politics

In response to the inquiries I have received for my thoughts on the Harvard University Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism Preliminary Recommendations, I’m sharing some preliminary thoughts:

There are constructive and necessary recommendations, and there’s a lot about what was learned through “listening tours” or other “disturbing reports” that they “heard” of. What is glaringly missing is what is exposed and visible for all to see which includes:

1. Harvard still employs deans and faculty who brazenly and defiantly violate university code of conduct and incite students to do the same.

2. Harvard still employs faculty who hijack their classrooms to demonize Israel, the Jewish people, and legitimize terrorism.

3. There are numerous Harvard academic centers that essentially function as Hamas or Palestinian embassies. They include among others: the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, The Center for Middle East Studies, the Harvard Divinity School almost in its entirety, but the Religion in Public Life Program actually in its entirety, large swaths of the School of Public Health, and the Carr Center for Human Rights at HKS. it’s stunning that there is no call for some of these programs and centers to be shut down or rebuilt in its entirety.

4. There are numerous courses offered that are so biased and hateful that I’m unsure if they’re legally allowed to be offered at a IRS recognized educational charitable entity. There’s nothing in this report that speaks to this.

5. Harvard maintains an official academic relationship with Birzeit University. Besides the fact that I don’t believe there’s a university in Israel that Harvard has a similar relationship with, this particular institution’s student government (among other entities there) supports Hamas. This makes the relationship not only immoral but likely illegal.

6. What is Harvard policy about faculty, academic centers, recognized student groups who utilize the Harvard name to knowingly slander individuals, groups, and a people?

7. The class of 2028 will soon gather in Harvard yard for their convocation and to be welcomed to the university. If the past is an indicator, they will be greeted with hateful chants and posters against Israel. Besides for announcing that Harvard supports free speech, what message and actions will the university be taking to enforce time, place and manner on these protestors to ensure that Jewish and Israeli students in the class of 2028 will feel welcome and that Harvard can be a home for them too?

8. The framing and inclusion by both the task force and the university’s effort to combat Antisemitism in this moment to insist that it’s done alongside with “Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias,” seems to me, as a failure to understand the severity of what is happening at Harvard and in the world at this moment. To be clear, this isn’t to say that there aren’t other forms of bigotry occurring at Harvard and in the world. However, that after the greatest massacre and genocidal intent and attempt against the Jewish people since the holocaust continues to excused and supported at Harvard - most recently at Commencement, and after John Harvard sitting in a keffiyeh for weeks, that there’s an inability to focus on antisemitism without making false equivalencies, does not engender confidence.

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi
Jackie and Omri Dahan Harvard Chabad Jewish Chaplain
Founder and President, Harvard Chabad Center for Jewish Life