Harvard’s New President Risks Repeating Claudine Gay’s Mistakes

At least twice so far I’ve ventured advice for Harvard in dealing with the outbreak of antisemitism on campus. Twice the university leadership has ignored the advice, and it has ended up in big trouble. Let me try for a third time. To recap, in December 2022, I was quoted publicly, in an article about a survey ranking Harvard worst in the nation in antisemitism, saying, “All of us who care about the University really need to work urgently to improve the situation or else face a real risk of Harvard losing Jewish talent and excellence to other, less hostile institutions.” Harvard responded by doing basically nothing.On October 16, 2023, in a column, I traced the history of antisemitism at Harvard and suggested steps the university could take. Instead, the university mishandled the situation to the point where President Claudine Gay resigned under pressure and the university now faces a discrimination lawsuit and federal investigations. With its interim president, Alan Garber, the university has an opportunity, yet again, to set things straight.So far, though, Dr. Garber is off to a rocky start. Students returned to campus for the fall semester to find kosher lunch unavailable, posters of Israeli hostages defaced by a vandal, and Dr. Garber announcing as the co-chair of a new task force on antisemitism a professor who has twice publicly proclaimed that concerns about antisemitism are “exaggerated.”Meantime, a Harvard employee “waving a toy machete” challenged a Jewish student, Alexander Kestenbaum, to a debate over Israel’s role in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on New York City, as Kassy Dillon reported in the Daily Wire.Dr. Garber could quickly restore confidence with three steps. First, remove Derek Penslar as co-chairman of the antisemitism task force. The former Emory professor Deborah Lipstadt, now America’s envoy to monitor antisemitism, told the Wall Street Journal that the appointment was an “unforced error.”The chief executivep of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, called the choice a lesson in how “NOT to combat antisemitism.” The vice president of community relations for the Jewish Federations of North America, Evan Bernstein, reacted to Harvard’s selection by saying, “Misstep after misstep. Pathetic.” Dr. Garber said one of the new committee’s assignments was “evaluating evidence regarding the characteristics and frequency of these behaviors.” By giving interviews to the press declaring that antisemitism at Harvard has been “exaggerated,” Mr. Penslar loses the credibility needed for the job. Until Mr. Penslar is gone from that role, the university will have to deal with a steady stream of new disclosures from his previous writings and public appearances, each one more embarrassing than the next. Instead of a narrative about Harvard or Jews on campus or teaching, research, and learning, the face of Harvard will be one far-left, out-of-the mainstream professor.Second, do what Harvard Hillel’s leadership asked for in a December 19, 2023, letter — hire someone to serve as a designated contact reporting to the office of Harvard’s president. Make it part of “a longer-term collaboration to address deeper antisemitism and challenges to Jewish student life on campus.” It’s a full-time job.Third, Harvard can respond to the federal lawsuit brought by Mr. Kestenbaum and Students Against Antisemitism, Inc., not with an NYU-style lawyer letter asserting that the claim is “unripe” while the university is trying to respond, but rather with a sincere, simple, apology, a thank you for describing the facts of the situation, and an offer to engage in settlement discussions.A Harvard law student, Jonathan Frieden, told Fox News, “It seems like Harvard right now is focusing on protecting themselves as opposed to taking accountability and doing what is right.” Said Mr. Frieden, “Leadership means that when things go wrong and you don’t do a good job, you’re supposed to take accountability and work to make things better.” President Gay and Penn’s president, Elizabeth Magill, both lost their jobs after botching congressional testimony by following advice from their WilmerHale lawyers rather than their consciences or moral common sense. Dr. Garber was sitting right behind the presidents during the hearing, alongside the lawyers.Unless and until the interim president starts following Mr. Frieden’s advice, Dr. Garber risks committing the same error as Mmes. Gay and Magill and failing his institution and its Jewish students just as abjectly. Israel Apartheid Week, recently an annual campus celebration of hostility to Jews, is coming to Harvard this spring. If Dr. Garber doesn’t get his act together before then, he may not last in Massachusetts Hall for much longer than the six months Claudine Gay did.

Harvard’s New President Risks Repeating Claudine Gay’s Mistakes

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