BOSTON — Harvard University, struggling to manage its campus response to the war between Israel and Hamas, announced task forces on Friday to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
“Reports of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts on our campus have increased and the sense of belonging among these groups has been undermined,” Harvard interim president Alan Garber said in a letter to the school community. “We need to understand why and how that happens – and what else we can do to prevent it.”
The separate task forces follow the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay, who faced backlash over her testimony in Congress on anti-Semitism and plagiarism allegations.
Some Jewish students filed a lawsuit against Harvard this month, accusing the school of becoming “a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and intimidation.” Arab and Muslim students across the country have also said they feel they are being punished for their political views on the war.
The October 7 Hamas attacks killed 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 others. Israel believes about 130 hostages are in Hamas captivity. The war Israel declared in response has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, caused widespread destruction and driven more than 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes, according to Gaza health authorities.
The fallout has roiled campuses across the US and reignited the debate over free speech. College leaders have struggled to define the line where political speech turns into harassment and discrimination, with both Jewish and Arab students expressing concern that their schools are doing too little to protect them.
The issue took center stage in December when the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT testified at a Congressional hearing about anti-Semitism on campus. A Republican lawmaker claimed that support for the “intifada” is tantamount to calling for the genocide of Jews, then questioned whether such rhetoric violates campus policy. The presidents offered legal responses but refused to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech.
Their answers sparked weeks of backlash from donors and alumni, ultimately leading to the resignations of Liz Magill from Penn and Claudine Gay from Harvard.
Garber said the goals of the task forces are to investigate why Harvard is seeing a rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Arab bias and propose recommendations to counter it.
“Strengthening our ties to each other will require significant effort and commitment from across the university,” Garber wrote. “I have asked each task force to undertake broad outreach, and I encourage you to share your perspectives and experiences with equal care and openness. There is an opportunity for us to tackle challenges with far-reaching consequences.”
The anti-Semitism task force will be co-chaired by Derek Penslar, the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Raffaella Sadun, the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The Task Force on Anti-Arab Prejudice and Islamophobia will be co-chaired by Wafaie Fawzi, Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Studies, and Asim Ijaz Khwaja, Sumitomo-FASID Professor of International Finance and Development at Harvard Kennedy School.
Gay had formed a committee to advise university leaders on anti-Semitism during her short tenure, but her testimony prompted a rabbi at Harvard Divinity School to resign. Rabbi David Wolpe said in an email Friday that he will contact those involved in the anti-Semitism task force, hoping that it “will be able to create and implement policies and that the climate on campus will change.”