Harvard president apologizes for not condemning Jewish genocide calls at antisemitism hearing

MASSACHUSETTS: Harvard University President Claudine Gay apologized for her response during a congressional hearing where she failed to 'explicitly condemn' calls for genocide against the Jewish people, CNN reported. "I am sorry," Harvard University president Claudine Gay said in an interview with the school's student newspaper 'The Harvard Crimson' on Thursday. "Words matter."

The apology came just days after Claudine Gay along with the president of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT testified at a House committee hearing focused on antisemitism on campus to address widespread criticism that "they have not done enough" to ensure the safety of Jewish students and others at their respective schools. Notably, Harvard, UPenn and MIT have all come under fire - along with other US academic institutions - over perceived inaction against antisemitism on their campuses, especially in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel and the subsequent war, CNN reported.

At UPenn, President Liz Magill has been under pressure to resign for weeks, as major donors and others say they have lost confidence in her ability to run the school. Harvard is also among 14 colleges under investigation by the US Department of Education "for discrimination involving shared ancestry" since the October 7 attacks. During the House hearing on December 5, Gay, along with the UPenn and MIT presidents, did not explicitly say that calling for the genocide of Jews would necessarily violate their code of conduct on bullying or harassment. Instead, they explained it would depend on the "circumstances and conduct", CNN reported.

Gay told the Harvard student paper that she regretted what she said. "When words amplify distress and pain, I don't know how you could feel anything but regret," she said to The Crimson. "I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures".

"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," CNN quoted her as saying. "Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth," she added. The Harvard president told the paper that she has heard about how much pain students are in over the past few months. "To contemplate that something I said amplified that pain -- that's really difficult," Gay said to The Crimson.

"It makes me sad." This comes after gay faced several calls to resign, most notably from Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman -- a Harvard graduate who has been a vocal critic of how universities have addressed antisemitism on campus -- who said "they must all resign in disgrace", CNN reported. Underscoring the anger at the three university presidents' testimony, on Friday a bipartisan group of more than 70 US lawmakers sent a letter to board members of all three universities, demanding the dismissal of Gay and the presidents of UPenn and MIT. Magill, like Gay, clarified her remarks on Wednesday.

She said in a short video that she should have been more forceful in her condemnation of hate speech, particularly calls for genocide. She, however, unlike Magill, has not apologized for her testimony, CNN reported. "I was not focused on - but I should have been - the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It's evil. Plain, and simple," Magill said in a video posted on X.

"I want to be clear: A call for genocide of Jewish people...would be harassment or intimidation," she added.