Published by Haaretz on 6/25/2025 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was sued on Wednesday for enabling a “hostile antisemitic environment on campus” that discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students and deprived them of equal educational and professional opportunities. The suit was filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of two Jewish students, one of them also Israeli, in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. Also named in the suit was Michel DeGraff, a professor of linguistics at MIT, accused of harassing the plaintiffs and causing one to drop out of his program. Over 200 Israeli academics accuse Trump of exploiting antisemitism to target universities Harvard antisemitism and Islamophobia task forces find widespread fear, bigotry Lawsuits against U.S. pro-Palestinian student activists reignite debate on protest limits Jews and Israelis on campus, according to the suit, “experience severe and pervasive harassment and discrimination based on national origin and shared ancestry, as well as retaliation for complaining about their improper treatment, and MIT administrators knowingly failed to take action to eliminate the hostile climate and discrimination against them or to stop the retaliation, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, was one of four university leaders summoned to Congress in December 2023 to address complaints about antisemitism on their respective campuses. She was the only one in the group, all women, representing top elite schools, who did not eventually quit under pressure. The two students named in the suit are Lior Alon, a Jewish Israeli who was a post-doctoral associate and who currently teaches math at MIT, and William Sussman, a Jewish-American former doctoral candidate. According to the lawsuit, during the spring and fall of 2024, DeGraff publicly harassed Alon on social media, sharing videos of him and publicizing information about his service in the Israeli military. When Alon emailed Kornbluth expressing fears for his and his family’s safety, requesting that the videos be taken down, he received no response, according to the lawsuit, and no action was taken. The suit notes that last November, the professor, via email, accused Sussman of exemplifying a Zionist “mind infection” and claims that in this context, his remarks were antisemitic. The emails were shared with Kornbluth and other administrators. As a result of this harassment and subsequent threats directed at him, Sussman chose to discontinue his studies at MIT. “These incidents are emblematic of a larger problem on the MIT campus where antisemitism has been permitted to take root and fester in the absence of leadership and accountability,” the suit says. It continues, “The post-October 7 surge of Jew hatred on campus in which students promoted terror against Jews in every corner of campus life with no interference from administrators, ultimately ballooned into a culture that emboldened tenured professors to use their positions of power to persecute Jews without consequence – simultaneously devastating Jews and Israelis and impeding the advancement of science.” The plaintiffs are requesting a declaratory judgment that “the failure by MIT to enforce its policies to protect Jewish and Israeli members of the MIT communities has violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.” They are also demanding financial compensation for Alon for the emotional distress he suffered and financial compensation for Sussman for his lost career earnings. As part of a settlement involving two similar lawsuits filed by the Brandeis Center, Harvard University agreed earlier this year to adopt several far-reaching measures aimed at protecting Jewish students on campus. Most notably, the Ivy League school said it would refer to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism when evaluating complaints by Jewish students about discrimination and harassment. The IHRA definition is often criticized for conflating legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.