Bacow likely knows that if he did condemn them, he himself would be condemned as “Islamophobic” and “racist,” and no academic today is prepared to withstand that kind of onslaught.
“No Comment: Harvard President Won’t Condemn Anti-Semitic Incidents,” by Alana Goodman, Washington Free Beacon, May 5, 2022 4:30 pm
Harvard president Lawrence Bacow during a closed-door faculty meeting on Tuesday declined to condemn a recent string of anti-Semitic incidents on campus but said he objects to “academic boycotts” of any foreign country, including the Jewish state.
Bacow said he “would hope that every member of our community would condemn hatred and bigotry on our campus in any form, whether or not it appears as a swastika or a noose,” but did not say whether he included the recent events on campus in this category.
Bacow was responding to a faculty member, the government professor Eric Nelson, who asked him about the “eruption of anti-Semitism on our campus,” including the Harvard Crimson‘s endorsement of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a campus Palestinian Solidarity Committee demonstration that compared Israel to Nazi Germany and likened Zionism to racism and white supremacy, and a student group’s invitation of a speaker who has repeatedly defended Holocaust denial.
While the Harvard president said he would “not comment on the Crimson editorial” because it does not represent the university’s view, he condemned “academic boycotts,” saying they “have absolutely no place at Harvard, regardless of who they target.” He did not weigh in on other forms of economic divestment—such as cutting off the Harvard endowment’s Israel-linked investments—which are also central to demands from anti-Semitic activists on campus. Nor did he comment on a student art installation that equated Zionism to racism, white supremacy, and “settler colonialism.”
Bacow’s response was notably subdued for a president who has made “antiracism” a centerpiece of his tenure. Last week, Bacow pledged $100 million in reparations to atone for Harvard’s role in slavery after releasing an extensive report that found the university faculty and staff enslaved at least 70 people between the years 1636 and 1783….
Roland says
Larry Summers was defenestrated. Bacow wants to avoid that fate. Sad.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that grim reference, Roland–Larry Summers was essentially pushed out of the Harvard presidency. Here are some good Tweets from Larry Summers on this issue:
https://twitter.com/LHSummers?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
And kudos to anyone using the very apt phrase “defenestrated” here.
Johnny B says
So with the current spike in wordwide attacks and persecution on Jews, terror groups and Iran hell bent on destroying Israel 24/7 these “woke” people or whatever you can call these people, the socalled “politically correct”, are totally preoccupied with what happened almost 300 years ago??
I love history and think it’s important because we need to learn from it. That is one of the reasons I don’t want Islam to ever become the majority religion in my own country. However it would never make be completely blind to what’s going on right in front of me on a daily basis like it does with these people, what the heck is wrong with them???
gravenimage says
Harvard president refuses to condemn string of anti-Semitic incidents on campus
………..
Just sickening–but who can be shocked by this these days?
James Lincoln says
Just wondering if it is still a “status symbol” to have a “My Child Goes to Harvard” bumper sticker on the back of your BMW???
And, by the way, the very worst medical resident that I had ever taught was in a Harvard affiliated residency program. The resident was very arrogant – and he “didn’t know that he didn’t know”.