Harvard Reverses Course, Hires Former HRW Head Ken Roth
Harvard University has reversed course and hired former Human Rights Watch Director Ken Roth following a backlash.
The Nation had previously reported that Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf had nixed the Carr Center for Human Right’s decision to hire Roth as a fellow because he thought Roth’s tweets showed “anti-Israel bias.” However, Elmendorf announced in a January 19 statement that he “made an error in my decision not to appoint him as a Fellow at our Carr Center for Human Rights. … I am sorry that the decision inadvertently cast doubt on the mission of the School and our commitment to open debate in ways I had not intended and do not believe to be true,” Elmendorf said. “The broader faculty input I have now sought and received has persuaded me that my decision was not the best one for the School. I have spoken now with a colleague at the Carr Center, and we will extend an offer to Mr. Roth to serve as a Fellow. I hope that our community will be able to benefit from his deep experience in a wide range of human rights issues.”
Roth responded with his own statement saying he was “thrilled” that Elmendorf reversed his veto and looked forward to working at the Carr Center; however, Roth said he was “concerned” that Elmendorf hasn’t said the names of the people who “matter to him” that persuaded him to initially nix his hire. According to The Harvard Crimson, Roth was referencing “faculty members’ accounts that suggest Elmendorf’s decision was linked to others at the University.” Additionally, Roth said he was also concerned about “academic freedom” for Israel critics at Harvard, as other scholars don’t have the large platform that Roth does.
White Nationalists at Florida Atlantic University
A handful of white nationalists came to the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) campus on January 18 spreading their support for rapper Kanye West.
Stop Antisemitism posted to Twitter photos of the white nationalist appearing with a table and sign reading “#YeIsRight Change My Mind.” Stop Antisemitism noted that “known Holocaust denier Dalton Clodfelter organized the event” and was there with three other people; the watchdog group referred to them as friends of Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has been palling around with West. Various Jewish students protested the white nationalists with signs of their own highlighting the dangers of antisemitism. Eventually, the white nationalists were removed from campus, according to Stop Antisemitism. The university issued a statement condemning antisemitism in response to the tabling.
West has garnered national attention for various antisemitic statements and social media posts, including expressing his love for Adolf Hitler and posting a swastika embedded in a Jewish star to Twitter.
Kansas High School Stadium Press Box Vandalized With Antisemitic, Racist Graffiti
A press box at a Kansas high school stadium football stadium was vandalized with various antisemitic, racist and homophobic graffiti.
Fox News reported that the graffiti, which was in Blue Valley High School in Overland Park included swastika and the n-word. Stop Antisemitism also tweeted that the graffiti also stated “F— Jews.” The graffiti has since been removed.
“Hate like this has no place at Blue Valley High and is not representative of our Tiger community,” Principal Charles Golden said in a statement.
Pomona College President Announces Student Dialogue Initiative to Address Antisemitism
Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr told The Student Line on January 15 that the college will be reviving their student dialogue program to address rising antisemitism.
Starr said that the program, Shaping Dialogue Now, has collaborated with the rabbis at the Claremont Colleges and will discuss how to provide “allyship” to Jewish students on campus, the Line reported. Claremont Hillel member Ayelet Kleinerman told the Line, “Antisemitism has become normalized in our culture today — and in some cases, its existence is denied. Jewish students should be the ones deciding [what] is antisemitic. [Those students] should be at the core. Shaping dialogue is a great start.”
Study: 22% Increase In Antisemitic Incidents at UK Colleges
A new study released by the Community Security Trust (CST) found that there was a 22% increase in antisemitic incidents at colleges throughout Britain from 2018-20 academic years to the 2020-22 academic years.
CST had documented 123 incidents in the former and 150 in the latter; the study concluded that what largely accounted for the increase was a spike in incidents during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict. The report found that 93% of the incidents in the last three years labeled as “Abusive Behavior” incidents, which included “all forms of verbal and written antisemitism both online and offline, other than those that include direct threats.” There were also three assaults, one of which involved a perpetrator hitting a Jewish student with a rubber bat.
