Critics protest Harvard’s choice to lead anti-Semitism task force

A Harvard task force on anti-Semitism has gotten off to a rocky start, with complaints that the professor chosen to help lead the panel signed an agreement letter who was critical of Israel, describing it as “an apartheid regime” because of its treatment of Palestinians.

Harvard’s new interim president, Alan Garber, announced Friday the formation of two “presidential task forces,” one to combat anti-Semitism and the other to combat Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias. The move came less than a month after his predecessor, Claudine Gay, was forced to resign amid accusations of plagiarism and criticism that she had been weak in curbing anti-Semitism.

But the choice of task force co-chair, Derek J. Penslar, a Harvard professor of Jewish history, drew opposition from Lawrence H. Summers, former Harvard president, and Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager whose relentless criticism of Dr. Gay helped bring about her downfall.

Dr. Penslar was one of nearly 2,900 academics, clerics and other public figures who signed an open letter in August, before the October 7 Hamas attack, condemning the Israeli government and saying it was determined to “ethnically cleanse all areas under Israeli administration of their Palestinian population.”

“Meanwhile,” the letter, written by a group called Academics4Peace, said: “American Jewish billionaires support the Israeli far-right camp.”

The same group circulated another letter in December with a call for a ceasefire and an exchange of hostages and prisoners in the war between Israel and Hamas. Dr. Penslar did not sign that version.

The dispute over his selection shows that the long-running debate over what constitutes anti-Semitism continues to rage, with Dr. Penslar is at odds with his critics.

Dr. Penslar said in a statement that he saw the task force as “an important opportunity to determine the nature and extent of anti-Semitism and more subtle forms of social exclusion affecting Jewish students at Harvard.”

But at a December 29 Opinion Essay Writing in the campus publication The Harvard Crimson, Dr. Penslar called for “a better understanding of what is anti-Semitic and what is not.”

“Conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism,” he said, “increases divisions within our Harvard community and hinders a common fight against hate.”

Harvard said in a statement that Dr. Penslar approached his work “with an open mind and respect for conflicting viewpoints.”

But to donors and critics, his worldview didn’t seem to fit the job description.

Mr. Ackman Posted that Harvard, with the selection of Dr. Penslar, is “continuing down the path of darkness.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, reported on Dr. Penslar’s appointment: “Lessons in How NOT to Combat Anti-Semitism, Harvard Edition.”

Dr. Summers said in a social media post on Sunday that he had no quarrel with Dr. Penslar and that he believed he was “a person of good will without a trace of personal anti-Semitism.”

“But,” he said, “I believe that, given his record, he is not qualified to lead a task force charged with combating what is seen by many as a serious anti-Semitism problem at Harvard.”

Dr. Summers criticized Dr. Penslar for taking a narrow view of anti-Semitism and underestimating the university’s anti-Semitism problem.

“Can one imagine Harvard appointing as head of its anti-racism task force someone who had minimized the problem of racism or who had opposed federal anti-racism efforts?” he wrote. “This is another example of a double standard between anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice.”

Several professors opposed it.

Criticism of Israel may not be popular in all circles, but it is “hardly a fringe position” among American and Israeli Jews, Alison Frank Johnson, a history professor, and Steven Levitsky, a public policy professor, wrote in a opinion essay on Monday at The Harvard Crimson.

They also expressed concerns about outside pressure.

“Donors, right-wing politicians and activists are welcome to share their views, just like anyone else in a free society,” they wrote, “but they cannot be allowed to actually dictate the university’s policies – for example on regulate freedom of speech and protest on campus – to fire university leaders or block appointments to key university working groups.”

Yehudah Mirsky, a professor of Near Eastern and Jewish studies at Brandeis University, said he would not have signed the letter calling the Israeli government an apartheid regime. But he said the rhetoric surrounding Dr. Penslar did not do justice to “a broad-based cosmopolitan scholar.”

Dr. Mirsky, an American and Israeli citizen, suggested that the backlash reflected the “hyped” atmosphere on college campuses surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas, which he said seemed disconnected from reality.

He described the tense scene on October 7, when he and his wife sought refuge in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem: “If I had turned to her and said, ‘You know, this means the president of Harvard has to resign,’ she would have looked at me like I was crazy.”