Co-chair of Harvard antisemitism task force resigns abruptly

The co-chair of Harvard University’s new task force on antisemitism has resigned from the group just more than a month since its creation, the university confirmed to The Hill.

Harvard Business School professor Raffaella Sadun will be replaced by Jared Ellias, a professor of Harvard Law School, Harvard’s interim President Alan Garber said Sunday in a message to the school’s community.

“Professor Sadun has expressed her desire to refocus her efforts on her research, teaching and administrative responsibilities at HBS,” Garber wrote in a statement shared with The Hill. “I am extremely appreciative of Professor Sadun’s participation in the task force over the past weeks. 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 to The Hill, Sadun said she is “grateful” for the opportunity to work on the task force and said she will “continue to support efforts to tackle antisemitism at Harvard in any way I can from my faculty position.”

The abrupt resignation, first reported by The Harvard Crimson, comes just more than a month since the “Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism” was announced in mid-January.

The task force’s inception came after widespread backlash from lawmakers, students, and alumni over the school’s response, or lack thereof, to increased antisemitism on campus. These concerns were hoisted into the spotlight when Harvard’s then-President Claudine Gay testified in December before the House Education Committee alongside University of Pennsylvania’s then-President Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, in defense of their schools’ policies.

Magill resigned days later amid mounting criticism, and Gay resigned in early January amid similar criticism, coupled with accusations of plagiarism. Garber is serving as the Ivy League school’s interim president.

Antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents saw a spike last fall across the country, including on college campuses, in the wake of Palestinian militant group Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a vow to eliminate the threat of Hamas and has carried out a land and air campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 29,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Harvard also created a separate task force to combat anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias, and Garber last month said the two task forces are aimed at exploring why the school is seeing a rise in antisemitism and anti-Arab bias and proposing recommendations to curb it, The Associated Press reported.

Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman weighed in on Sadun’s resignation later Sunday, writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “The half life of a @Harvard antisemitism task force member is about 60 days. I wonder what’s going on.”

The antisemitism task force’s other co-chair, Derek Penslar, a professor of Jewish history, is remaining in his position, according to Garber’s message to the community. His selection to co-chair the task force drew criticism last month from some who pointed to Penslar’s background and previous positions, per a CNN Business report.

Garber also announced Ali Asani, a professor of Middle Eastern studies, was added to the leadership for the school’s task force on combating anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias.

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