We are Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni of MIT writing to raise concerns about the e-book Unsafe at MIT: A Chronicle of a Campus War on the Jews by MIT professor Yossi Sheffi and share our perspective on the events described therein. Unsafe at MIT is a self-published book that has received favorable attention from mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, as well as from politically conservative podcasts. This publicity has allowed the book to circulate a narrative of Palestine activism and the Jewish experience at MIT, a narrative that differs drastically from our own experiences and observations on campus.
We write as members of the MIT Jews for Collective Liberation (JCL, formerly MIT Jews for Ceasefire), which formed in November 2023 in response to events on our campus that are inaccurately portrayed in Sheffi’s book. That November, members of what would later become JCL participated in a peaceful sit-in for Palestinian liberation. During the sit-in, counter-protesters stood over participants, stepped on some of us, tore signs from our hands, threw flyers containing graphic images at us, made threatening comments—including statements that we would be raped—and called us “self-hating Jews.” Some opponents of the sit-in later claimed that protesters had prevented students from attending class. In a subsequent email response on November 13, 2023, MIT President Sally Kornbluth wrote that the administration had “received no evidence of any kind that Jewish students, or anyone else, were prevented from attending class” and asked that this claim not be repeated. Nevertheless, the allegation continued to circulate and is repeated in Sheffi’s book (p. 60 and 70 in the Nook web version).
This is just one example of the book’s misleading account of the MIT community’s historic mobilization against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.[1] Sheffi broadly characterizes pro-Palestine protests as antisemitic and claims that the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment (SAGE) in spring 2024 made it “no longer safe” to have a Passover Seder at the religious activities center (p. 138). Sources quoted in the book claim they are discriminated for being “too Jewish” or “too Israeli” (p. 155) and that the encampment “barred access to Jews” (p. 154). This characterization is at odds with the fact that pro-Israel Jewish students did enter and spend time in the encampment on multiple occasions. It also does not account for the Jewish community members who helped found and actively organize the encampment; JCL celebrated Pesach there in solidarity with displaced Palestinians, and we have continued to build a Sukkah each year on campus to commemorate the SAGE. Jews have always been a part of the rich, multi-ethnic fabric of the campus movement for justice in Palestine.
Sheffi’s book also claims that MIT “prevaricated” over, “brushed off”, “shrugged off” and “naively ignored warning of” and “bent over backwards to accommodate” students protesting for divestment and against genocide (p. 10, 11, 76, 183, 185 respectively). However MIT officials did not tolerate protests nor did they negotiate a peaceful resolution to the encampment. Instead, MIT disciplined us with at least 139 discipline cases, 24 arrests, 25 suspensions, and one expulsion have been meted out according to public reports.[2]
Further, Sheffi’s account of the MIT Coalition for Palestine does not accurately represent the Coalition’s stated demands (p. 134, 135), claims without evidence that the Coalition’s member groups are funded and directed by Qatar (p. 175), and dismisses Jewish activism and communal life in the Coalition as a “desecration” of Jewish rituals (p. 141). But Jews for Collective Liberation is a proud member of the Coalition for Palestine, and we reiterate its demands, which are grounded in human dignity and scientific ethics. Among them is a call for MIT to end research sponsorships by the Israeli government and the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries according to standards comparable to those it has applied in relationships involving Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia.[3]
These demands have received substantial support in student referenda. About 64 percent of participating undergraduate voters and 70 percent of participating graduate voters have supported measures calling for an end to MIT research sponsorships funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The Graduate Student Council also voted to “call for MIT to take immediate steps to end all research funding sponsorships by the Israeli military.” MIT has not accepted these demands. Its response to related protest activity has instead included arrests and disciplinary measures against students, as enumerated above.
As Jewish people, we carry and understand the inherited trauma of ancestral displacement and violence. In our experience at MIT, however, moments of unease, anxiety, or political confrontation have not meant that we were in physical danger or unsafe on campus. Palestinians under occupation face far greater threats to their safety than any student on MIT’s campus. In fact, the mass killing, displacement, and detention of Palestinians is part of an ongoing Nakba: what we and numerous scholars describe as genocide, apartheid, and colonization.[4]
Guided by the Jewish values of tzedek (justice), g’milut hasadim (acts of loving kindness), and tikkun ha’olam (repairing the world), we write to challenge the narrative advanced in this book. None of us is free until all of us are free, and we regard the struggle for Palestinian liberation as inseparable from our own. We are deeply troubled by rhetoric that dehumanizes our Palestinian siblings while being justified as necessary for Jewish safety. Jewish safety should not require indifference to Palestinian lives, dignity, or freedom.
To summarize, Sheffi’s book omits the Jewish presence in MIT activism in support of a liberated Palestine, while its title portrays Jews on campus collectively as the targets of a campus “war.” The alarmist framing of student protests at MIT as a “war on the Jews” diverts attention from the devastating wars being waged against Palestinians, Lebanese and Iranians. Honoring Jewish traditions of dissent and struggle against oppressive regimes, we embody that courage today as we fight for Palestinian liberation.
In solidarity,
Signed:
MIT Jews for Collective Liberation
September 15, 2026
Email: mitjewsforcollectiveliberation@gmail.com
[1] The genocidal nature of Israeli actions in Gaza is recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.
[2] IDHR cites 139 discipline cases. On arrests, Cambridge Day reported 19 arrests in May 2024 and The Tech reported 5 additional arrests in October 2024. On suspensions, The Tech reported 23 suspensions in May 2024, Prism reported 1 in Nov 2024, and Boston Globe reported 1 in August 2025. An article in the MIT Faculty News Letter reports at least one expulsion.
[3] The Coalition’s demands and its arguments concerning MIT’s stated research-sponsorship ethics have been previously articulated in the MIT Faculty Newsletter, The Tech, and the 2024 MIT Science for Genocide report.
[4] For recent scholarly accounts on the Nakba, see Rabea Eghbariah (2024) and Nur Musalha (2026). On Israeli genocide, see Avi Shlaim (2025), Raz Segal (2023, 2025), and the report MIT Science for Genocide (2024). On the Israeli crime of apartheid, see Al-Haq (2022), Amnesty International (2022), Human Rights Watch (2022), Noura Erakat (2020), Ran Greenstein (2023), and Ben White (2014). On settler colonization, see Rashid Khalidi (2022) and Ilan Pappe (2008).