Reporting on antisemitism at Harvard? It’s simple: fake antisemitism is easier to talk about
There are many Israeli academics on prestigious US universities who oppose Israel’s policies and understand that this is not antisemitism. The reporter did not interview them for the fake antisemitism segment that he concocted.
By Rogel Alpher • Translated by Sol Salbe
An ominous soundtrack heralds a complete eruption of evil in the promos for Yonatan Reguer’s report on “antisemitism in the halls of Harvard,” haunting the poor Jews who are trapped there like a blood-spitting Christian ghost. A brave Israeli graduate student declared that “there is definitely a hostile atmosphere” while lamenting Trump’s policy against Harvard, which could prevent him from continuing to study there and his children from continuing to attend school there, in the hostile atmosphere. An Israeli Harvard alumna stated that since October 7 all her time and energy have been devoted to fighting the rampant antisemitism on campus, where she continues to live with her husband, a kippa-wearing doctoral student, and their daughter. A professor at nearby MIT detailed the horrors of antisemitism: “You have people here whom I think, I fear, hold antisemitic views, that you encounter daily and you don’t know it, and you don’t know they have such views towards you. It’s scary.” Indeed, the inability to diagnose people as antisemites due to their stubborn refusal to act as antisemites marks the most severe stage of antisemitism.
A professor of nuclear physics explained that it is very important for him personally to remain there, for the sake of Israeli high-tech and to prevent an academic boycott. Once a week, he gathers all the Israelis at the university for an open meal of Israelis on campus (a clear sign of an antisemitism hotbed). According to Reguer, the forgotten antisemitism has brought Israeli academics a harrowing struggle with a disaster called “the calm after the storm.” A Jewish professor explained that in social circles at Harvard, a Jew who does not explicitly condemn Israeli policy is socially ostracised. But that is also true in my living room in Tel Aviv. It is entirely possible for a Jew who supports Apartheid and occupation of the Territories and the commission of war crimes in Gaza to be ostracised in liberal circles. Instead of antisemitism in the hallways of Harvard, the report documented how the reporter (full strength to you immigrating to antisemitic Boston) and right-wing Israeli academics abroad deny the reality that leads to a non-antisemitic academic boycott. That boycott will indeed exact a heavy economic and research price from Israel and its high-tech.
There are also other Israeli academics on prestigious US universities who oppose Israel’s policies and understand that this is not antisemitism. Reguer did not interview them for the fake antisemitism segment that he concocted.
