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Mauricio Karchmer, a computer science lecturer at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), recently resigned from his position, shedding light on his decision in a LinkedIn post. The catalyst for his departure was the campus community’s response to the Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
Expressing profound disappointment, Karchmer remarked that the past few months, particularly since Oct. 7, have been deeply disheartening for him. Instead of witnessing a supportive environment for Jewish and Israeli students, staff, and faculty during a time of vulnerability, he observed open hostility within the broader MIT community. In his view, the institution failed a crucial test during this challenging period.
Karchmer, who found his last five years at MIT to be rewarding, also raised concerns about certain academic departments veering away from critical thinking in favor of promoting specific political ideologies. According to him, some areas of study at MIT appear to prioritize advocating a particular worldview over imparting essential critical thinking skills. He emphasized that MIT needs to address these issues if it aims to continue fulfilling its mission of educating students to serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
The controversy at MIT stems from the response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, where Palestinian terrorists invaded the country, resulting in the tragic death of 1,200 people, predominantly civilians, and the kidnapping of 240 others as hostages. Shockingly, evidence of atrocities committed during the attack, including systematic torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, has appalled the world.
The MIT Coalition Against Apartheid and Palestine added to the controversy by releasing a joint statement seemingly rationalizing the violence perpetrated by Hamas. This statement affirmed the right of all occupied peoples to resist oppression and colonization, committing to supporting decolonization efforts in Palestine.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre, the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” gained prominence among anti-Israel activists. The MIT Coalition Against Apartheid, which expressed support for Hamas, promoted at least 15 protests since Oct. 7. One of these demonstrations resulted in students being arrested after occupying a building for a “die-in.”
Jewish and Israeli students at MIT decried the protests, reporting that the coalition physically prevented them from attending classes, forming a blockade in Lobby 7, a space inside the main entrance of the university. The students emphasized that the responsibility to protect them should not be placed on their shoulders.
Despite the hostility on campus, MIT President Sally Kornbluth stated shortly after the Oct. 7 attack that such a deliberate assault on civilians could never be justified. However, her subsequent inability to answer whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated MIT’s code of conduct garnered national attention. Although the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania resigned over similar controversies, Kornbluth received support from the university board and the deans.
Karchmer’s resignation is part of the wider fallout from elite universities’ responses to the Hamas attack, contributing to an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents on college campuses across the United States. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses between Oct. 7 and Dec. 18. During the same period, antisemitic incidents nationwide increased by 323 percent compared to the previous year.
Karchmer had been a lecturer at MIT since 2019, teaching an Introduction to Algorithms class, which a significant portion of undergraduates attended. While MIT declined to comment on Karchmer’s resignation, it was confirmed that he would be departing this month, leaving behind a complex and challenging environment that highlights broader issues within the academic community.
