Harvard Rolls Out Inferior, Segregated Learning for Jews
Plus, latest on Brown, Barnard; 300 percent effective marginal tax rate

The former executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, whose fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School in Spring 2023 became an international news story after the then-dean correctly assessed that Roth wouldn’t have much to add, is back at Harvard for an encore.
It’s a measure of something that his return tour as a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy hasn’t generated as much press attention as the initial engagement. Perhaps the regular presence at Harvard of an anti-Israel mob spreading Jew-hating lies makes Roth seem comparatively mild by comparison, though Roth’s own anti-Israel lies (“apartheid,” “genocide”) provide fuel for the “there is only one solution, intifadah revolution” crowd. Perhaps the powers that are at Harvard concluded that trying to keep Roth out or away only attracted more attention to him by turning him into an academic-freedom martyr, notwithstanding that Harvard routinely turns down plenty of other fellowship applicants.
What’s comical, and telling, is that in Roth’s return engagement at Harvard he’ll be leading an “Israel-Palestine” study group with three announced meetings. The first two of the meetings—in person on October 3 and by Zoom on October 24—are on Rosh Hashana and Shemini Atzeret, effectively barring observant Jews from participating. After a complaint, Roth responded not by moving the first meeting to a time when everyone can participate together, but instead by adding “a second Session One” held by Zoom—effectively creating a segregated class that, because it’s remote rather than in-person, is an inferior experience.
When Jews complain about this sort of thing at Harvard we sometimes hear the response “well, it’s not a university holiday,” accompanied by the implication that it’s unreasonable to demand that the university grind to a halt or suspend normal operations in response to a holiday observed by a small minority. I hear that.
I also see that Harvard is facing multiple lawsuits and congressional investigations over antisemitism, that the Wexner Foundation pulled out of its 34-year partnership with Harvard on the grounds that “our core values and those of Harvard no longer align,” that Harvard President Claudine Gay was forced out in part because of her botched response to antisemitism on campus. Among the preliminary recommendations of the Harvard University Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism was that “The University should create a simple web address (e.g., www.harvard.edu/jewishcalendar) that will provide information on Jewish holidays for members of the community. Appendix A contains information on Jewish observance as well as dates of Jewish holidays. The list should be updated annually to allow academic units to simply, easily and reliably determine the days on which they should try to avoid scheduling events.”
That recommendation was made June 6. It is now October 6, fully four months later. The web address www.harvard.edu/jewishcalendar goes to a “404 not found” error. That Harvard can’t or won’t stand up a simple Jewish calendar web page four months after the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism recommended it tells you much of what you need to know about the administrative competence (or lack of it) and sense of urgency (or lack of it) with which the Harvard leadership is approaching these issues.
I’m not even saying it’s specific to Jewish matters; it tells you, also, about the glacial pace of action at Harvard on just about any issue. And I’m not questioning President Garber’s intentions, either; I think he sincerely wants to improve Harvard, not only for Jews or Israelis or on the dimension of nondiscrimination but also in terms of other important dimensions such as excellence and intellectual vitality. Yet as Robert Kraft said in parting ways with Bill Belichick, “This is a results business.” On the Harvard Jewish calendar, the result four months after the preliminary recommendation is a “404 not found” error.
The titles of sessions two and three of Roth’s Israel-Palestine study group are “Is Israel Committing the Crime of Genocide in Gaza?” and “Is Israel Committing the Crime of Apartheid in the West Bank and East Jerusalem?” The reading listed doesn’t include anything from the Israeli government or its defenders, just from Roth, his organization, and his former allies. With the Harvard fellowship, Roth is moonlighting, because he’s concurrently a visiting professor at Princeton.
I’ve been willing to give Harvard credit when it shows signs of possible progress in asserting some control and policing the boundaries when it comes to academic quality, nondiscrimination, and the line between scholarship and activism, education and indoctrination. The return of Ken Roth to the Harvard Kennedy School (where I worked until July 2023) is not such a sign.
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