Harvard University ignored recommendations from an antisemitism advisory group it created.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee launched an investigation into the university several months later and have now found that Harvard’s Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG) “presented significant recommendations to Harvard’s leaders on steps the university should take to address antisemitism, but these were never made public or implemented,” reads a press release.
The recommendations provided by the AAG included:
- “Zero tolerance” of classroom disruptions
- Protecting shared learning environments
- Holding student organizations accountable for adhering to University rules
- Countering antisemitic speech
- Reviewing the academic rigor of classes and programs with antisemitic content
- Reviewing Harvard’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging’s (OEDIB) inadequacy in addressing antisemitism
- Increasing intellectual diversity
- Investigating the potential influence of “dark money” from Iran, Qatar, and associates of terrorist groups on campus
The steps described by the AAG are “meaningful recommendations that would have had a substantial impact on Harvard’s antisemitism problem had they been implemented,” the investigation’s findings read. “They address pressing needs, including ensuring physical safety, preventing discrimination and harassment, enforcing University rules, enhancing academic rigor, addressing problematic components of the University, countering antisemitic expression without infringing on protected free speech, improving education about antisemitism and the Jewish people, and enhancing viewpoint diversity.”
The AAG also detailed “numerous issues of concern” for Harvard’s leaders.
These included:
- The need to share more information on disciplinary outcomes publicly
- The importance of condemning antisemitic rhetoric as antithetical to Harvard’s values
- The insufficiency of Harvard’s response to reports of antisemitic incidents
- Concern regarding dramatic declines in Jewish enrollment at Harvard
- The need to examine terror financiers’ potential influence at Harvard
- The need to address masked protest on campus
The committee noted that “Harvard’s leaders failed to follow the roadmap drawn for them by their own chosen experts.”
“The Committee’s report proves that former President Gay and Harvard’s leadership propped up the university’s Antisemitism Advisory Group all for show,” said Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC). “Not only did the AAG find that antisemitism was a major issue on campus, it offered several recommendations on how to combat the problem—none of which were ever implemented with any real vigor. This shocking revelation reveals an inner look at how dysfunctional Harvard’s administration is and the deep-seated moral rot that clouds its judgement.”
Harvard’s antisemitism task force leader once called Israel a “regime of apartheid.”
Derek Penslar, a Jewish history professor, was appointed to the position by President Alan Garber on January 19.
In August, however, Penslar was one of almost 3,000 people signing a letter calling Israel an apartheid regime.
“There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid, as Israeli legal experts have described it,” the letter said. “Indeed, the ultimate purpose of the judicial overhaul is to tighten restrictions on Gaza, deprive Palestinians of equal rights both beyond the Green Line and within it, annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population.”
