Page 52 - EW-June-2025

International News

UNITED STATES combined grants to Harvard, Columbia and other univer-
Self-correction at Harvard sities. His pressure campaign is ostensibly rooted in alarm
about antisemitism, but other concerns keep sprouting.
On May 5, Linda McMahon, the education secretary, told
Harvard it was barred from future grants, in a letter in the
signature smashmouth-style of this administration and the
professional-wrestling league she ran. In more than two
pages of insults and criticism about everything from pla-
giarism to hiring former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio,
Ms McMahon referred only elliptically to antisemitism.
Trump’s indignation about campus antisemitism was al-
ways hard to take at face value. He has contributed to the
“slippage” by condemning Jews who vote Democratic as
“very disloyal to Israel”. He has failed to deplore antisemi-
tism among his supporters. Those he pardoned for attack-
ing the Capitol on January 6 included Nazi sympathisers,
one of whom sported a “Camp Auschwitz” hoodie that day.
Harvard University: substantive self scrutiny Meanwhile, the self-scrutiny on campus is substan-
tive. The task-forces at Harvard and Columbia have been
A PROGRAMME AT HARVARD DIVINITY School thorough, and their recommendations are specific and far-
aspired to “deZionize Jewish consciousness”. Dur- reaching. Finding a need for “profound repair”, Harvard’s
ing “privilege trainings”, working-class Harvard task-force made dozens of proposals, for everything from
students were instructed that, by being Jewish, they were governance to discipline, to strengthen a “culture of plural-
oppressing wealthier, better prepared classmates. A course ism”. Students, it reported, “too often feel they are carry-
in Harvard’s graduate school of public health, ‘The Settler ing the weight of their identities, since they say that is how
Colonial Determinants of Health’, sought to “interrogate they sold themselves to Harvard in the application process”.
relationships between settler colonialism, Zionism, anti- Instead, applicants should be told to expect a “genuine com-
semitism, and other forms of racism”. Will these findings of munity with people with whom one may disagree”. When it
Harvard’s task-force on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, came to the Middle East, the report acidly noted a “short-
released on April 29, shock anyone? Maybe not. Americans age” of courses “meeting Harvard’s standard for intellectual
may be numb by now to bulletins about the excesses, not to excellence”.
say inanities, of some leftist academics. It is ridiculous that Harvard has to relearn lessons about
If so, one might hope that as Americans consider wheth- the value of rigour in the classroom and the folly of reducing
er antisemitism is a problem at Harvard, they would imag- individuals to group identities. But at least the university
ine how it might feel to be a sophomore encountering this is showing signs of buckling down. Trump would be wise
social-media post about herself, by a peer: “She looks just as to do what he does well, and claim credit for this happy
dumb as her nose is crooked.” The report, a door-stopping development, rather than try to teach the lessons himself.
311 pages, describes a campus culture so toxic that another
undergraduate confided to members of the task-force, “I Dartmouth treads gingerly
feel lucky I don’t look Jewish.”
The Harvard task-force was formed following the cam-
pus convulsions after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023 and HERE ARE ALL KINDS OF PERKS OF BEING THE
the war in Gaza began. But it tells the long story of Jews’ boss, big and small. To be the boss of an Ivy League
relationship with the school, from grudging admission, Tinstitution, with ample salary and cachet, would
constrained by quotas, to “a golden age” of inclusion from have seemed a crowning achievement for the aspiring meri-
the 1960s to about 2010. After that, according to the re- tocrats of America not long ago. Indeed, in the 20th century,
port, the pro-Palestine movement hardened, increasingly two Ivy League presidents ascended to the White House
regarding Israel as a pariah and at times ascribing “a form (Woodrow Wilson led Princeton University and Dwight D.
of hereditary and collective guilt” to American Jews over its Eisenhower commanded Columbia University after win-
actions, even its existence. “The slippage between ‘Israel’ ning the second world war).
and ‘Jews’ is widespread,” the report notes. On campus and These days, it can feel like a hardship posting. Agitation
beyond, out of ignorance or malice, a trope is catching hold comes from all sides: student-protesters, faculty-activists,
on the left that equates racism with Zionism, and thence rich donors with lacklustre children, congressional inquisi-
with Judaism. tors and, most alarming of all, an ultra-aggressive Trump
US President Donald Trump has cancelled billions in administration. Since 2023, six of the eight Ivy League uni-

52 EDUCATIONWORLD JUNE 2025