Award-Winning Retired MIT Professor Dumped Over Sexual Harassment Claims
Walter Lewin Image by MIT News Office
Walter Lewin, an award-winninng retired Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, has been dumped by the university over claims he sexually harassed a student taking one of his online classes.
Lewin, who retired in 2009, has been removed from lecturing online after an investigation into the female student’s claims, MIT said in a statement.
MIT is also revoking Lewin’s emeritus professorship in physics and removing his lectures from an online library.
“Given Dr. Lewin’s long career on our campus and contributions as an educator, taking this step is painful,” Provost Martin Schmidt wrote in a letter to MIT’s faculty. “I believe that harassment occurred, that our response is appropriate, and that explaining this matter publicly is necessary.”
MIT officials interviewed both the student and Lewin as well as other online students, the university said.
Lewin joined the faculty at MIT in 1966. He collected many awards for his undergraduate teaching and in the digital age his famed lectures have reached millions, reported the campus newspaper The Tech.
“Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits,” The New York Times wrote in an adoring 2007 profile
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward The fires in Israel are under control — but debate is raging over their cause
-
Fast Forward Argentina declassifies more than 1,800 files on Nazi escape via ‘rat-lines’ to South America
-
Fast Forward Betar USA founder banned from World Zionist Congress over feud with Israeli firebrand Shai Davidai
-
Fast Forward Reconstructionist leader to step down as head of movement riven by tension over anti-Zionism
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Ireland’s prime minister gave condolences for Hitler’s death — here’s why that’s a contemporary problem
-
Fast Forward The fires in Israel are under control — but debate is raging over their cause
-
Fast Forward Argentina declassifies more than 1,800 files on Nazi escape via ‘rat-lines’ to South America
-
Fast Forward Betar USA founder banned from World Zionist Congress over feud with Israeli firebrand Shai Davidai
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.