Latest news with #DeGraff
New York Post
02-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
MIT prof accused of harassing Jewish student over Zionist ‘mind infection' claim revealed, still listed on staff
The MIT professor accused of harassing a Jewish PhD student out of the university by calling him a 'real-life case study' of Zionist 'mind infection,' remains on staff at the university. Former Computer Science student Will Sussman described what he calls a 'climate of terror on campus' for Jewish people at the university in a story published in The Post. He is also suing MIT and the educator he claims targeted him, professor of linguistics Michel DeGraff. Sussman alleges in the suit that he 'was subjected to anti-Semitic harassment by Professor Degraff that was so extreme and intolerable that it forced him to leave MIT.' Sussman claims in the lawsuit things started when he had objected to a guest lecturer speaking to DeGraff's class 'about an alleged settler-colonial Zionist (i.e. Jewish) 'mind infection,'' being funded 'through organizations such as Hillel [and] Chabad' – both Jewish campus groups, with Sussman the then-president of the Grad Hillel. 6 Michel DeGraff is named as a defendant in a new lawsuit about alleged campus antisemitism at MIT. AFP via Getty Images 6 Michel DeGraff told The Post that he is now faculty at large at MIT. AFP via Getty Images The lawsuit then claims DeGraff went on to call him a 'real-life case study' in an email thread with high-profile staff, including President Sally Kornbluth, on November 10, 2024. DeGraff also posted publicly on X a day earlier, starting a thread including Sussman's handle attempting to justify the 'mind infection' remarks. Later in the chain he wrote to a different Jewish group's account: 'Sorry that your mind might seem so infected that you can't follow the data & logic.' 6 Will Sussman is suing MIT and Michel DeGraff for allegedly creating a hostile environment on campus. realWillSussman/X 6 Will Sussman says he was unable to concentrate on campus due to pervasive antisemitism. realWillSussman/X He also pointed out the guest lecturer, Nurit Peled-Elhanan, is herself an Israeli Jew. DeGraff, who is originally Haitian, received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. According to MIT's website his interests include 'education and knowledge production for decolonization and radical liberation.' He has since talked about a 'mind infection' in relation to Jewish people throughout December 2024 and January of this year. 6 Pro-Palestine rallies took over MIT's campus in the wake of October 7th. AFP via Getty Images Sussman alleges in his lawsuit that when he asking DeGraff to 'please leave me alone' via email, he instead responded to the thread and 'expressed an intent to explore this 'real-life case study' of Sussman at the next class.' It is unclear if that seminar ever took place. Sussman also describes 'a relentless series of mass emails, copying high-level administrators, including President Kornbluth,' causing a 'pile-on' from other students, staff, and non-affiliates. 'The most disturbing aspect of this whole episode was that President Kornbluth — who was copied on the exchange where the harassment was on display in real time — stayed silent, as did the other high-level administrators,' Sussman writes in his op-ed. In a response to The Post, MIT said it 'will defend itself in court regarding the allegations raised in the lawsuit. 'To be clear, MIT rejects antisemitism. As President Kornbluth has said: 'Antisemitism is real, and it is rising in the world. We cannot let it poison our community.'' In his lawsuit, Sussman claims MIT's Institute Discrimination and Harassment Response Office did not pursue a discrimination investigation after he filed a complaint. 6 MIT president Sally Kornbluth testified before a House committee about campus antisemitism in December 2023. Getty Images A request for comment from DeGraff was not returned, but an automatic response from his MIT email clarified he is 'no longer faculty' at MIT Linguistics as of November 2024 and has been 'removed from [his] academic unit of 28+ years and now I am 'Faculty at large' in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.' 'One of the goals of Hasbara and the distortions therein is to distract from the horrors in Gaza and the West Bank,' he wrote. 'So let's keep centering what Amnesty International calls 'a live-streamed genocide.'' Sussman, who was considering pursuing a career in academia, is requesting 'injunctive relief to eliminate the hostile climate for Jews and Israelis at MIT' and an 'award of compensatory and consequential damages,' including loss of his educational opportunities, wages, and career earnings.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawsuit: MIT professor harassed Israeli researcher, Jewish student as president stood by
Editor's note: This story was updated on June 25, 2025 at 3:20 p.m. to include a statement from MIT. A federal lawsuit filed against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week accuses a tenured professor of harassing an Israeli researcher and Jewish student, to the point where the student left the university. Meanwhile, the suit claims that MIT President Sally Kornbluth and other top administrators stood idly by. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law — on behalf of Jewish students, researchers and faculty — filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Wednesday accusing MIT of allowing faculty and students to cultivate 'an environment rife with anti-Semitism and fear.' The professor, Michel DeGraff, is also named as a defendant in the suit. The 71-page court filing claims MIT became a 'breeding ground for hatred' following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. It says students celebrated the terrorist attacks, urged violence against Jews and interrupted classes with antisemitic chants. Read more: 6 Mass. schools are under federal investigation for antisemitism. What are the claims? Students also urinated on the campus Hillel building, blocked Israelis and Jews from entering certain areas of campus, and distributed 'terror maps' promoting violence at campus locations deemed Jewish, the lawsuit claims. The Brandeis Center previously filed a similar lawsuit against Harvard University, which prompted the school to make changes in order to address antisemitism. The suit alleges that President Kornbluth 'emboldened' DeGraff, a then-tenured linguistics professor who publicly harassed a young Israeli researcher through the spring and fall of 2024. DeGraff posted the researcher's name with the context that he served in the Israeli Defense Forces — as all Israelis do — and shared images and videos that he edited on social media, at one point tagging Al Jazeera, according to the lawsuit. DeGraff then published an article in a popular European newspaper, Le Monde, about the researcher, the suit said. As a result of the professor's actions, the lawsuit claims, the researcher was confronted by strangers in various locations, including at his child's daycare and the grocery store. The lawsuit accuses Kornbluth of not taking action when the researcher emailed her expressing concerns for his safety and the safety of his family. Then, in November 2024, the lawsuit claims DeGraff 'relentlessly harassed a Jewish student in full view of President Kornbluth and top-level administrators' when he sent a series of mass emails accusing the student of having a Jewish 'mind infection' and threatening to use him as a 'real-life case study' in a class. According to the complaint, Kornbluth and the other administrators copied on the exchange remained silent. That same day, fliers were slipped under doors in a dormitory where the student had previously lived, targeting him specifically in white lettering on a green band — styled after Hamas headbands — advocating for violence against Jews, the lawsuit states. The student at one point contacted MIT Police seeking a restraining order. 