US Representative Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican, said Thursday he is pressing MIT officials for information about alleged antisemitic incidents on campus this year.
Walberg, who chairs the House Committee on Education and Workforce, wrote to MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, demanding the university provide all documents and communications referring to “antisemitism,” “Jews,” “Judaism,” “Israel,” “Palestine,” or “Zionism” that have been issued since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel.
Walberg said the university has until Dec. 22 to provide the records and email communication.
MIT spokesperson Kimberly Allen said on Friday that the university received the letter and is reviewing it.
Walberg wrote that throughout the year, students allegedly distributed information detailing which buildings on campus are affiliated with the Jewish community and vandalized campus property.
“In 2025, students have allegedly continued to distribute ‘terror maps’ demarcating campus buildings linked to Jews and Israelis,” he wrote. “In May, MIT students vandalized campus property and threatened Israelis and Jews; and in July, yet another MIT building was vandalized.”
The congressional committee is investigating whether the incidents violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by creating a hostile environment for Jewish people on campus.
Congress and the federal government are also investigating alleged discrimination in hiring and admissions at Harvard University, which remains locked in negotiations with the Trump administration.
The alleged antisemitic activity at MIT is a continuation of anti-Israel student activity that began after the Hamas attacks and continued through 2024, Walberg wrote.
In recent years, alleged antisemitic incidents also led to individual researchers being harassed, the letter said.
The committee remains “deeply concerned” about incidents from 2023 and 2024, in which a Jewish doctoral student was allegedly harassed, including by an MIT professor, the letter states.
“The same MIT professor made numerous antisemitic online posts, including referring to ‘mind infections’ among Jews,” Walberg wrote.
In another incident, an Israeli postdoctoral associate was allegedly “cornered and harassed” by a group “chanting death to Israel,” the letter said.
“The same individual was allegedly tormented for weeks on end by not only students but also his professor,” the letter said.
Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.