Harvard antisemitism task force co-chair resigns in another group setback

Harvard Business School Professor Raffaella Sadun is now the second person to step down from her position on a Harvard antisemitism task force.

The Harvard Crimson reported that Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber confirmed the news in a statement.

"Professor Sadun has expressed her desire to refocus her efforts on her research, teaching and administrative responsibilities at HBS," Garber wrote. "Her insights and passion for this work have helped shape the mandate for the task force and how it can best productively advance the important work ahead."

In a separate statement, Sadun wrote, "I am grateful to have had the opportunity to help advance the vital work to combat antisemitism and believe that President Garber has assembled an excellent task force. I will continue to support efforts to tackle antisemitism at Harvard in any way I can from my faculty position."

Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber confirmed Harvard Business School Professor Raffaella Sadun resigned from the antisemitism task force on Sunday. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Garber originally appointed Sadun in January to lead the task force as a co-chair in January. She will be replaced by Jared Ellias, a law professor.

Sadun reportedly decided to step down because she felt Harvard wouldn't commit to implementing the task force's ideas, and had been frustrated by the antisemitism task force for a while.

A person close to Sadun told the Harvard Crimson she decided to leave her position because the task force's authority didn't require the implementation of their ideas to fight antisemitism. Garber had announced the full membership of the presidential task force on fighting antisemitism and combating anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate in an email on Sunday after initially establishing them in January.

He said in the email that he asked the task force co-chairs to "send recommendations to the deans and me on a rolling basis so that we might consider, refine, and implement interventions, and to keep the community apprised as our work together proceeds," the Harvard Crimson reported.

Harvard has faced backlash regarding its efforts to investigate antisemitism on its campus. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

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Members of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance have conducted an audit of classes and events at the school, according to reporting from CNN and the Boston Globe.

The task force already faced controversy with the appointment of Derek Penslar as the head. Critics noted that Penslar was one of over 2,800 academics, clergy members and other public figures who signed an open letter written by the group Academics4Peace in August.

The letter claimed the Israeli government aims to "ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population," stating, "Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid."

Rabbi David Wolpe previously announced his own resignation from Harvard’s antisemitism board in December through an X post, citing the "evil" ideology that permeates the school.

"As of today I have resigned from the antisemitism advisory committee at Harvard," Wolpe explained on social media. "Without rehashing all of the obvious reasons that have been endlessly adumbrated online, and with great respect for the members of the committee, the short explanation is that both events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped."

Rabbi David Wolpe resigned from a Harvard antisemitism task force in December. (Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty Images)

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"The system at Harvard along with the ideology that grips far too many of the students and faculty, the ideology that works only along axes of oppression and places Jews as oppressors and therefore intrinsically evil, is itself evil," Wolpe said. "Ignoring Jewish suffering is evil. Belittling or denying the Jewish experience, including unspeakable atrocities, is a vast and continuing catastrophe. Denying Israel the self-determination as a Jewish nation accorded unthinkingly to others is endemic, and evil."

Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for a comment, but has yet to receive a response.