Two Jewish students have launched a blistering lawsuit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accusing the prestigious university — and a tenured professor — of enabling a climate of antisemitic harassment so severe it forced one student to abandon his PhD.

Filed by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the 71-page complaint outlines how linguistics professor Michel DeGraff allegedly waged a public campaign of intimidation and defamation against the students, while MIT administrators stood by in silence.

One plaintiff, IDF veteran and postdoctoral student Lior Alon, claims DeGraff doxxed him twice — publicly posting his name and photograph on social media and tagging Al Jazeera — after describing Alon as part of “Zionist propaganda.” DeGraff further singled out Alon in a Le Monde article, accusing him of working to erase “anti-Zionist Jewish students.” Alon says he was later harassed by strangers in public, including at his child’s daycare.

Alon emailed MIT President Sally Kornbluth pleading for help, warning that the doxxing had left him and his family fearing for their safety. Kornbluth never responded, the lawsuit states.

“Not only did President Kornbluth’s silence and MIT’s inaction cause harm to Alon, but MIT’s failure to act also emboldened Prof. DeGraff, and his harassment of Jews escalated as a result,” the suit claims.

DeGraff, a tenured faculty member, later launched a seminar titled “Language and Linguistics, from the River to the Sea in Palestine,” and circulated posts referring to Jewish “mind infection.”

The second plaintiff, PhD student William Sussman, says he raised concerns about the hateful rhetoric, only to be subjected to even more abuse. According to the lawsuit, DeGraff sent department-wide emails — copying in MIT’s president — describing Sussman as a living example of a “Jewish mind infection.”

On the same day, flyers using Hamas-inspired color schemes and directly targeting Sussman were slipped under dorm doors.

Unable to endure the threats and bigotry, Sussman ultimately left MIT before completing his PhD.

When Sussman filed a formal complaint, MIT’s investigations manager responded that the school would not pursue a discrimination case. The official concluded that DeGraff’s references to “mind infection” were not about Sussman being Jewish, but rather about his supposed views on Israeli propaganda. Sussman was told there would be no appeal.

The Brandeis Center said MIT’s failure to protect Jewish students amounted to a wholesale betrayal of its legal and moral responsibilities.

“Jews and Israelis on campus were prevented from fully engaging in their studies, their research, and the full spectrum of campus life,” the organization argued in a statement. “They have been forced out of their programs, off campus, and even out of the university entirely.”

Sussman, whose academic dreams were shattered, described Kornbluth’s leadership as part of a broader failure that echoes last year’s congressional hearings, where Kornbluth infamously testified that calls to eliminate the Jewish people could be antisemitic “depending on context.” Unlike her counterparts at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, who resigned, Kornbluth kept her position.

“That tells you everything you need to know,” Sussman said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)