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By Kaitlin Lewis
Night Reporter
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Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting scholar at Harvard's Divinity School and an emeritus rabbi of Sinai Temple, announced Thursday that he was resigning from Harvard's Antisemitism Advisory Group over frustrations with the "evil" ideology that he said has a "grip" on several of Harvard's students and faculty members.
The resignation is a potential blow to Harvard University, which in recent weeks has been tangled in the rising scrutiny over U.S. colleges' messaging surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict. Rabbi Wolpe's announcement also arrives a day after Harvard President Claudine Gay testified before Congress as the federal government cracks down on discrimination and antisemitism at campuses across the country.
"Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short explanation is that both events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped," Wolpe wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Thursday afternoon.
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"Still, there are several points worth making," he continued. "I believe Claudine Gay to be both a kind and thoughtful person. Most of the students here wish only to get an education and a job, not prosecute ideological agendas, and there are many, many honorable, thoughtful and good people at the institution. Harvard is still a repository of extraordinary minds and important research."
"However, the system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil," Wolpe added. "Ignoring Jewish suffering is evil. Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe. Denying Israel the self-determination as a Jewish nation accorded unthinkingly to others is endemic, and evil."
Harvard's Antisemitism Advisory Group was formed by Gay in late October to guide the university's leadership on "confronting antisemitism on campus" in light of the growing tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
During Tuesday's testimony, Gay told congressional lawmakers that instances of antisemitism have been "particularly acute" at the moment, but added that the university is also grappling with instances of Islamophobia and hostility toward students who are visibly Muslim, Arab or Palestinian.
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Backlash over Harvard's handling of antisemitism on campus first started after a student group, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, posted a statement online that blamed Israel for the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7. A similar statement was also shared by students at Columbia University in New York City, and some students have had their job offers rescinded in light of the messaging.
"Battling that combination of ideologies is the work of more than a committee or a single university," Wolpe continued in his announcement. "It is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person, or posting on X, or yelling at people who don't post as you wish when you wish, as though posting is the summation of one's moral character. This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning."
In a statement, Gay told Newsweek she was "grateful" for Wolpe's "advice, perspective and friendship over the course of the last several weeks."
"With thoughtfulness and candor, he has deepened my and our community's understanding of the unacceptable presence of antisemitism here at Harvard," Gay continued.
"We have more work to do and his contributions will help shape our path forward. Antisemitism has no place in the Harvard community, and I am committed to ensuring no member of our Jewish community faces this hate in any form," she said.
Wolpe also offered a message of hope on Thursday, which marked the first night of Hanukkah, a Jewish celebration that marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem from the second century B.C., after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.
"In this generation, outside of Israel, we are called to be Maccabees of a different order," he wrote on X. "We do not fight the actual battle but we search for the cruse of oil left behind."
"Dispute but also create," Wolpe added. "Build the institutions you value, don't merely attack those you denigrate. We are at a moment when the toxicity of intellectual slovenliness has been laid bare for all to see. Time to kindle the first candle."
Update 12/8/23, 12:50 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from Harvard President Claudine Gay.
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