Critics say leading Jewish scholar Derek Penslar’s claim that Israel is ‘an apartheid state’ places a question mark over his appointment to co-chair Harvard University’s antisemitism task force.
But supporters, including fellow academics and students,have applauded his appointment, and his contribution to Jewish scholarship.
Professor Penslar is director of Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies.
Among his most vociferous critics is Larry Summers, a former Harvard president, and Treasury Secretary in President Barack Obama’s administration.
Penslar was appointed by Alan Garber, who became Harvard’s interim president when Claudine Gay resigned.
Writing on X, Summers wrote: ‘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.
‘I have no doubt that Prof Penslar is a profound scholar of Zionism and a person of goodwill without a trace of personal anti-Semitism who cares deeply about Harvard.
‘However, I believe that given his record, he is unsuited to leading a task force whose function is to combat what is seen by many as a serious antisemitism problem at Harvard.
‘Prof Penslar has publicly minimized Harvard’s antisemitism problem, rejected the definition used by the US government in recent years of anti-Semitism as too broad, invoked the need for the concept of settler colonialism in analyzing Israel, referred to Israel as an apartheid state and more.’
Last year Penslar wrote a book in which he said, ‘Israel’s dispossession of Palestinians from their land and oppression of those who remain have made it one of the most disliked countries on the planet’.
He claimed that ‘Jewish culture was steeped in fantasies (and occasionally, acts) of vengeance against Christians’.
Penslar has denounced ‘Israel’s longstanding occupation’ of Gaza and co-signed a letter condemning the Israeli government for its bid to ‘ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population’. The letter said: ‘Meanwhile, American Jewish billionaire funders help support the Israeli far right’.
According to The Harvard Crimson, 226 scholars of Jewish studies this week issued a public statement supporting Penslar’s appointment and describing him as ‘an enthusiastic supporter and invaluable interlocutor for generations of scholars based in Israel and other countries’.
The scholars wrote: ‘Indeed, it is hard to think of many North American academics who have contributed more to the development of the study of Jewish history and of Israeli society over the past few decades than Derek Penslar.’
The Harvard Crimson also reports that a group of 21 current and former students who had worked with or studied under Penslar published an open letter supporting Penslar, arguing that ‘his measured and thorough analysis of Jewish history and Zionism’ makes him uniquely positioned to effectively lead Harvard’s efforts against antisemitism.
The letter went on: ‘Not only do these attacks pervert the unparalleled assiduousness and ingenuity of Dr. Penslar’s scholarship, but they also undermine the goal of Harvard’s antisemitism task force more broadly: to understand how antisemitism is manifesting on Harvard’s campus — and what more we might do to prevent it.’
[Image: https://cjs.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty-leadership/derek-j-penslar/]