Embattled Harvard University President Claudine Gay launched an advisory board to combat antisemitism on campus following pro-Palestinian protests in the wake of Hamas’ deadly ambush during an Israeli music festival.
Gay has come under fire for her slow response in condemning the Oct. 7 massacre — and for backing student groups that signed onto a letter saying Israel was “entirely responsible” for the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people.
Last Friday, Gay announced the formation of the new advisory board at a Harvard-hosted Hillel Shabbat dinner during Family Weekend for the junior and freshman classes, campus newspaper The Harvard Crimson reported.
With more than 200 Jewish students and their family members in attendance, Gay admitted that “antisemitism has a very long and shameful history at Harvard,” referring to past anti-Israel acts before the war even broke out, including a 2018 incident where a swastika was found on a school bulletin board.
“For years, this University has done too little to confront its continuing presence,” Gay continued. “No longer.”
Gay remained vague about the board’s goals — comprised of school administrators, professors and students — saying that “in the weeks ahead, these advisors…will help us to think expansively and concretely about all the ways that antisemitism shows up on our campus and in our campus culture.”
“They will help us to identify all the places — from our orientations and trainings to how we teach — where we can intervene to disrupt and dismantle this ideology, and where we can educate our community so that they can recognize and confront antisemitism wherever they see it,” Gay added.
The Harvard group behind the controversial letter that blamed Israel for Hamas’ bloody terrorist attack held a “die-in” on campus last Wednesday to protest “genocide in Gaza.”
During the Shabbat dinner two days later, Gay expressed “alarm” over hearing “story after story of Jewish students feeling increasingly uneasy or even threatened on campus,” and said the work to eliminate antisemitism at Harvard “may seem daunting.”
The Post has sought comment from Harvard.
It is unclear whether or not the advisory board will discipline the students who signed onto the letter by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee blaming “Israeli violence” for structuring “every aspect of Palestinian existence for 75 years.”
The letter was condemned by some Harvard students and professors, as well as deep-pocketed donors — including Jewish philanthropic organization the Wexner Foundation, which donated $12 million to Harvard’s Kennedy School before 2012 alone.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers also bashed his alma mater, and billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman moved to prevent Harvard students affiliated with the divisive letter from landing a job on Wall Street.
Gay also remained silent about watchdog group Accuracy in Media’s deployment of a “doxxing truck” that circled Harvard’s campus with digital billboards displaying the names and photos of students who allegedly signed the letter under the words “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites” in gothic script.
She came out with a more forceful statement after the initial backlash but has not mentioned the 34 student organizations that co-signed the statement — instead releasing a video saying the school “embraces a commitment to free expression.”
“That commitment extends even to views that many of us find objectionable, even outrageous,” Gay added in the clip — the third time she attached her name to an official statement since Hamas staged its surprise assault on Israeli towns and military bases in the early hours of Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people, wounding thousands and taking scores as hostages.
“We do not punish or sanction people for expressing such views, but that is a far cry from endorsing them.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
