Harvard Professor Sadun Resigns From Antisemitism Task Force

Dunster House across the Charles River on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. The presidents of Harvard University and MIT have been under scrutiny amid furor over their remarks to Congress about antisemitism on campus.

(Bloomberg) — Raffaella Sadun, a co-chair of Harvard University’s antisemitism task force, has stepped down from the group and will be replaced by Jared Ellias, a law professor specializing in corporate bankruptcy.

“Professor Sadun has expressed her desire to refocus her efforts on her research, teaching and administrative responsibilities,” Harvard’s interim President Alan Garber, who appointed the Harvard Business School professor to the task force in January, said in a statement. The Harvard Crimson first reported her resignation.

Harvard has come under scrutiny from lawmakers, students, alumni and donors over how it’s handled allegations of antisemitism on campus in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Former president, Claudine Gay, stepped down Jan. 2 after her widely derided testimony to Congress in early December. Garber last week had to to condemn the posting of an antisemitic cartoon that circulated on social media.

Reads more: Harvard’s Garber Slams University Groups for ‘Vile’ Cartoon

Named interim president following Gay’s resignation, Garber in January announced the formation of two tasks forces, one on antisemitism and the other on Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias. Larry Summers, a former Harvard University professor, had criticized the appointment of Derek Penslar, a professor of Jewish history, as one of the co-chairs of the antisemitism task force, saying he was unsuited to lead it.

Ali Asani, a professor of Middle Eastern studies, has been added to the leadership of the Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab Bias, Garber said.

(Updates with recent social media controversy in fourth paragraph.)

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