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The Cancer of Antisemitism Is Spreading. Colleges Must Take the Right Stand.
(Washington Post) Lawrence H. Summers - I am shocked and appalled by what I have seen on university campuses since Oct. 7. Antisemitism is a cancer - a lethal adversary best addressed as rapidly, thoughtfully and aggressively as possible. Harvard and many other elite universities have not been swift in their response. It is the responsibility of university leaders - deans, presidents and outside trustees - to assure that universities are sources of moral clarity on the great questions of their time. It is shameful that no honest observer looking at the record of the past few years, and especially at the last month, can suppose that universities' responses to antisemitism have paralleled in vigor or volume the responses to racism or other forms of prejudice. Too often, those most directly charged with confronting prejudice - Offices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - have failed to stand with Israeli and Jewish students confronting antisemitism, the oldest prejudice of them all. Some university DEI officials have themselves taken positions that are widely viewed as antisemitic. Moral clarity as a central component of education includes recognizing the difference between wanton acts of terrorism and defensive responses. It means seeing that singling out Israel with calls for its annihilation is Jew-hatred. The writer, a former U.S. secretary of the treasury, is a professor at and past president of Harvard University.