Harvard President Apologizes for Congressional Testimony on Antisemitism

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, apologized to the university community for her testimony before Congress, where she gave evasive responses to questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate campus policies.

“I am sorry,” Dr. Gay said in an interview that the campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, published on Friday. “Words matter.”

“When words amplify distress and pain, I don’t know how you could feel anything but regret,” she said.

The interview came as Dr. Gay faced a storm of repercussions, including the abrupt resignation of a rabbi from Harvard’s antisemitism advisory committee, the start of a congressional inquiry and even suggestions from a prominent alumnus that she was unqualified for her post, which she assumed in July.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/us/claudine-gay-harvard-president-apology-crimson.html

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Two down, one to go.....

[dlk]

1. The non-apology apology

Weak tea.

[madaboutharry]

2. Words do matter, Dr. Gay.

This was the first attempt to clear up the "confusion."

"There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students. Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account," Gay said on Wednesday.

Today, three days later, we get this:

"I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures," Gay told the campus publication. "What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged....Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth."

https://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-president-claudine-gay-apologizes-antisemitism-jewish-genocide-remarks-congress-2023-12

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/8/gay-apology-congressional-remarks/

This second try sounds very much like Liz Magill's failure "to focus."

What is so hard about simply saying something like "I was wrong in failing to understand that there is no context to a call for genocide. I failed to understand the anguish and fear of Jewish students and the failure of the university to protect them from vile hate speech. We must do better. We must revisit our code of conduct so that hate speech on campus is not tolerated and we provide a safe environment for all".

That isn't that hard, is it Dr. Gay?