A group of Princeton faculty, supported by students and alumni, have developed a statement "condemning the anti-Israel and, in many cases, antisemitic demonstrations and encampments plaguing college campuses...." Signatures are being collected for the statement from Princeton and across the country. This list of signers is growing rapidly. Among the signers are Princeton Professors Robert George, Sergiu Klainerman, and John Londregan; faculty from USC and Chicago, and Princetonians for Free Speech co-founders Stuart Taylor, Jr. and Edward Yingling.
To sign, click here.
We the undersigned condemn the anti-Israel and, in many cases, antisemitic demonstrations and encampments plaguing college campuses across the country. While we defend the right of protesters to express their anti-Israel and even their anti-Jewish views, we are appalled by them. It is one thing to criticize policies of the Israeli government—no government should be immune from criticism. It is, however, another thing altogether to call for the destruction of the state of Israel and for violence against Jews or anyone else.
We are astonished by the double standards directed toward the world’s only Jewish state. The State of Israel has gone tounprecedentedlengths to minimize civilian harm while fighting an enemy that deliberately seeks to maximize civilian causalities. This fact––perhaps unknown to, but more likely ignored by, many anti Israel zealots––unveils their hypocrisy. No similar protests or attention have ever been directed toward the brutal massacres taking place in the Sudan. No similar outrage has been directed toward the Chinese government’s mass killing and displacement of the Uyghur Muslims. No similar attention has been directed on college campuses toward the Assad regime in Syria, which has used chemical weapons against its own civilians in a war that has killed nearly 600,000 Syrians and left many millions more refugees. Indeed, not even Russia’s shameful targeting of Ukrainian civilians since February 2022 has received anywhere near as much attention. Instead, many students––most entirely ignorant of the history of Israel and the Arab world––have been duped into doing the bidding of forces promoting terrorism and chaos in the Middle East––Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the government of Iran––whose opposition to Israel finds its origin in sheer anti-Jewish hatred.
Whether or not individual protesters harbor animus towards Jews and the Jewish people, the flagrant double standards these protests employ in attacking Israel betray their antisemitic orientation. We are outraged by the rampant displays of overt hostility, harassment, and violence towards Jewish students. Such hatred has no place in the civilized world. Antisemitism is an ancient and, alas, persistent form of hatred; it is incumbent upon all of us to fight it, and to condemn those who in any way contribute to its proliferation.
We are also astonished by the complete lack of attention given by protesters to the plight of the surviving hostages being held and tormented by Hamas. These people were seized during the October 7 terrorist attack in which Hamas murdered over 1200 people on Israeli soil––people of many nationalities and of various religions. The nearly 130 hostages remaining in Gaza are an ongoing part of the October 7
atrocities, and any resolution of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza must begin with their immediate and unconditional release.
Many protesters and anti-Israel agitators have accused university administrators of violating their free speech rights. Of course, we embrace and defend the principles of free speech embodied in our Constitution’s First Amendment. These principles
apply at public universities, and we celebrate those private institutions that guarantee to students and faculty the same broad latitude to express any view, no matter how objectionable.
At the same time, we affirm that reasonable time, place, and manner regulations of speech, implemented in a viewpoint-neutral manner, are fundamental to our law and have a legitimate and indeed necessary role in any governed community, be it a nation or a university. We condemn demonstrators, no matter the cause for which they protest, and irrespective of viewpoint, who violate reasonable time, place, and manner regulations, and undermine the ability of universities to maintain environments conducive to learning, safety, stability, and open discourse. We condemn with particular force those protesters who have threatened or abused office workers, maintenance staff, and other university employees. We urge university administrators to enforce their institutions’ regulations firmly; to refer violators to relevant law enforcement officials; and to hold to account in university disciplinary systems students and faculty who antagonize university communities by their wanton rule breaking. Now is not a time to yield to lawlessness and disorder.
Hamas's crimes against humanity were designed to force Israel to choose among unpalatable, indeed horrible, alternatives. Reasonable people can disagree about which among the available courses of action is the lesser evil, but it is obvious that responsibility for the subsequent tragedy in Gaza lies with Hamas and its apologists. We call on the demonstrators to desist in their ugly display of ignorance and hatred, and we urge university administrators to faithfully enforce reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions for the sake of public order and safety, in a manner consistent with core free speech protections.
Maria Chudnovsky, Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
Rabbi Dr. Wendy Zierler Sigmund Falk Professor, Modern Jewish Literature and
Feminist Studies
Arlene Pedovitch, Princeton `80, *11
Arieh Warshel, Nobel Laureate Member, National Academy of Sciences,
Hon FRSC Dana and David Dornsife Chair in Chemistry Distinguished Professor of
Chemistry and Biochemistry Member, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
USC Department of Chemistry
Martha Himmelfarb, Professor of Religion Emerita, Princeton University
Peter Ozsvath, Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
Or Zamir, Associate Resarch Scholar, Princeton University, 2020-2023, Senior
Lecturer, Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University
Arielle Sandor, Princeton '12
Boris Hanin, Assistant Professor, ORFE, Princeton University
Yael Halevi-Wise, Princeton *97, Associate Professor of English, McGill
University
Jill Kraft Butler, Princeton '86, S*92,*94,*01
Zack Dulberg, MD, PhD Candidate, Princeton University
Neta A. Bahcall, Eugene Higgins Professor of Astrophysics, Princeton University
Charlene Borsack, Manager, Princeton Center for Theoretical Science
Matthew X Wilson, Princeton '24
Myles J. McKnight, Princeton '23, Public Discourse Fellow, Witherspoon
Institute.
