Harvard Again Shows Its True Colors

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Last January, the President of Harvard was replaced with an Interim President, Alan Garber. At that time, I wrote an article about this seeming like a “token hire” of a man who was being placed in the position of interim president only because he is a Jew. I posited the belief that nothing would change at Harvard, as Garber is more of a Harvard institutionalized man as opposed to a person committed to combating antisemitism.

It is profoundly sad, but I was 100% accurate about Harvard and Garber. The university and this man have shown their true colors in their actions this week regarding Jewish Studies at the university, and a Professor of Yiddish named Saul Zaritt.

Zaritt, a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is considered one of the top scholars in the world in Yiddish literature. His academic works have been extremely well received; he is an extremely popular Professor according to the Harvard Crimson, which also quotes many of his colleagues who speak about his qualifications and positive influence on the university, and he is the sole Yiddish scholar in Harvard’s Comparative Literature Department.

By all accounts, it seemed a given that he would easily receive tenure, which he was up for this month. As one of only two faculty members in his field, with the other one leaving Harvard next year, this seemed as if it would be more of a formality than a challenge, especially given that the position is already endowed and would have no financial cost to Harvard. And with the unanimous recommendation of his Department’s academic to Grant him tenure, it seemed a fait accompli that Zaritt would be spending his career in Cambridge, Mass.

But Alan Garber decided to step in and not Grant him tenure. Garber made the rare decision to form an ad hoc committee to review Zaritt after his department approved of the scholar and did the even rarer (and possibly historically unique) action of not showing up to be on the committee himself, which is common for the president to do when calling for such a committee. Instead, this ad hoc committee was run by Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, Judith Singer, a unique decision on the part of Garber. Garber then decided to not grant tenure, and multiple faculty at Harvard have protested this seemingly random or potentially worse decision. With Zaritt being forced to leave Harvard, it radically shifts the size of the Jewish studies program, which is also losing other faculty within the next two years due to retirement.

One has to wonder why Harvard would choose to do this and why Garber would use his presidential privilege to stop this man and reduce the authentic Jewish presence on the Harvard campus. However, antisemitism has long been a practice at Harvard. Not just last year. Not just through the disgraceful and shocking performance of the past president before Congress. But for a very long time Harvard, despite having many Jewish donors, has maintained a subversive attitude of anti-Semitism.

In just the last century, we saw Harvard invite Ernst Hanfstsngl, Hitler’s foreign press chief, to speak on campus in 1934, despite protests from students and faculty. The university still maintains the Alfred Krupp Fellowship, financed and named after a Nazi industrialist who was convicted of crimes against humanity. And we are all aware of the Jew-hatred on Harvard’s campus last year; the disgusting demonstrations that were promoted and allowed on the campus; and Harvard’s former President Claudine Gay’s inability to condemn any of it in her testimony before Congress last year.

The actions against Professor Zaritt are just another in a series of antisemitic actions on the part of Harvard. The only difference this time is that it is being led by Alan Garber, a man who claims to be Jewish.  When someone points to Garber’s “Jewishness” as proof that this could not actually be antisemitic, we should remember the wise words of comedian Evan Sayet. 

Sayet teaches, “To be a Christian you must accept Jesus as your Messiah and the physical manifestation of God. To be a Muslim, you must accept Allah as the one true God. To be a Jew, all you had to do was come out of a Jewish womb.” Yes, I have no doubt that Garber’s mother was Jewish. I equally have no doubt that he has no real connection to Jewish values, religion, or culture and really has been the token Jewish hire for Harvard. Based upon his actions to stop this renowned professor from receiving tenure, Garber long ago replaced Judaism as his religion with a devotion to Harvard as his god instead.

With all of the protests from other Harvard faculty coming in day by day, we can all hope that Harvard starts to change, but it is doubtful. Given that Harvard has received over 187 million dollars from Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., including over 2 million from the Saudi government in 2023, there is little hope that Harvard will change its attitude and practices. The only hope for Harvard as well as other universities around the country, to stop their prejudices is for donors of all faiths and backgrounds to cut off their donations until these universities become institutions of learning as opposed to elitists who are beholden to Arab/Muslim organizations and donations.

Another hope that we have is to support organizations that expose their behavior like PJ Media by becoming a VIP member. Another one of the most powerful ways is to additionally support real institutions of learning such as Hillsdale College and Prager U (and to say prayers for the speedy recovery and healing of its founder, Dennis Prager, Shmuel Nechemiah ben Hindeh). It is through the combination of rejecting corrupted universities and supporting educational institutions of integrity that hopefully, the academic world will become healed, and our nation’s youth will start to actually think and learn as opposed to becoming indoctrinated.