Kalaniyot faculty network strengthens campus ties to Israeli scholars, fights academic boycotts
MIT's Professor Dr. Yossi Sheffi, deeply impacted by campus antisemitism and anti-Israel protests, created Kalaniyot to combat academic boycotts and strengthen ties with Israeli researchers.
Dr. Yossi Sheffi, a prominent engineering professor at MIT, found his world turned upside down following the Hamas attacks on October 7. At first, he assumed antisemitism was a distant issue, but the situation quickly escalated. The already tense environment on campus erupted into open hostility, with student protesters chanting slogans like "from the river to the sea" and "Kill the Jews," coupled with allegations of genocide.
Faculty members were targeted too, with some subjected to pictures of hostages being hung in their offices. The atmosphere of fear became so severe that students even carried pepper spray and constantly monitored their surroundings. He recounted incidents where faculty members had their offices vandalized and threatened with bodily harm.
The fallout led to students and professors departing from MIT due to the intolerable environment. Sheffi criticized MIT's administration for failing to hold accountable those responsible for the rise in antisemitism while other universities faced consequences. He published Unsafe at MIT: A Chronicle of a Campus War on the Jews to chronicle the institutional failures.
These events inspired him to create Kalaniyot, a support network named after Israel's national flower, to bolster the resilience of Jewish students and directly counter campus hostility.
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