Sign the Letter Condemning Encampments Plaguing College Campuses

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