Harvard Divinity School Suspends Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative

Harvard Divinity School will suspend its Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative amid budget cuts at HDS and public accusations that the initiative’s programming presents a one-sided view of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The pause — which was announced Friday on the HDS website — comes after HDS Dean Marla F. Frederick assembled a committee to review the Religion and Public Life program, which the RCPI is housed under.

The announcement arrived the same week as Harvard forced out the faculty leaders of its Center for Middle Eastern Studies — another program that has come under fire for alleged antisemitism in its programming. The Harvard School of Public Health has also suspended its partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank.

According to a Harvard Divinity School spokesperson, the Divinity School is planning to expand the focus of the RCPI, in line with the committee’s recommendations. The school is also planning to hire a faculty member specializing in religion, conflict, and peace.

The pause on the program will allow school leaders “to rethink its focus and reimagine its future,” according to Friday’s announcement.

The changes at the RCPI make it the latest in a series of university programs that have been shaken up or shut down following pressure from the Trump administration to back away from scholarship on certain topics — including Palestine as well as race and gender.

Columbia University agreed last month to place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies programs under closer administrative control, as part of an attempt to persuade the Trump administration to restore $400 million in federal funding.

Harvard is facing more pressure than ever following the administration’s announcement on Monday that billions of dollars in federal funding to the University had been placed under review.

The pause may also be an indication that the RPL program is facing direct financial pressure. The Friday announcement cited “long- and short-term budgetary issues related to RCPI’s loss of financial support” and said that the Divinity School will face a reduced budget next fiscal year.

The RPL program has already seen significant leadership turnover in recent months. Its director, Diane L. Moore, announced her retirement in January, departing a semester earlier than originally planned.

And its assistant director, Hussein Rashid, announced plans to resign at the end of this year in a letter to affiliates that same month, in which he slammed Harvard for failing to respond to criticism of the program.

The RCPI — which hosts fellowships and holds events on religious studies and global conflict — has faced criticism for its programming on Israel and Palestine. The RCPI also offers experiential learning opportunities to students, including a trip to Israel and the West Bank led by Moore, although that opportunity has been temporarily placed on hold, according to the RCPI website.

The Harvard Jewish Alumni Association, an alumni advocacy group, claimed in a May 2024 report that the program “appears to focus entirely on the Palestinians.”

The RCPI was also singled out in HDS graduate Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum’s ongoing Title VI lawsuit accusing Harvard of fostering antisemitism.

The RCPI structures its programming around case studies, and its current case study is the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Allegations of antisemitism against RPL began in October 2023 in response to a newsletter authored by RPL faculty and administrators — including Moore, the director at the time, as well as the RCPI’s associate director — asking Divinity School affiliates to “challenge single story narratives that justify vengeance and retaliation” shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The Divinity School’s interim dean at the time issued a statement distancing both the school and the RPL program from the letter.

According to Friday’s announcement, the review of RPL is part of a strategic planning process for the Divinity School that began in fall 2024.

The committee conducting the review consists of “highly regarded scholars from peer institutions” who were tapped in accordance with a spring 2024 recommendation from the Association of Theological Schools, per the announcement.

The committee met with faculty, staff, and students in March and also recommended the Divinity School “better integrate” the master’s program in Religion and Public Life with its other offerings.

Recommendations from the committee will “guide the leadership” of incoming director Terrence L. Johnson, according to the announcement on the HDS website. Johnson — currently a professor at the Divinity School — will assume his new role in July.

— Staff Writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at sebastian.connolly@thecrimson.com and on X @SebastianC4784.

— Staff Writer Julia A. Karabolli can be reached at julia.karabolli@thecrimson.com.