In certain human activities, there are a few institutions that set the standard by which all are compared and to which all aspire. Harvard is one of those paragons in higher education. Its research informs public policy. Its graduates dominate elite business circles. Its architecture, and teaching methods are emulated around the world. What happens at Harvard has a far-reaching impact, both academically and culturally.
For this reason, I am concerned about the moral regression that is currently taking place at this great university. One of the most striking aspects of this moral regression is the anti-Semitism that has resurfaced at Harvard after a decades-long absence. For those of us looking for models of academic excellence, the tolerant behaviour of Harvard's current leadership and some of its academic and student body in the face of anti-Semitism is a great disappointment.
The philosophical consensus after the Second World War and the Holocaust was that ignorance was at the root of racism and discrimination, and that education was the remedy. Based on this consensus, educational curricula were re-written, dozens of museums were built and thousands of courses for teachers were held on slavery, the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian Holocaust or the destruction of indigenous peoples in the Americas or Australia, to name but a few.
And yet, if ignorance is the problem and education the solution, how can one of the world's most prestigious universities tolerate (and in some cases even encourage) the greatest resurgence of anti-Semitism in decades?
Like many other elite universities, Harvard has a long history of racism and discrimination. As late as the 1950s, Harvard imposed undeclared race and gender quotas to severely limit the admission of Jews, African Americans and women, and many of the effects of these quotas persisted into the 1970s. But this is not an article about history, it is about the present and the future.
It seemed that a moral breakthrough had been achieved in the last 40 years to eradicate racism and discrimination from university life, and that this would spill over into society. But in recent years this moral progress has begun to unravel.
The situation has deteriorated over the years to the point where certain radical groups of students and teachers engage in verbal and moral violence against Jewish students with impunity, while the university authorities passively stand by and watch. Every day, classes are disrupted by activists with megaphones, who also paint anti-Semitic slogans on the doors of Jewish students' dormitories and post Nazi cartoons on social media. These activists claim that they are merely exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Jewish students have no objection to freedom of expression on Israel or on any other subject. But what they don't want is people vandalising their student organisations or their halls of residence, they refuse to be harassed on social media, they refuse to be insulted or attacked for wearing their traditional skullcap or a Star of David pendant, and they won't tolerate their teachers spreading anti-Semitic lies and humiliating them in class.
Harvard seems to be powerless to do anything about it. It set up an anti-Semitism commission and most of its members resigned shortly afterwards, condemning the university's inability or unwillingness to tackle anti-Semitism, including Raffaela Sadun of the Harvard Business School, the novelist Dara Horn and Rabbi David Wolpe of the Harvard Divinity School.
In response to the university's passive stance, the US government's Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into violations of anti-discrimination laws. The complaint alleges that “Harvard permits students and faculty to advocate, without consequence, the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. Meanwhile, Harvard requires students to take a training class that warns that they will be disciplined if they engage in fatphobia or transphobia...”.
Of course, anti-Semitism never exists in isolation. It is a blight that affects the behaviour of people and institutions at many levels. Harvard has also been accused of discriminating against Asians. This led to a multi-year legal battle that recently culminated in the US Supreme Court ruling that Harvard's admissions system violated the principle of equality.
In terms of freedom of expression, Harvard was ranked by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) as one of the worst universities in the United States in 2023.
As a Jew, I am outraged by the resurgence of anti-Semitism. Some Jewish students will stand up and fight back instead of devoting their time to learning as it is their right (and for which purpose they are imposing on themselves and their families a heavy financial burden). Other students (Jewish and not) with good academic records will choose other good universities because they will not feel welcome in a hostile, racist environment. These lost students will be joined by many of the excellent teachers and researchers (Jewish or not) who are also unwilling to accept a racist, abusive working environment. And, of course, the donors (Jewish or not) who provide almost half of the university's budget will refuse to continue to fund an environment reminiscent of the days of the Ku Klux Klan (with the same covered faces and intimidation tactics of today's activists).
As an academic, I worry that we will lose a role model that many of us look to for inspiration, and of course I worry that the quality of Harvard's brilliant scholarship, which has contributed so much to the world, will inevitably decline as meritocracy is replaced by ideology and science by dogma.
But the most serious risk is a civilisational one. Moral regression coupled by accelerating technological development threatens our way of life. A world in which artificial intelligence, genetic manipulation, nuclear energy, robotics and many other technologies will allow us to wield unprecedented destructive power requires a robust moral framework to guide and constrain what we might do with these technologies, which we do not yet fully understand or master. This is perhaps the greatest disappointment of the world’s (hitherto) leading university.