'My mother is worried that he is going to get me killed,' he wrote in an email to police. The student ultimately left MIT before completing his PhD program as a result of the ongoing harassment, 'abandoning a dream and a promising career in computer science.' The alleged incidents involving DeGraff were previously reported on by conservative media websites Campus Reform and the Daily Wire. Last October, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a story about how DeGraff's request to teach a course about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulted in a department-wide clash. DeGraff has also claimed he's faced censorship and attacks for trying to teach about Palestine at MIT. In a statement, an MIT spokesperson said the university will defend itself in court against the allegations raised in the lawsuit. 'To be clear, MIT rejects antisemitism,' the spokesperson said. 'As President Kornbluth has said, 'Antisemitism is real, and it is rising in the world. We cannot let it poison our community.'' DeGraff did not immediately return a request for comment. An automated email response from DeGraff stated that he is no longer faculty at MIT Linguistics, and has since been 'removed' to instead be faculty at large in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. 'I have very limited bandwidth over the summer to reply to email, especially media inquiries from bad-faith reporters,' the automated reply said. Harvard Kennedy's backup plan for foreign students: Study online, or in Canada Why a database of bug genes could be one of Trump's most devastating cuts at Harvard Data breach affecting over 75,000 people at UMass leads to lawsuit Judge rules Trump can't invoke national security powers to ban foreign Harvard students Harvard's Jewish faculty have their own wish list for a deal with Trump Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
District reacts to death of recent high school graduate killed in crash
A local district is mourning the death of a recent high school graduate. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The Riverside Local School District in DeGraff has asked the community to pray for the families of Jackson Scott, according to a social media post. As previously reported by News Center 7, Scott was identified as the driver of a 2009 Ford Focus in a deadly crash on State Route 235, just north of State Route 29, in Champaign County Sunday night. An initial Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) report indicated that he swerved to avoid hitting an animal and lost control of his Ford. Scott went off the road and hit a tree. He died from his injuries. TRENDING STORIES: Firefighters responding to house fire in Greene County Neighborhood on edge after 2 bodies found on same street days apart Car crashes into Ohio marijuana dispensary, leaving large hole Landyn Thompson has been identified as the passenger in the Ford. CareFlight transported him to Miami Valley Hospital with serious injuries, the school district stated. 'Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time,' the school district said on its Facebook page. Thompson also recently graduated from high school. A vigil was held Monday night at the flagpole in front of the school. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Buffer tax credit is both sensible and deserved
In 2015, the Minnesota buffer law was signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton. Since, the state's corn growers have worked diligently to comply with the law requiring the installation of vegetative buffers along waterways on farm property. In fact, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources noted in April that Minnesota's farmers are now 98 percent in compliance for installing buffers on public waters. The state's corn growers have done their part in complying with the buffer law. It is now time for Gov. Dayton and legislators to address the fact that the law currently penalizes farmers by continuing to tax buffer acres at valuations that assume these acres are still producing crops and income. Farmers and most Minnesotans understand that if there is a significant reduction in the value of a home or business, by law, the assessed value must be lowered to its new/lower market value, resulting in lower property taxes on that property. This same concept should apply to farmers who continue to be unfairly assessed by paying taxes on land that is no longer producing income. Continuing to tax unproductive acres at maximum value is an unfair financial penalty at a time of significant economic stress for Minnesota farm families. To fix this issue, the Minnesota Corn Growers Association has supported bipartisan legislation – HF 4395/SF 3960 – to provide a much-needed $50-per-acre property tax credit for farm acres that are required to be removed from production and converted into buffers. In each bill, the credit would be funded utilizing Clean Water Funds, which were designated for projects and initiatives aimed at improving water quality in our state. The legislation provides farmers with fair compensation using funds that have been designated for this exact use. And Gov. Dayton agreed. In an April 20 release, Dayton credited the legislative authors of each bill 'for authoring this sensible, bipartisan proposal to support Minnesota farmers, who are working to protect clean water throughout our state' and further noted, 'I strongly support this legislation, and encourage Republican legislative leaders to send it to me, as a clean bill, as soon as possible.' To further stress the need for this legislation, 15 agricultural organizations also signed onto a joint letter delivered to Gov. Dayton and legislative leaders Wednesday urgently requesting its passage. Farmers are doing their part to comply with the buffer law. We have now reached a point in the 2018 legislative session when Minnesota's agricultural community needs to see Gov. Dayton and legislators do their part by passing this legislation. Anything short of that this year would be considered a major failure. Kirby Hettver president Minnesota Corn Growers Association DeGraff
