Maybe Harvard misunderstood the assignment.
Here are a few more details about the man Harvard has put in charge of helping rid the campus of anti-semitic hate, courtesy of Ira Stoll:
Background on Derek Penslar, Harvard professor named today by interim president Alan Garber as co-chair of an antisemitism task force. I think Penslar is a terrible selection to co-chair this task force. Here is why: 1) Signed August 4, 2023 "Elephant in the Room" letter about Israel that used the word "apartheid" three times in eight paragraphs, accused Israel of intending to "ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population," and endorsed a "Demand from elected leaders in the United States that they … restrict American military aid from being used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories."
2) At December 4, 2023 Harvard Government Weatherhead Forum event said that "settler colonialism" is "very important for analytical purposes" in looking at Israel. He also claimed that in 1948 "Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinians." There's evidence that that number dramatically overstates the number of refugees...
Sounds like a completely unbiased party doesn't he?
Oh, and it gets worse.
3) In December 29, 2023 Crimson op-ed, criticized the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism and endorsed two alternative definitions. The IHRA definition was backed by the Trump and Biden administrations and is included in federal Department of Education guidance (which Penslar omitted from his op-ed). In so doing, he falsely characterized the IHRA definition.
4) In a January 5, 2024 JTA article, Penslar was quoted appearing to criticize the members of congress, donors, and advocacy groups who held Harvard accountable, claiming they "exaggerated" antisemitism at Harvard. "Yes, we have a problem with antisemitism at Harvard, just like we have a problem with Islamophobia and how students converse with each other," said Penslar...
Yeah, he compared the anti-semitism problem at Harvard to "Islamophobia."
Because we all see Harvard students out chanting for Muslim genocide ... right?
5) In Penslar's 2023 book Zionism: An Emotional State, he blames Israel for the fact that some people hate it. He writes that, "Israel's dispossession of Palestinians from their land and oppression of those who remain have made it one of the most disliked countries on the planet."
In the book, he claims, "Veins of hatred run through Jewish civilization." [227] "In medieval and early modern Europe, where Jews lived as a small and often persecuted minority, Jewish culture was steeped in fantasies (and occasionally, acts) of vengeance against Christians." The book faults Israel and the American Jewish community leadership for what he describes as their "hatreds..."
Yes, Mr. "Veins of hatred run through Jewish civilization" is the co-chair of the board that's supposed to root out anti-semitism at Harvard!
They could have picked anyone, but they picked this guy.
Your moral "betters," ladies and gentlemen!
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