Dissent: Penslar Minimizes Antisemitism. He Can’t Lead the Fight Against It.

Irony is one word to describe professor Derek J. Penslar — Harvard’s pick to lead its new presidential task force on antisemitism — telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that claims of antisemitism on Harvard’s campus have been exaggerated.

“It’s not a myth, but it’s been exaggerated,” Penslar said in another interview, this time with the Boston Globe.

These comments and others from Penslar have fueled the backlash against the task force’s co-chair, which comes from critics including Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Holocaust studies expert Deborah E. Lipstadt, who now serves as U.S. President Joe Biden’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.

The new antisemitism task force, which will be co-led by Harvard Business School professor Rafaella Sadun, was created in tandem with a task force to combat Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias. While these task forces are commendable efforts to combat hatred on campus, the selection of Penslar may undermine the credibility of the University’s commitment to protecting Jewish students.

For the Editorial Board, Penslar’s academic credentials qualify him to lead this important task force. As Jewish students who have grown oddly accustomed to witnessing antisemitism at Harvard, we feel bound to dissent.

This decision is not taken lightly. We respect Penslar as a scholar who has done important work at Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies. Yet when campus life has become rife with antisemitism — from posters of Israeli hostages vandalized with antisemitic tropes to chants for a globalized intifada — the moment calls for a leader who will treat the issue with the urgency it deserves.

We find Penslar’s belief that claims of antisemitism on campus have been exaggerated — an argument he has repeated on multiple occasions — disqualifying for a number of reasons.

For one, it reveals the sense of priorities he will bring to the job.

It would be one thing if these were decontextualized remarks from a professor who had publicly, routinely, and enthusiastically advocated for Jewish students, as some of Penslar’s colleagues on the faculty have done. It is another for these comments to remain one of Penslar’s few public remarks on antisemitism since Oct. 7 — an indication that Penslar is more focused on downplaying the issue of antisemitism than confronting it.

Beyond the misplaced priorities these remarks reflect, they also actively hurt the fight against antisemitism on campus.

Jewish students have reported incident after incident and sent screenshot after screenshot to office after office. When professors then wade into the discourse to downplay the extent of hatred on campus, they only embolden those who deny the problem of antisemitism here and provide the University cover to do nothing about it.

Penslar’s defenders, the Editorial Board included, point to his academic record as proof that he is fit for this appointment. But academic achievement is not necessary to recognize hatred when it is revealed plainly and obviously.

We have all grown up hearing about the antisemitism our families faced for generations. It does not require a PhD to recognize the history echoing on campus today. If anything, administrative savvy, as opposed to academic ability, might be more relevant when addressing this crisis.

Because we value debate and disagreement, we believe Penslar may add a valuable perspective to the committee as one member among many. But to elevate him to the status of co-chair is a slap in the face to the students who bear the brunt of antisemitism every day.

We hope and pray that Penslar will approach this position with the exigency it requires. After all, it’s now his job to tackle claims of antisemitism — not minimize them in interviews with the national press.

Correction: January 30, 2024

A previous version of this dissent mistakenly included an additional author. The byline has been updated to reflect the accurate authors.

Leah R. Baron ’25, a Crimson Editorial Editor, is a Statistics concentrator in Lowell House. Alexander L.S. Bernat ’25, a Crimson Editorial Editor, is a joint concentrator in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in Lowell House. Zachary G. Buller ’25, a Crimson Editorial Editor, is a joint Chemistry and Mathematics concentrator in Lowell House. Charles M. Covit ’27, a Crimson Editorial Editor, lives in Holworthy Hall. Joshua A. Kaplan ’26, a Crimson Editorial Editor, is a Computer Science concentrator in Currier House. Jacob M. Miller ’25, a Crimson Editorial Chair, is a Mathematics concentrator in Lowell House. Yona T. Sperling-Milner ’27, a Crimson Editorial Editor, lives in Hurlbut Hall.

Dissenting Opinions: Occasionally, The Crimson Editorial Board is divided about the opinion we express in a staff editorial. In these cases, dissenting board members have the opportunity to express their opposition to staff opinion.

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