Harvard University President Claudine Gay has assembled a group of advisors to help address antisemitism on campus just weeks after she was condemned for going soft on students who supported Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.
Gay told Harvard Hillel-hosted Shabbat dinner on Friday that she wanted to make it ‘absolutely clear’ that ‘antisemitism has no place at Harvard.’
‘For years, this university has done too little to confront its continuing presence. No longer,’ she said.
Gay, who became president of the university earlier this year, has been criticized in the wake of the October 7 attack for failing to rebuke a widely circulated letter blaming Israel for the Hamas terror plot which killed 1,400 Israelis.
The letter laid the blame for the attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis entirely on the Israeli government and included zero criticism or condemnation of Hamas or the violence.
Gay’s failure to urgently disavow the letter was disturbing to some students, faculty, and alumni – some of whom publicly cut financial ties with the elite university.
Harvard University President Claudine Gay told Jewish students that she has established a task force to eradicate antisemitism from the Ivy League campus
Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee triggered fury by writing – on October 7 -that Israel was ‘entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.’ President Claudine Gay has been heavily criticized for failing to appropriately condemn the students who backed the statement
It would take Gay three rounds of statements about the attack and the subsequent reaction on the Ivy League campus to staunchly condemn Hamas.
And, the condemnation occurred in the context of informing the community that the pro-Palestinian students who signed the grotesque statement would not be punished.
To the Jewish students gathered on Friday evening, Gay said she had assembled a group of faculty, staff, alumni, and Jewish religious leaders ‘whose wisdom, experience, and counsel will help guide us forward.’
‘Antisemitism has a very long and shameful history at Harvard. As president, I am committed to tackling this pernicious hatred with the urgency it demands,’ she said.
‘Our Jewish students have shared searing accounts of feeling isolated and targeted. This shakes me to my core – as an educator, as a mother, as a human being. Harvard must be a place where everyone feels safe and seen. It is just the right thing to do.’
Last week – prior to Gay’s announcement that she was establishing an antisemitism advisory board – Harvard created a separate task force to help students who have faced backlash and intimidation after being linked to the letter.
The letter, initially signed by some 34 Harvard students groups – several of which ultimately retracted their signatures – read: ‘We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.’
‘Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum. For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison.
‘Israeli officials promise to “open the gates of hell,” and the massacres in Gaza have already commenced. Palestinians in Gaza have no shelters for refuge and nowhere to escape. In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence.’
The statement, released before Israel had made a single retaliatory move against the barbaric terrorists who slaughtered their people, failed in full to condemn the Palestinian terrorists or loss of innocent life.
A pro-Palestinian ‘Die In’ comprised of Harvard students and their supporters, took place on the lawn behind Harvard Business School last week
The original statement signed by more than 30 Harvard student groups. It was published before Israel had made a single retaliatory move for the Palestinian terrorist massacre that killed 1,400
Palestinian supporters gathered at Harvard University to show their support for Gaza, and their hatred for Israel, at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14
Jewish students and alumni of the university have become frustrated by the school’s failure to adequately protect those on campus being targeted by the mobs of pro-Palestinian protestors
College campuses (pictured here: Harvard) have become a focal point of hostilities as the nation grapples with the complex conflict in the Middle East
Backlash to the statement, which was authored primarily by the Palestine Solidarity Committee at Harvard, was swift and included the suggestion of Hedge Fund billionaire and Harvard graduate Bill Ackman that all student-signers be named and blacklisted by major companies who wish to avoid hiring antisemites.
Several days after the statement’s publication, the Palestine Solidarity Committee denied to the Harvard student paper that they were defending Hamas’ actions.
‘To restate what should be obvious: the PSC staunchly opposes violence against civilians – Palestinian, Israeli, or other,’ said the group.
‘The statement aims to contextualize the apartheid and colonial system while explicitly lamenting “the devastating and rising civilian toll.” It is unacceptable that Palestinians and groups supporting them are always expected to preempt their statements with condemnation of violence.’
To many in Harvard’s donor class, however, it was apparently not ‘obvious’ that the PSC staunchly opposed anything about the terror attack, because prominent financial backers of the institution quickly began to pull their funds in response to the rogue antisemitism infecting the campus.
Les Wexner, the billionaire businessman behind Bath and Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, and Abercrombie and Fitch, pulled his support from Harvard – an institution to which his foundation has given upwards of $56million over the years.
In a statement, the Wexner Foundation said they were ‘stunned and sickened’ at Harvard’s failure to take a ‘clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians.’
Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer and his wife Batia also withdrew their support and stepped down from an executive board. They previously donated $20million to the school.
‘Unfortunately, our faith in the University’s leadership has been broken and we cannot in good faith continue to support Harvard and its committees,’ the couple said in a statement.
‘We denounce those who seek to place blame on the people of Israel for the atrocities committed by the terrorist organization, Hamas.’
A flyer from some of the pro-Hamas Harvard student groups advertising a protest march and ‘Die In’ following an airstrike that they falsely pinned on the IDF
Since the region was launched into another bloody war, Jewish students at Harvard have watched their classmates stage protests and ‘die-ins,’ in support of Gazans. In some cases, the protestors justify the Hamas attack as Palestinian ‘resistance.’
A week-and-a-half ago the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee and Harvard Graduate Students for Palestine organized a march from Harvard’s main campus in Cambridge to its business school in Boston.
The invitation to the march blamed Israel for the death of 800 Gazan civilians killed by an airstrike on a hospital in Gaza. It was quickly determined that Israel was not responsible for the airstrike that hit the hospital’s parking lot.
After the backlash to the statement, the Hamas supporting students petitioned the school for mental health services as they felt targeted for their refusal to condemn the terror group.
Harvard’s Arab Alumni Association then appealed to its network for donations to help students after they were subjected to ‘relentless bullying and intimidation’ for blaming Israel for the Hamas terror attacks.