Israeli hostage posters defaced as students return to campus, but this professor says antisemitism at Harvard has been ‘exaggerated’
Harvard’s newest task force to combat the rampant antisemitism on campus is set to be co-lead by a professor who was one of several signatories on a letter accusing Israel of being an apartheid regime.
Shortly after the new task force was formed, co-chaired by Jewish history professor Derek Penslar, who said that instances of Jewish harassment at Harvard have been “exaggerated,” Israeli hostage posters were defaced on campus. Though it is not yet clear who is responsible for the vandalism, and the university has not released a statement with further details at this time, Jewish students have expressed “tension, nerves, [and] anxiety” returning to campus.
The university has seen dozens of disruptive protests on campus since October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terror organization Hamas launched a deadly attack on the state of Israel, killing more than 1,200. Following the invasion, TPUSA reported that 33 student organizations and several professors at the university cosigned a letter, authored by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (HUPSC), accusing Israel of being “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Students filed complaints with the Department of Education (DOE) which launched an investigation into Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus, and shortly after, several Jewish students sued the university for allegedly tolerating “anti-Jewish hatred and harassment.” Harvard’s former President Claudine Gay, who was forced to resign after a brief and embarrassing tenure, was also ousted party because of her lack of condemnation of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
In response to these accusations and the growing crisis, the university’s interim president Alan Garber formed the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism — co-chaired by professor Penslar, who not only cosigned the HUPSC letter but also downplayed instances of antisemitism at Harvard.
The professor implied in a recent interview that outsiders “exaggerated” the circumstances of antisemitism at the university, and appeared to criticize donors, advocacy groups, or elected representatives who attempted to hold the university leadership accountable.
Penslar also alleged in his 2023 book “Zionism: An Emotional State,” that “the veins of hatred run through Jewish civilization,” and Israel’s “dispossession of Palestinians from their land” have made the nation “one of the most disliked countries on the planet.”
Lawrence H. Summers, a former Harvard President, condemned Gamber’s decision to appoint Penslar to the position, writing on X, “Prof Penslar has publicly minimized Harvard’s anti-Semitism problem, rejected the definition used by the US government in recent years of anti-Semitism as too broad, invoked the need for the concept of settler colonialism in analyzing Israel, referred to Israel as an apartheid state and more.”
“[F]or the co-chair of an anti-Semitism task force that is being paralleled with an Islamophobia task force,” Summers added, “it seems highly problematic.”
Despite Pensar’s various comments harshly criticizing Israel, some of his Harvard colleagues came to his defense. One such individual, Harvard Government professor Steven Levitsky who is himself Jewish, said that it would be hard for him “to imagine a better person for this position” than Pensar.
“You have to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism to suggest that Derek Penslar is not a good fit for this role,” Levitsky claimed. “When you deliberately conflate the two, you utterly silence criticism of Israel, and you utterly silence pro-Palestinian speech — and that we can’t tolerate, not at a university in a free society.”
Levitsky also condemned former university president Summers’ comments, stating “Larry Summers says some very bold things about antisemitism at Harvard. He is not representative of a majority of Jews at Harvard.”
“That guy is bats**t crazy — and you can quote me on that,” he added.
