Douglas Belkin
WSJ, May 16, 2024
“The report paints a picture of an overwhelmed and indecisive administration, which failed to apply university rules to protesters engaged in antisemitic behavior.”
Harvard University was slow to react to a wave of hostility against Jewish students last fall and ignored recommendations from an advisory group it created to address rising antisemitism, according to a report released Thursday by the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
“Former President Gay and Harvard’s leadership propped up the university’s Antisemitism Advisory Group all for show,” said committee chair Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), in a statement.
The committee’s investigation began several months after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed. Shortly after the attack, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee published a statement, cosigned by more than 30 other Harvard student organizations, saying they held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
That letter, in conjunction with a delayed condemnation of Hamas by Harvard’s then-President Claudine Gay, generated broad criticism by prominent members of the Jewish community at Harvard and beyond.
Harvard spokesman Jason Newton called the committee’s report “disappointing.”
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