How Harvard’s President Spoiled Passover

On June 6, 2024, Harvard’s “Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias” issued a set of preliminary recommendations. Among them: “The University should create a simple web address (e.g., www.harvard.edu/jewishcalendar) that will provide information on Jewish holidays for members of the community. Appendix A contains information on Jewish observance as well as dates of Jewish holidays. The list should be updated annually to allow academic units to simply, easily and reliably determine the days on which they should try to avoid scheduling events.”An appendix to the recommendations mentioned the Jewish Holiday of Passover, or Pesach, and said, “In 2025 Pesach runs from the evening of April 12 until nightfall on April 20, with the first two-day sabbath-like period beginning on the evening of April 12 until nightfall on April 14, and the second two-day sabbath-like period beginning on the evening of April 18 until nightfall on April 20.”Nearly a year later, the “www.harvard.edu/jewishcalendar” web address leads to a “404 not found” error. When Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, wrote a message responding to the federal government, which has been pressing Harvard to act to protect its Jewish students, Mr. Garber sent it on — of all possible times and days — the afternoon of April 14, while it was still the Passover holiday.Dr. Garber’s letter said, “Over the past fifteen months, we have taken many steps to address antisemitism on our campus. We plan to do much more.” If there’s “much more” still to be done to address antisemitism on the Harvard campus, why has it taken Harvard 15 months to get around to doing it? What have they been waiting for? The university’s lackadaisical pace would be unacceptable with any other category of bigotry. One might also wonder why Harvard only began to tackle the issue 15 months ago. It’s not as if there weren’t ample warnings. A November 2022 report from the Amcha Initiative ranked Harvard worst in the nation in antisemitism. I was quoted publicly in December 2022, as a Harvard employee, saying, “the level of antisemitism on campus over the past year is shocking, embarrassing, disgraceful — like nothing I’ve seen before. All of us who care about the University really need to work urgently to improve the situation or else face a real risk of Harvard losing Jewish talent and excellence to other, less hostile institutions.”In April 2023, a Harvard senior thesis by Sabrina Goldfischer based on interviews with 60 students documented how, as she put it, “Jewish students feel, at best, censored, and at worst, unsafe.” That same month, students brought an Auschwitz-transport-style replica cattle car to Harvard Yard to warn of the rising antisemitism on campus. Mr. Garber showed up at that event and gave a universalist speech about the importance of welcoming refugees — not of combating or hatred of Jews or Israel.When, on October 7, 2023, — not October 8, but October 7 — dozens of Harvard student organizations issued a statement that “we, the undersigned student organizations, hold Israel entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” and that “the apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” Dr. Garber helped write and signed the infamous October 9 word-salad “Statement from Harvard University Leadership.”Dr. Garber is so discredited that at this point that earlier this month, New York Congressman Ritchie Torres — a Democrat — showed up on a Saturday morning at Dr. Garber’s own synagogue at the liberal Democratic stronghold of Brookline, Massachusetts, to denounce Harvard’s failed leadership and call for the appointment of a third-party antisemitism monitor. The crowd of several hundred gave Mr. Torres a standing ovation.If Dr. Garber wants to work on Jewish holidays, it’s his business. When, though, he sends emails about antisemitism on Jewish holidays, he makes it harder for the few remaining observant Jews at Harvard to explain to their teachers and supervisors why they are not working. And — like the October 7 attack itself, which was on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah — Dr. Garber’s timing made it harder for the Jewish community to respond in real time on a matter that directly affects it. Dr. Garber’s message uses noble causes — “the health and well-being of millions of individuals…the economic security and vitality of our nation” — as a smokescreen and an excuse for the university’s abject failure to confront antisemitism. Waiting until sundown — or even until the morning of April 15 — to issue the same message would have gone a long way toward reassuring the Jewish community at Harvard and elsewhere that its legitimate concerns about discrimination, violence, and harassment are being taken seriously. Instead President Garber managed to respond to a federal antisemitism inquiry by violating his own antisemitism task force’s recommendations, overtly signaling his callous disregard for the Jewish holiday and for the students, administrators, and faculty who observe it.

How Harvard’s President Spoiled Passover

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