Harvard President Claudine Gay convenes antisemitism advisory board amid ‘resurgence of bigotry’ on campus

[Anthony D'Isidoro]

Harvard President Claudine Gay convenes antisemitism advisory board amid ‘resurgence of bigotry’ on campus (Mike Damiano and Hilary Burns, Boston Globe: October 29, 2023) 

Harvard President Claudine Gay: combat antisemitism at the university (bostonglobe.com)

Claudine Gay: "Antisemitism has a very long and shameful history at Harvard."ERIN CLARK/GLOBE STAFF

Harvard’s president Claudine Gay has convened a group of advisors to combat antisemitism at the university, just weeks after she faced criticism for declining to immediately rebuke a student letter that placed all blame for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. 

“Antisemitism has a very long and shameful history at Harvard,” Gay said in a speech Friday at a Shabbat dinner hosted by Harvard Hillel. “For years, this university has done too little to confront its continuing presence. No longer,” she continued, according to a copy of the remarks Harvard posted online. 

She said she had assembled a group of faculty, staff, alumni, and Jewish religious leaders “whose wisdom, experience, and counsel will help guide us forward.” The university did not immediately release their names. 

Last week, Harvard created a separate task force to help students who have faced intimidation and harassment after being linked, sometimes falsely, to the letter. 

Gay’s announcement came almost three weeks after the controversy erupted at Harvard in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis. Within hours of the Oct. 7 attack, more than 30 student groups signed the letter that laid all blame for the attack on Israel and included no criticism of the killings. 

The letter from students, and the fact that Gay did not immediately rebuke it, infuriated some students, faculty, and prominent alumni, and led some donors to cut ties with the school. 

As the initial criticism mounted, Gay and Harvard issued two statements. In the second one, on Oct. 10, Gay wrote, “[L]et there be no doubt that I condemn the terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Hamas.” 

She added: “Let me also state, on this matter as on others, that while our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.” 

In an Oct. 10 statement to the Crimson, the Harvard student paper, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, which released the letter, denied it was defending the Hamas attack in any way. “To restate what should be obvious: the PSC staunchly opposes violence against civilians — Palestinian, Israeli, or other,” the group said. 

“The statement aims to contextualize the apartheid and colonial system while explicitly lamenting ‘the devastating and rising civilian toll,’ " the group added. “It is unacceptable that Palestinians and groups supporting them are always expected to preempt their statements with condemnation of violence.” 

On Friday, after discontent over the university’s response had built for weeks, the president of Harvard Hillel appealed to Harvard’s Corporation, which oversees the school, to address what he described as escalating antisemitic speech by students since the Hamas attack. 

In an email, the Hillel president, Harvard junior Jacob Miller, wrote to the Corporation that in recent weeks he and other Jewish students had “watched in horror as our classmates celebrated the most brutal attack against Jews since the Holocaust and started spreading antisemitic hate speech — largely online, and sometimes in person.” 

He quoted online posts that he said had been made by Harvard students, including one that described accounts of antisemitism as a “Western scheme” and another that said “violence is the only answer” in anti-colonial resistance. 

Miller’s email was part of what Robert Trestan, a vice president of the Anti-Defamation League, described as a building outcry in the Harvard community over alleged antisemitic speech. “Alumni are coalescing and ... putting pressure on Harvard. It’s not just the affluent donors,” he said. 

On Friday evening, Gay and her husband, Christopher Afendulis, went to Harvard Hillel to celebrate Shabbat. In prepared remarks, she denounced antisemitism and vowed to contend with it at Harvard. 

“As we grapple with [a] resurgence of bigotry, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: Antisemitism has no place at Harvard,” she said. “As president, I am committed to tackling this pernicious hatred with the urgency it demands.” 

Some members of the task force, she said, were present Friday at the Hillel event. “I am enormously grateful for their conviction and generous spirit, and for the hope and high expectations for Harvard,” she said.