In December 2023, a congressional committee held a hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism.” At that hearing, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., played a key role.

When Stefanik asked the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct on bullying and harassment,” Stefanik “assumed their answers would be a resounding yes.”

In her book “Poisoned Ivies,” a stunning, page-turning account of how America’s elite universities have become “centers of far-left indoctrination and moral rot,” Stefanik writes, “But to my shock, the presidents of MIT, UPenn, and Harvard, arguably the most prestigious universities in the world, answered one after another deadpan and nearly verbatim: ‘It depends on context.’”

Stefanik explains, “These university presidents were supposed to be some of the most learned, intelligent people in America, if not the entire world … I questioned them further, asking them to elaborate on what they meant — giving them an opportunity to correct the record and state the obvious. And still, they refused to give a clear statement. They refused to state clearly that calling for the genocide of Jews violated their universities’ codes of conduct.”

“Poisoned Ivies” includes an Appendix that transcribes Stefanik’s questions and the presidents’ responses. Readers will gain a good understanding of why........

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