What would I do without Harvard president, Dr. Alan Garber? Besides sharing the same first name, we might as well be co-authors. I had a bit of writer’s block of late. Should I write again on China’s nefarious economic policies that favor Beijing over the rest of the world? Maybe an article about woke and its corrosive destruction of Western values? Islam—that’s it. How Muslims plan to take over a complacent and valueless Europe. But then another email from Harvard’s boss arrived at midnight and all questions regarding topic evaporated.
In its nearly 400 years of existence, Harvard has had 31 presidents, giving an average reign of 12.5 years. Since Derek Bok stepped down as full-time president in 1991, Harvard has had six presidents (including the incumbent), for an average tenure of 5.7 years apiece. The job of president has evolved—or devolved—from primarily focusing on education to around-the-clock fundraising. Many of the illustrious presidents have buildings on campus bearing their names. For some reason, 17th century President Hoar did not merit his own Hoar House. Apparently, that name is reserved for the administration building.
As is his wont, President Garber writes of the terrible wrongs visited upon Harvard by the Trump administration. He always likes to mention the life-saving research that will be put on hold due to the mean leaders in Washington. In short: because of you, people will die! It’s a pathetic approach but not a surprising one. I found an email that I had sent to a distant predecessor, Drew Faust, back in 2017. She had proudly stated that the university would not identify illegal alien students to the federal government. And while I am sure that she—a scholar of the Civil War era—was certain that she was recreating the underground railroad used to save slaves, her actions were illegal and wrong. To quote myself:
“The next concern voiced in your letter was regarding 'undocumented students.' How is it that Harvard, having a famed Law School and taking pride for having so many former US presidents—that is, chief executive officers of the United States—as alumni, treat the law of the land with such contempt? I have no doubt that these students are outstanding people and perform on par with other Harvard students. But how does a university that takes in tens of millions of dollars in federal research money each year decide that federal law with respect to illegal immigration is of no importance? Why should a university that takes pride in its role in the birth and political history of the United States determine that it has no obligation to report people residing illegally in the U.S. because it feels that the laws are wrong? Does Harvard want its graduates also to choose which laws to follow and which to ignore? Maybe some wealthy donor will feel that the tax laws are oppressive and should thus be ignored? He can always claim at trial that he learned such practices during his undergraduate stay at Harvard.”
The problem that Harvard’s leaders suffer from is one of incredible self-righteousness. In Judaism, every movement is absolutely certain that it—and it alone—is the absolute and only correct and perfect and completely right embodiment of Real Judaism® and that the rest are either backsliders or religious fanatics. This belief extends to a cult named “Lev Tahor” (“Pure Heart”) that has been banned from many countries where they have resided. In my view, they have a distorted view of Jewish law and have been correctly accused of child abuse (including starving children) and kidnapping. They too see the rest of Jewish movements as completely misguided and that they alone stand astride Mount Sinai with the Official Truth.
So too Harvard. President Garber writes of Harvard filing suit against the U.S. government. He claims a false righteous anger against Washington. But it was Garber and his predecessor who owns the Guinness Records for shortest Harvard presidential term at six months, 1 day and 15 minutes who willingly and approvingly let antisemitism metastasize on the manicured lawns of Harvard Yard. They are the guilty ones in this unpleasant soap opera, as they chose Jew haters over Jewish students. Qatar over Washington. Arabs and leftists over Jews. They hid behind “freedom of expression” when no such hate fest would have lasted 10 minutes on campus had it involved “let’s lynch the blacks” instead of “let’s do a murderous intifada against the Jews.” Presidents Gay and Garber and their co-conspirators over at the Harvard Corporation are cowards. When Jewish students were being spit on and were locking themselves in their rooms, they did nothing. Their report on antisemitism was supposed to be delivered to the Department of Education last Fall; Washington still has not received it
President Garber should treat the presidential office with a brand-new mirror. He should look at it and then he will have found the culprit for the current standoff with the federal government. In his letter, he berates the feds for cutting off several billion dollars of research money. He seems to forget that Harvard, as an accredited academic institution and U.S. corporation, has certain civil rights and legal obligations that it has chosen to ignore. President Faust did not start the drive towards illegality with her protection of illegal aliens, but one can see that Harvard has decided for quite some time that it is above the law and not subject to the same rules applied to every other institution.
The reason I write so passionately about Harvard is because it was an important part of my life. Many of my best friends today I met there; some of the most impressive people I have seen in my life were classmates there. I had incredible experiences like racing and losing at the Henley Regatta and going fishing in Cape Cod. Harvard as an institution is being destroyed by Penny Pritzker and her ideologue professors and administrators. Look at this tidbit from Garber’s letter:
“We will also soon release the reports of the Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias and the Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias.”
Did you see Jews in blue keffiyehs demanding death to Palestine and intifada revolution against Muslims? No, I must have missed that newsreel. Can’t the Jews be the victims alone? Do we always have to find some Arab student who stubbed his toe and blamed it on the Yehud? At Harvard, no.
I believe that Harvard will be great again one day. When the current leadership is looking for its teeth in some old-age home, new leaders will come who will embrace Harvard as being a model citizen of and contributor to the United States. Maybe Jews will again feel safe to study there.