Larry Summers blasts Harvard over antisemitism: ‘I have lost confidence’
CNN
Famed economist Larry Summers slammed Harvard’s top leaders on Sunday over concerns about how the Ivy League school is fighting antisemitism.
Famed economist Larry Summers slammed Harvard’s top leaders on Sunday over concerns about how the Ivy League school is fighting antisemitism. Summers, a former president of Harvard, strongly criticized the selection of Harvard professor Derek Penslar as the co-chair of a newly-formed presidential task force on antisemitism. “I have lost confidence in the determination and ability of the Harvard Corporation and Harvard leadership to maintain Harvard as a place where Jews and Israelis can flourish,” Summers said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The backlash underscores how Harvard remains under close scrutiny even after the resignation earlier this month of Claudine Gay as university president. Lawmakers and federal officials are investigating Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus and a House panel is probing how the school handled the plagiarism allegations surrounding Gay. Even efforts to fight antisemitism are creating controversy. Summers, a former top adviser to Presidents Clinton and Obama, argued that Penslar is “unsuited” to co-chair the task force because he has “publicly minimized” Harvard’s antisemitism problem.