I’m ashamed of Harvard, a university I loved

University administrators and academics have allowed a cult of anti-Jewish activism to flourish under the banner of anti-colonialism.

Aaron PatrickSenior correspondent
Dec 8, 2023 – 8.26am

For a Harvard University professor, it might have been a straightforward question.

“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” asked Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman at hearings in Washington on Tuesday.

Harvard University President Claudine Gay at Tuesday’s Congressional hearing. AP

Claudine Gay, the university’s new president, didn’t have a definitive answer. “It depends on the context,” she said. “Antisemitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation – that is actionable conduct and we do take action.”

You don’t need a PhD to understand that advocating mass murder is wrong. Gay’s reticence to take a moral stance was called out by Bill Ackman, an American hedge fund manager who has long donated to liberal groups, including Human Rights Watch.

“The president’s answers reflect the profound educational, moral and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership,” he wrote on X.

As a fellow Harvard graduate, I agree.

Attending the Boston campus was a life highlight. I learnt a lot and met interesting people. Harvard’s then president, Lawrence Summers, helped me prepare a presentation on the 1997 Asian economic crisis. He had been the deputy secretary of the US Treasury at the time.

Out of affection for the institution, I served on the council of the Harvard Club of Australia for several years. I helped promote its work in Australia, including a scholarship program for public servants. I still host student singers when they tour through Sydney.

Last month I was asked to help organise the 20th-anniversary reunion of my class. I declined because of campus antisemitism.

I’m not Jewish, but am horrified by the hostility towards Jews in Australia and elsewhere. Some Australian Jews are afraid to wear yarmulkes in public. Security guards man school gates in Sydney and Melbourne. Jewish leaders have hired bodyguards.

Last month Gay wrote to all Harvard alumni: “Antisemitism has no place at Harvard.”

Strong words, which are not supported by evidence. Harvard was ranked last out of 248 US universities for free speech this year by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. After the October 7 attack by Hamas, more than 30 Harvard student groups declared Israel “entirely responsible”.

In the US, Australia and elsewhere, university administrators and academics have allowed a cult of anti-Jewish activism to flourish under the banner of anti-colonialism. Fearful of students, they ignore calls for the destruction of Israel and its inhabitants.

Notwithstanding the Jewish state’s often brutal treatment of Palestinians, how can a wish for its end be anything other than antisemitic? Even elements of the left acknowledge this. Sydney Morning Herald columnist Jenna Price wrote this week: “People don’t hate Jews because of Israel, they hate Israel because of the Jews.”

Until Harvard decides that Jews are worth protecting, rhetorically and physically, it cannot consider itself a great university. It is just a shop for academic mercenaries.

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