On 7th December, prominent rabbi David Wolpe announced his resignation from the Harvard antisemitic board following the “painfully inadequate testimony” provided by the university’s president Dr. Claudine Gay on Capitol Hill. He informed about the decision through a long social media post on 8th December in which he stated, “As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard. Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short explanation is that both events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped.”
He made further observations and mentioned, “Still, there are several points worth making. I believe Claudine Gay to be both a kind and thoughtful person. Most of the students here wish only to get an education and a job, not prosecute ideological agendas, and there are many, many honourable, thoughtful and good people at the institution. Harvard is still a repository of extraordinary minds and important research.”
1/3 Resigning, a Hanukkah Message: As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard. Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short…
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 7, 2023
The rabbi denounced the antisemitic mindset festering inside the world-renowned academic institution which “belittles or denies the Jewish experience.” He pointed out, “However, the system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil. Ignoring Jewish suffering is evil. Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities is a vast and continuing catastrophe. Denying Israel the self-determination as a Jewish nation accorded unthinkingly to others is endemic and evil.”
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— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 7, 2023
However, the system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil. Ignoring Jewish suffering is…
David Wolpe added, “Battling that combination of ideologies is the work of more than a committee or a single university. It is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person, posting on X, or yelling at people who don’t post as you wish when you wish, as though posting is the summation of one’s moral character. This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning. Part of the problem is a simple herd mentality, people screaming slogans whose meaning and implication they know nothing of, or not wishing to be disliked by taking an unpopular position. Some of it is the desire to achieve social status by being the sole or greatest victim. Some of it is simple, old-fashioned Jew-hatred, that ugly arrow in the quiver of dark hearts for millennia.”
He also referred to the Miracle of Hanukkah and wrote, “In this generation, outside of Israel, we are called to be Maccabees of a different order. We do not fight the actual battle but we search for the cruse of oil left behind. Remember the oil was to last one night, but lasted eight which means there were seven nights of miracle. But of course, the first night was the greatest miracle because the motivation to light the initial candle, to ensure the continuity and vitality of tradition in each generation, that is the supreme miracle.”
“Dispute but also create. Build the institutions you value, don’t merely attack those you denigrate. We are at a moment when the toxicity of intellectual slovenliness has been laid bare for all to see. Time to kindle the first candle. Create that miracle for us and all of Israel,” he highlighted while encouraging the Harvard students.
3/3 Battling that combination of ideologies is the work of more than a committee or a single university. It is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person, or posting on X, or yelling at people who don’t post as you wish when you wish, as though posting is…
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 7, 2023
The first hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism” took place in the United Nations Washington DC, on 5th December (local time). Congresswoman Elise Stefanik questioned the presidents of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard and UPenn (University of Pennsylvania) about the growing number of antisemitic incidents on their campuses during the session.
According to their codes of conduct, Presidents Elizabeth Magill of UPenn, Sally Kornbluth of MIT and Claudine Gay of Harvard University declined to denounce the calls for the annihilation of Jews made on their campuses as bullying or harassment. The legislator pressed the university presidents again to respond with a simple “yes” or “no” to the question of whether advocating for the extermination of Jews would be against the university’s anti-bullying and harassment policies. However, they replied with reluctance and ambiguity as well as continuously stressed that it depended on the context which attracted widespread criticism after which they issued clarifications.
Claudine Gay claimed, “There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students. Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
The Harvard president’s statement on the varsity’s social media profile was interestingly community-checked with a note that conveyed, “While under oath before Congress, the President of Harvard stated that condemning antisemitism and calls for genocide of Jews ‘depends on the context’ as opposed to being simply wrong.”
