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I was chased out of MIT — and it was all because I’m Jewish

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wednesday

Before Oct. 7, 2023, I was the literal poster boy for a PhD student at MIT. I was featured in a July 2023 profile in MIT News, which relayed my background and aspirations.

“Although he has just two years of graduate school under his belt,” it said, “Sussman is considering a career in academia.”

That career is no longer available to me. In January, I left MIT because of the antisemitism I experienced on campus. Now I’m suing the university.

The antisemitism didn’t start on Oct. 7. I joined the board of MIT Grad Hillel during my first year on campus because, as I told MIT News, “I think it’s important to demonstrate Jewish culture at a time when antisemitism is on the rise.”

Three months after the profile was published, Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — and my fellow students at MIT celebrated, posting, “Victory is ours.”

As president of Grad Hillel, I had to cope not only with my own grief but also with that of my community members who sought support in the face of antisemitism that they encountered on campus. We witnessed our peers chant for violence against Jews, take over buildings, interrupt classes with antisemitic rants, and harass, intimidate and bully Jews for being Jewish.

This hostile environment was exposed to the world in December 2023 when MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, was called to Congress alongside the presidents of Harvard and Penn, to answer for the antisemitism on her........

© New York Post