Rabbi David Wolpe, the rabbinic fellow for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School, announced that he had resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard University early Friday morning in a post on X.
1/3 Resigning, a Hanukkah Message: As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard. Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short…
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 7, 2023
“Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short explanation is that both events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped,” wrote Wolpe.
The rabbi stressed that he still believes Claudine Gay, the president of Harvard University, is a “kind and thoughtful person” and that the university is “still a repository of extraordinary minds and important research.”
“However, the system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil. Ignoring Jewish suffering is evil. Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe. Denying Israel the self-determination as a Jewish nation accorded unthinkingly to others is endemic, and evil,” wrote Wolpe.
The rabbi added that it would take more than a committee or a single university to battle the ideology in question. “It is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person, or posting on X, or yelling at people who don’t post as you wish when you wish, as though posting is the summation of one’s moral character.”
“This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning,” wrote the rabbi. “Part of the problem is a simple herd mentality – people screaming slogans whose meaning and implication they know nothing of, or not wishing to be disliked by taking an unpopular position. Some of it is the desire to achieve social status by being the sole or greatest victim. Some of it is simple, old fashioned Jew hatred, that ugly arrow in the quiver of dark hearts for millenia.”
“In this generation, outside of Israel, we are called to be Maccabees of a different order. We do not fight the actual battle but we search for the cruse of oil left behind,” added Wolpe.
“Remember the oil was to last one night, but lasted eight – which means there were seven nights of miracle. But of course the first night was the greatest miracle — because the motivation to light the initial candle, to ensure the continuity and vitality of tradition in each generation, that is the supreme miracle. Dispute but also create. Build the institutions you value, don’t merely attack those you denigrate. We are at a moment when the toxicity of intellectual slovenliness has been laid bare for all to see. Time to kindle the first candle. Create that miracle for us and all Israel — Blessing to you and Hag Urim Sameach.”
Resignation comes after controversial congressional hearing by university heads
Wolpe’s resignation came just a few days after the president of Harvard University, as well as the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, testified at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on their campuses.
The testimonies of the presidents sparked widespread criticism.
When New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik asked directly if “calling for the genocide of Jews” is against the universities’ respective codes of conduct, all three presidents said the answer depended on the context.
Andrew Lapin/JTA contributed to this report.
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