Our letter to Harvard's Governing Boards, April 2, 2025:
As Jews, we are disappointed and frightened by Harvard’s response to the attacks of the Trump Administration. Rather than defend the university’s research, its freedom of inquiry, its governance, and its history as a place where Jews have thrived, President Garber accepted the Trump administration’s premise that the threats of funding cuts have a valid basis. The government is weaponizing antisemitism as a pretext to destroy academic institutions, and Harvard is allowing it to do so.
We are frightened by this, not only because these institutions are precious to us, but because you are endangering our safety as American Jews. Feeding a narrative that universities are unsafe places for Jews—and that our unique vulnerability justifies hurting Harvard and undermining democracy—makes us scapegoats for harm the government is causing. The real threat to American Jews is the Trump administration, which is actively targeting democratic institutions and whose leadership includes open white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers in its highest ranks. This reality makes your capitulation even more dangerous.
Separating Jews from the rest of the Harvard community, singling us out as uniquely fragile, is dangerous and, frankly, ludicrous. For nearly one hundred years Jewish men have thrived at Harvard. Jewish women had to fight quotas much longer, but even when Radcliffe offered only one seat for every four Harvard men and the professional schools excluded women, brilliant Jewish women made their mark on the university. Jews have thrived as students, faculty, staff, and leadership. Jews are two percent of the population of the United States; less than one percent of the world. That we have long been vastly overrepresented at Harvard is a point of pride, but it is not an entitlement. When you do not say so, when you allow false accusations of admissions discrimination to go unchallenged, you do us no favors.
Antisemitism, racism, and other forms of oppression uphold one another—they are not separate or separable. Our safety and strength lies in solidarity. Moreover, as history has shown, Jews are safest in strong constitutional democracies. Using the accusation of antisemitism to justify antidemocratic actions, including purging content from school curricula, firing academic faculty and staff, deporting “leaders and members” of an undisclosed list of organizations, and demonizing diverse political views is a threat to us all. We are not threatened by opinions we disagree with, and assuming our views based on our identity is reductive and insulting.
We hope for the success of your leadership, and we write today because we believe the university’s public statements and actions misunderstand the sources of danger to Harvard. We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with President Garber and continue this conversation in person.
Harvard Progressive Jewish Alumni
