A group of over 100 former Israeli post-doctoral fellows and visiting professors at Harvard university have written an open letter to Harvard President Claudine Gay to condemn the increase in antisemitism on the elite university's campus.
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The academics, calling themselves “an enormous source of pride for Harvard,” state that they are "hurt and humiliated" and are now "reluctant" to recommend to their top students to pursue higher education at Harvard. "Its high academic standards are now obscured by low moral standards," according to the letter.
The letter was distributed on the same day that Harvard University's Board of Trustees officially announced that Gay woud remain in her position despite criticism of her answers to questions presented last week at a congressional hearing on antisemitism.
Gay, as well as and presidents the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and MIT were asked to answer lawmakers' questions during the Committee on Education & the Workforce hearing on “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism,” about the actions they take against students involved in antisemitic activities, how the recruitment procedures of the institutions ensure diverse perspectives among the faculty.
A line of questioning asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the universities' codes of conduct. At the hearing, Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when "speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies."
"We have been closely following the organized pro-Hamas riots approved by Harvard University soon after the Hamas terror organization committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and unfathomable atrocities adapted from the darkest times of humanity. Protesters, freely chanting for the extermination of Israel or, to be more precise, the elimination of the Jewish population from Israel… found a welcoming spot on all Harvard campuses," the letter said.
The protesters, according to the academics, "have been celebrating the massacre of babies and toddlers, women and men, elderly and infirm civilians," and have called for genocide "that it is directed at one group – Jews."
"This type of hate speech would be castigated and forbidden if aimed at any other ethnic, national, or religious group," the letter asserted.
Since the start of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, according to the academics, "antisemitic incidents rose to a historic level in a university whose history with the Jews and other ethnic minorities has not always been flattering. The deafening silence by Harvard’s leadership is a support for mayhem directed at any person with ethnic, cultural, religious, and moral links to Judaism."
The letter asserts that the Hamas supporters have been "emboldened from the legal and moral impunity granted by the university" to use verbal and physical violence against Jewish students.
"Within only a few weeks, Harvard University, the beacon of education and knowledge, pluralism, liberalism, science, and art, has become unsafe for one ethnic group," the letter states.
The letter cites the poem by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller which reads, in part, "They came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me."
The academics called on Harvard to "align itself with the right side of history, choosing not to succumb to the currents of hatred but to stand firmly against them."