A view of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

By Camillo Barone November 16, 2023

More than 2,000 Jewish alumni of Harvard have formed a new group to press for a more robust response to antisemitism on campus, with at least 240 alumni signing a pledge to donate a single dollar to the university to show their diminished willingness to support it.

“Alumni of all different backgrounds and ages and socio-economic statuses and incomes are choosing to give only $1 to Harvard to send a clear message,” said 2017 graduate Rebecca Claire Brooks, one of the group’s organizers. “The type of conduct that is being allowed to proliferate on the university campus isn’t tolerable and will not be condoned by the alumni community.”

In an statement to the Harvard Corporation, the group explains that it launched the “one dollar pledge” campaign because “a campus culture has developed in which Jews feel unsafe” and that concrete steps by the university to combat antisemitism will halt it.

The group, the Harvard College Jewish Alumni Association, also released an open letter to Harvard President Claudine Gay this week, signed by more than 1,600 alumni. They implore her to curb hate speech at Harvard and to embrace the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which some say curbs legitimate criticism of Israel.

The alumni group’s letter, released on Monday, takes issue with the university’s response to a statement endorsed by three dozen Harvard student groups two days after Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 in Israel and kidnapped more than 220. That statement held “the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

“And during this time, the University remained silent,” the letter reads. “It was incumbent on the administration to speak out swiftly against terrorism, especially when it has spoken clearly and forcefully on many recent geopolitical and political events.”

Harvard was one of the first college campuses to erupt in controversy after Oct. 7. Since then, it has been rocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations as the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s counter-offensive in Gaza has risen to more than 11,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Gay, who was installed as Harvard’s president in July, has taken several steps to address the criticism. She appointed a team of Jewish faculty, alumni, and community leaders to advise her on combating antisemitism in late October, when she also gave a speech at Harvard’s Hillel in which she said “I am committed to tackling this pernicious hatred with the urgency it demands.” 

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