Harvard president apologizes for her disastrous testimony at antisemitism hearing: ‘Words matter’

The president of Harvard University apologized in an interview with the school’s student newspaper after facing widespread condemnation for her disastrous congressional testimony this week, in which she and other university presidents failed to explicitly say calls for genocide of Jewish people constituted bullying and harassment on campus.

“I am sorry,” Harvard University president Claudine Gay said to The Harvard Crimson on Thursday. “Words matter.”

The apology came just days after Gay, the president of the University of Pennsylvania and the president of MIT testified at a House committee hearing focused on antisemitism on campus, to widespread criticism that they have not done enough to ensure the safety of Jewish students and others at their respective schools.

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.

At UPenn, for example, 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 lose the school.

Harvard is also among 14 colleges under investigation by the Department of Education “for discrimination involving shared ancestry” since the October attacks.

During Tuesday’s House hearing, 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.

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,” Gay told the newspaper. “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.”