Samantha Harris, Princeton ‘99
Ilya Shapiro '99
Peggy Mason, Professor of Neurobiology, University of Chicago
Alan Kaplan, Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Princeton
University
Sam Peltzman, Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of
Economics Emeritus, Booth School, University of Chicago
Alba Bajri, Princeton '25
Daniella Phillips, Princeton '89
Stacey Kline Schwartz, '90
Alexandra Fradkin, Princeton '06, *11
Bradford P. Wilson, Executive Director, James Madison Program in American
Ideals and Institutions.
Stacey Kline Schwartz, '90
Hon. Eric S. Dreiband, Princeton ’86, former Assistant Attorney General for the
Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice
William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Emeritus, Princeton
University
Alexandra Fradkin, Princeton '06, *11
Sergiu Klainerman, Higgins professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
Alexandra Rothstein, Princeton '00
Douglas Schleicher, Princeton '81
David Schechter, MD, Princeton '80
Rich Gorelick, Princeton `82
Jill F. Ray, Graduate Program Manager, Psychology Department
Iris Engelson, Princeton '83
Bill Hewitt, Princeton `74
Jonathan Fredman '80
David George, AB, Princeton '09
Glenn Dryfoos ‘83
Ellen S. Chajson, M.D. ‘81
David Gabai, Princeton *80, Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
Elan Kugelmass, Princeton '14
David Diamond MD, Princeton '90
Joshua Mincer, MD, PhD
Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence. Professor of Politics,
Princeton University. Director, James Madison Program.
Abigail Thompson, Distinguished Professor, Mathematics, University of
California, Davis
Maximillian Meyer, Princeton '27
Gregory Heyworth
Ira Davis, Princeton '82
Maiky Iberkleid Szainrok, '15
Mindy Lipman, Business Manager, Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
Mark Berggren, Princeton '85
Dmitry Jakobson, Princeton *95, Peter Redpath Professor of Mathematics, McGill
University
Leigh Koven, Systems Administrator, Department of Astrophysics, Princeton
University
Lawrence Grossman Professor Emeritus of Geochemistry, Dept of the Geophysical
Sciences and Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago
Anna Krylov, Professor of Chemistry, Chair in Natural Sciences, University of
Southern California
Benyamin Ross, Princeton '01
Hagit Arieli-Chai, Hebrew Language Coordinator and Lecturer, Louchheim School
for Judaic Studies at USC, HUC - JIR
Mark Weinstein, Chicago '69, '72, '74; Carnegie-Mellon '71, Associate Professor of
Finance and Business Economics Emeritus, Marshall School of Business,
University of Southern California
Morris Levy, Associate Professor of Political Science and Intl Relations, USC
Professor Antoine Kahn, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton
University
Jay Harwood, Princeton graduate 1991
Lior Silberman, Associate Professor of Mathematics, The University of British
Columbia, Princeton *05
Itzhak Bars, Professor of Physics, University of Southern California
Ivan Marinovic, Professor of Accounting, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Jonathan Berk. Professor, Stanford University
Jonathan Levav, King Philanthropies Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate
School of Business
Paul Seymour, FRS, Professor, Math Dept and PACM, Princeton University
Noga Alon, Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
Joel Hass, Distinguished Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of
California, Davis
Lawrence Pines ‘90
Joshua Winn, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
Wendy Sheehan, Princeton Class of 1980
John Londregan -- Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton
University.
Edward Yingling, Princeton '70
Stuart Taylor, President, Princetonians for Free Speech
Stewart Wiener, Princeton '84
George Tweddel, MD FACOG, RWJBH Physician Group
Brian Keating, Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics at UC San Diego.
Gal Mishne, Assistant Professor, HDSI, UC San Diego
Lucy Buxton ‘86
David Spergel '82, Charles Young Professor of Astronomy Emeritus
Josh Donfeld ‘98
Michael Aizenman, Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Princeton Univ.
Shiri Gur-Cohen, Assistant Professor, UC San Diego
Salvatore Torquato, Lewis Bernard Professor of Natural Sciences, Princeton
University
Daniel B Drysdale MD, Princeton ‘70
Jonathan Barnett, Professor of Law, University of Southern California
Eli Berger, Princeton *01
Jeff Cheeger, Princeton *67, Silver Professor of Mathematics at the Courant
Institute
Percy Deift, Silver Professor NYU, Princeton *77
Victor J. Katz '63
Yuri Leving, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton University
Alex Kontorovich, Princeton '02, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University
Hilary Bowers, MD, University of Pennsylvania 1994, University of Washington
SOM 200
Benjamin Grinstein, Distinguished Professor, UCSD
Ron Kasznik. The Paul L. and Phyllis Wattis Professor of Management, Stanford
University Graduate School of Business
Gilad Livne, Professor of Accounting QMUL
Terrence Blackburne, Associate Professor, Oregon State University
Ari Trachtenberg, Professor at Boston University
Sarah Fishman, Princeton '00
Roy D. Oppenheim, Princeton ‘82
Henry Friedman, Associate Professor, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Kyle Welch, Associate Professor George Washington University
Jeffrey Callen, Inaugural Rotman Chair in Accounting, University of Toronto
Oded Rozenbaum, Associate Professor of Accountancy, GWU
Ben Lourie, Associate Professor, Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine
Simona Tsives, Concerned parent
Diana Blum, UC Davis '99, MD - University of Chicago' 04, Stanford '09
Tamar, Proud Mother of proud Jewish teen boys
Isabel Marcus, Ensure the civil rights of Jewish students on campus
Joshua Parker, Brown University 1996; SUNY-Upstate Medical University 2004
Darren Geist, Princeton '05
Brandon Geist, '00
Julia Wilson, ‘11
Dorian Abbot, Associate Professor Geophysical Sciences University of Chicago