Harvard’s interim president, who sparked outrage after naming a fierce critic of Israel to co-chair a task force to combat anti-Jewish sentiment on camps, is vowing to tackle “pernicious” antisemitism at the troubled Ivy League school.
In his first interview since taking over from ousted school leader Claudine Gay, Alan Garber told the Harvard Crimson he is also concerned about reports of “social shunning” of Jewish students on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war.
That will be one of the focuses of a special new task force that has “an ambitious set of goals,” he said.
Garber’s concerns about antisemitism on campus came during his first interview with a news outlet since he took over from Gay, who was forced out last month in a scandal that started with outrage at her disastrous congressional testimony about antisemitic threats to students.
He said he is most concerned about self-censorship in the face of anti-Israel attacks.
“What I have found the most disturbing of all are situations or experiences students describe where they have felt they could not speak in class because there are attacks on Israel or maybe Israelis,” Garber said.
“They feel unsupported in contradicting them,” he added.
Garber also said he was concerned about reports of “social shunning” of Jewish students on campus amid the Israel-Hamas war – adding that the newly formed task force would be addressing that.
He did not answer questions about whether the Ivy League school would consider implementing a speech code for the classrooms, but said in a follow-up statement that he does not favor such a measure.
“I’ve heard complaints that in some classes only certain points of view on controversial issues are presented and seen as welcome,” he said. “The students who have spoken to me don’t think the solution is a speech code or any other means of suppressing speech. Neither do I.
“Rather, they want the opposite — a classroom environment in which alternative perspectives are taken seriously. Enabling that type of environment is work I am committed to advancing,” Garber added.
He told the Crimson that he “strongly favors free speech,” but stressed that there “needs to be a discussion about what are the limits.”
“Can antisemitic attacks take the form of attacks against Israel? The answer is yes, that is possible,” he said.
The school is under investigation by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for its response to antisemitism.
The probe was launched in the immediate aftermath of Gay’s congressional testimony, but House Republicans vowed to continue the investigation even after she resigned Jan. 2 over plagiarism allegations and the controversy of campus antisemitism.
Gay came under fire in December after she was asked in the congressional hearing if calling for the genocide of Jews violated Harvard’s rules.
She said it “depends on the context” and later apologized.
Garber told the outlet that the university would “comply fully with the process” of the investigation.
History Professor Derek Penslar, his pick to co-lead the task force on antisemitism, has faced intense criticism — including from former Harvard President Lawrence Summers — for previous remarks that suggested reports of antisemitism at the school were overblown.
Garber did not directly answer whether he agreed with Penslar’s previous comments.
“I think Derek would agree with me that we have a very serious problem,” he told the Crimson. “One of the most important goals for the task force is to come up with interventions that will effectively deal with the problem we’re facing today.”