Leaders of three universities recently testified before Congress about their response to rising antisemitism on campus. In response to the yes/no question from Rep. Elise Stefanik of whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct, president Claudine Gay of Harvard, president Sally Kornbbluth of MIT and president Elizabeth Magill of The University of Pennsylvania all said in different ways that the answer would be context specific and related to whether the speech turned into conduct. President Magill has since resigned.

Like much of the business community, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, alumni groups and major donors like Bill Ackman, we are appalled. No one supports free speech rights more than this board. No one advocates for the expression of differing views as part of the educational experience more than we. But like all right-minded people, we also recognize the limits of the First Amendment and the utter hypocrisy in the failure of these institutions to protect their Jewish students. After a decade of universities banning “trigger words” and condemning sexualized speech on campus, it is suddenly context-specific whether calls for mass genocide create a hostile environment on campus? A drunken frat boy who proclaims “I want to f**k her” will be disciplined or sent home. But according to these university presidents, a classmate who calls for the elimination of Israel and Jews is exercising free speech rights and may do so with impunity unless they escalate into action.

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