Shots In The Dark: Anti-Semitism and Harvard

Monday, February 27, 2024

Anti-Semitism and Harvard

In the Globe, Alex Beam raises the delicate question of whether opposition to or support for Israel is the "fault line" dividing professors' feelings towards Summers.

Beam looks at statements made by Alan Dershowitz, New Republic owner Martin Peretz, and professor Ruth Wisse; all three Summers defenders use language such as "coup" and "putsch" to describe the process of Summers' ouster.

And he describes an argument between Dershowitz and Randy Matory over Matory's statement that, as Dershowitz described it, "people who insisted that Palestinians have rights should be quiet." Matory remembers the exchange differently.

This is an explosive issue, and you can feel Beam treading carefully as he raises it. (He's careful not to take sides.)

I am surprised that he did not mention Edward Glaeser's comparison of David McClintick's II article to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion...that seems relevant.

In the conclusion of his column, Beam asks Ruth Wisse if she thinks that anti-Semitism was behind Summers' resignation. She strongly hints that she thinks the answer is yes.

To wit:

When I broached the notion of a ''fault line" with Wisse, who happens to be Harvard's Martin Peretz professor of Yiddish literature, she answered my question with a question: ''That's not the question that I'm being asked. The question that I'm being asked is, 'Was anti-Semitism the driving engine of this coup?' "

Well, what is the answer?, I asked her more than once. ''It's the point of view of many people who watch these things closely," she replied. ''It's something the Globe should investigate."

Is it really? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

¶ 7:52 AM

Comments:

The idea that "anti-Semitism" is behind Summers' failure at Harvard is utter nonsense. People of various backgrounds (including Jews and non-Jews), people holding all kinds of political views, people with highly varied views about Israel (to the degree that any such views are discernable), have been on both sides of the disputes over LHS's approach to running Harvard. The major issues have been about egregious managerial failures and defects of character, not politics. The press is giving way too much voice to a few ill-informed extremists, always eager to be quoted, who are pushing the anti-Israel or anti-Semitism line. Harvard University is, and will remain, a place where major contributions by brilliant Jewish individuals are taken for granted, and friendly ties to Israelis are the norm, not the exception.

# posted by Anonymous : 8:21 AM

Of the 69 Harvard faculty who signed the petition in favor of divestment, how many voted against Summers in the no-confidence vote? If the correlation is high, then anti-Semitism would seem to be indicated -- if you believe, as I do, that a lack of sympathy for Israel's impossible situation vis-a-vis the Palestinians is any indication. There is wilful blindness here to the largely Western, and specifically European responsibility for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since it was European anti-Semitism that drove European Jewry out of Europe, and (largely )European statesmen who, working through the League of Nations and the United Nations, agreed to give the Palestinian's land away.

I am non-Jewish by the way, rather a SWASP.

# posted by Luke : 1:03 AM

The one thing we know for sure is that even if all 69 Divestment signers voted for no confidence -- and I believe that many of the signers were NOT faculty members and therefore were ineligible to vote -- that was nowhere near the more than 200 votes it took to pass the motion.

Claiming that anyone who criticizes Israel, or who criticizes the behavior of someone who happens to be Jewish, is ipso facto "anti-Semitic" obviously drains that term of any moral meaning. This is very sad. Anti-Semitism ought not to be so trivialized.

# posted by Anonymous : 5:57 AM

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