More and Worse Antisemitism at Harvard

This is just what Harvard needs: a rabidly antisemitic group of Harvard faculty shouting from the rooftops about how an evil cabal of Jooz is committing genocide against poor, innocent, third-world brown people.

Apparently, the supply of disgusting antisemites willing to let their freak flag fly is nearly unlimited. 

pic.twitter.com/nRijL74V6a

— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) February 19, 2024

Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine was formed in mid-January as a response to the crackdown, sort of, on antisemitism on the campus. 

The crackdown has turned out to be something of a flop–more a public relations move than an institutional response to the increasing anti-Jewish activism on the campus–but at least it was an acknowledgment that the university had a problem that it needed to solve. Even a reduction in the explicity anti-Jewish hate would be a step in the right direction. 

So far 112 Harvard faculty have responded as you would expect–ramping up their own antisemitic hate. 

Criticizing the war Israel is waging against Hamas shouldn’t be suppressed and certainly shouldn’t be off limits, but having Harvard faculty distributing images such as the one pictured above is well beyond the pale. It mirrors Nazi propaganda, not a rational argument against policies. 

We wholeheartedly reject accusations that critique of the Israeli state is antisemitic. We call for the emancipation of all peoples, with liberated futures for both Palestinians and Israelis. Since systems of oppression are deeply interconnected, we further pledge to combat all forms of discrimination and racism at Harvard and outside its walls, including anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Muslim racism, anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and antisemitism.

As a group, we advocate for the right to freely teach and discuss the interlocking systems of oppression underpinned by militarism, settler colonialism, and racial capitalism. Our university campus and classrooms must be an open and welcoming space for teaching and learning about issues relating to the history and the contemporary reality of Palestine/Israel and the Middle East more broadly. Students and faculty should be able to freely discuss questions and topics related to Palestine in classrooms and scholarship without fear. Therefore, as educational workers, we call on Harvard to reject funding from donors attempting to control or censor on-campus speech or course curricula, or call for punitive actions of any kind such as banning from employment or other opportunities. Accepting donations conditioned upon the suppression of ideas and expression on our campus  is antithetical to the mission of the university.

It’s a word salad, mixing all the tropes you see attacking all Western countries. With that said, it makes perfect sense given academic freedom to encourage discussion of all points of view. 

Let’s face it though, there is NOTHING academic about what is going on at Harvard. There is no discussion, no give and take, nothing educational about what is happening on the campus. Pretending that activism and intimidation tactics are protected by academic freedom is absurd. There has to be something “academic” there, and pushing propaganda with blood libels is not part of rational discussion. 

I don’t think these people belong in jail just because they vile liars and grotesque antisemites–but I do think they belong as far away from a classroom as humanly possible. 

I went through the list of the professors who signed up to support the organization, and fully 30% are in the Medical School. 

Thirty percent. WTF is going on at Harvard Medical School? Why is a medical school a hotbed of anti-Jewish activism? 

Well, don’t forget–alphabet ideology has become deeply embedded in the medical profession, and DEI/anticolonialism are core components of alphabet ideology. 

I have joked with my father that I am gravitating toward doctors who haven’t been educated in America because they are less likely to have been exposed to this ideological extremism. I don’t exactly mean that–yet. 

But I do worry that younger doctors more recently educated in our med schools are friendlier to the “Social Justice” school of public health, and I want nothing to do with that. 

Academia is deeply compromised, and we need to build alternative institutions. 

And perhaps quit hiring Ivy League graduates. It may not be fair to some of the great students coming out of these institutions, but as a practical matter it is a good risk averse move. And will teach these schools a valuable lesson.