MIT established a Title VI coordinator.Student discipline process improvementsApart from individual student discipline cases as described above, MIT conducted a holistic review of its student discipline process, which resulted in a number of policy and procedure changes, including: The senior administration has a more direct role in reviewing significant student discipline cases, with the Vice Chancellor for Student Life regularly conferring with the Chair of the Committee on Discipline (COD) and participating in hearing panels in serious cases. The role of the Senior Associate Dean of Student Conduct and Community Standards has been enhanced and elevated, reporting directly to the Vice Chancellor for Student Life. A more streamlined process allows the Chair of the COD to take action in response to noncompliance with previous COD sanctions.Additional sanctions were added to the COD Rules, giving the COD a broader range of tools to address student misconduct.Enhanced training on discriminatory harassment were made available to COD members. Over the last couple years, MIT has experienced a significant decline in the number of reports of student misconduct arising out of allegations of antisemitism or other forms of bias based on religion or ethnic/national origin. Courts have dismissed lawsuits claiming antisemitism at MITAs a result of MIT’s actions, including specifically some of those described above, federal courts have dismissed claims of antisemitic harassment and discrimination asserted against MIT under Title VI. In doing so, the courts have acknowledged the escalating steps MIT has taken to promote a safe, inclusive community for its Jewish community members. For example, in a unanimous decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals holding that MIT satisfied its Title VI obligations, the Court noted: “As the protest gatherings occurred over the course of seven months, culminating in the Kresge Lawn encampment, MIT took an escalating series of actions aimed at calming the turmoil without violence… Even if we accept plaintiffs' position that some conduct of some protestors was antisemitic, that would not provide a Title VI pretext for requiring MIT to eliminate the protests entirely. In that respect, by managing the situation so as to avoid escalation and violence, MIT was much more effective than plaintiffs claim.” “[A]ny reasonable school administrator in MIT's position could have reasonably surmised that its progressively evolving responses prevented the on-campus conflict from exploding into real violence between October 2023 and May 2024.”Importantly, MIT took these steps to protect the MIT community even while the Court concluded that much of the campus protest activity at MIT amounted to legally protected expression and not a violation of Title VI: “This absence of consensus reflects ongoing debate as to the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism – debate that our constitutional scheme resolves through discourse, not judicial fiat. Indeed, the debate on occasion has been formal and high profile…We decline to interpret Title VI as arming either side of that debate with the powers of a censor.”2026 Quality of Life survey resultsJewish student sentiment has significantly improved and is now higher than the general MIT student population. Below are data from the spring 2026 Quality of Life survey, a community-wide survey administered every two years to better understand the lives of faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, and students. The data reflect responses from those who selected “Judaism” as their religion, alone or in part (respondents were able to select more than one religion).Overall, how satisfied are you being a student at MIT? (Percentages are a sum of respondents who selected “very satisfied” + “somewhat satisfied”)Jewish Undergraduates:2024: 87%2026: 97% (compared to 86% for all undergraduate students) Jewish Graduate Students:2024: 78%2026: 94% (compared to 88% for all graduate students)I feel that I belong at MIT. (Percentages are a sum of respondents who selected “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree”)Jewish Undergraduates2024: 83%2026: 92% (compared to 80% for all undergraduate students)Jewish Graduate Students 2024: 70%2026: 79% (compared to 79% for all graduate students)Notably, not a single Jewish undergraduate respondent in 2026 disagreed with the statement “I feel that I belong at MIT.”

Raccontata danews.mit.edu