"Rabbi condemns American universities as hotbeds of antisemitism, sparking controversy"
Rabbi Pinchas Taylor criticized American universities for their failure to condemn threats of violence against Jews and calls to destroy Israel on their campuses, calling them "cesspools of antisemitism and hedonism." The comments were made in response to the testimony of academic leaders from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania, who appeared flummoxed and failed to condemn such threats during a congressional hearing. Rabbi Taylor drew parallels between the ancient conflict of Athens vs. Jerusalem and the battle being fought today on college campuses, emphasizing the importance of celebrating Hanukkah as a symbol of triumph over darkness. He hopes that the moral failures displayed by academic leaders will lead to a reset in the agenda of American academia to include a moral code of conduct.