Profs launch 'Harvard Faculty for Israel' to aid university's relationship with Israeli community
More than 400 faculty at Harvard University recently founded Harvard Faculty for Israel, a group that aims to promote the university’s collaboration with Israeli students and professors.
'Our focus is very much on these three pillars — supporting Israelis at Harvard, supporting Harvard people studying in Israel, and supporting academic exchanges,' one co-founder told The Harvard Crimson.
In the wake of widespread anti-Israel protests during the preceding academic year, hundreds of faculty at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities are taking steps to combat anti-Semitic discrimination.
More than 400 faculty at Harvard University recently founded Harvard Faculty for Israel, a group that aims to promote the university’s collaboration with Israeli students and professors.
“Harvard Faculty for Israel is a collective of Harvard University faculty devoted to fostering academic, intellectual, scientific, and technical exchanges between Harvard and Israel,” a website description reads. “We aim to support Israeli students and scholars during their time at Harvard and facilitate research collaborations and exchanges between Harvard and Israeli academic institutions.”
“Our focus is very much on these three pillars — supporting Israelis at Harvard, supporting Harvard people studying in Israel, and supporting academic exchanges,” Harvard Medical School professor Matthew Meyerson told The Harvard Crimson. Meyerson co-founded the group along with Harvard Law School professor Jesse Fried.
Meyerson noted his concern over the university’s response to Hamas’ attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, stressing the apparent antipathy towards Israelis who were victims of the attacks.
“We saw that immediately after the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 — where Israel was invaded, people were murdered, they were mutilated, they were raped — a number of student groups shockingly looked at the situation and blamed Israelis for being the victims,” he told the Crimson.
Hundreds of Harvard students erected an anti-Israel encampment in the spring, demanding that the school divest from Israel. While this and other protests raised concerns about Jewish students’ safety on campus, Fried and Meyerson said that Harvard Faculty for Israel does not see such protests as an object of primary concern.
“They’re entitled to their views. They’re entitled to protest,” Fried reportedly said of anti-Israel activists. “My sense is that things like the encampment and the walkout are not the biggest sources of suffering for Israeli students on campus.”
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In a Crimson op-ed earlier on Sept. 5, Fried and Meyerson discussed Jewish students’ experiences at Harvard on Oct. 7, noting that they had faced significant discrimination even before that date.
“The situation was bad even before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. But it became much worse after. On that terrible day, Israeli students and faculty on campus frantically texted and called their friends and family to find out who had been tortured, raped, killed, or kidnapped,” they wrote. “They then looked up from their phones to find a campus that not only lacked empathy, but actually blamed them for their own suffering.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Harvard University and the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.