New Delhi: Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance has written to Jeremy M. Weinstein, Harvard Kennedy School dean, to strip New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof of an endowed lecture honour. Kristof has widely reported on sexual violence against Palestinian men, women and children.
In an exchange of three letters over 10 days, starting on 28 August, HJAA made three requests – the school withdraw the honour, Harvard should publish its criteria for Malcolm H. Wiener honorees, and the dean should meet the group before the lecture.
However, in the last letter exchanged on 6 September, Weinstein refused the Jewish group’s all three requests.
“To withdraw such an invitation, however, calls into question our very commitment to free speech and to fostering an environment in which controversial positions can be heard, engaged with, and publicly scrutinized,” he wrote.
Also read: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she won’t listen to Ed Sheeran if it’s playing
No questions of Kristof’s right to speak
Founded in 1988, the Malcolm H. Wiener Lecture is a prominent annual lecture series, where notable public figures are called to the stage to share their views. Journalist Kristof was invited to deliver the lecture at the Harvard Kennedy School.
However, HJAA, in its last reply, questioned Kristof’s article titled: “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” published on 11 May, and urged the school to withdraw his name. The lecture, which was originally scheduled for 17 September, was pushed back to 18 September, citing a scheduling issue at Kristof’s end, according to The Crimson.
“We did not question Mr. Kristof’s right to speak,” the letter reads.
The letter pointed out the dean’s silence on the two other requests.
“We end where we began, with the question your letter did not answer: why is the School choosing to honor this man, at this moment, when his professional credibility is under review at his own newspaper and his most recent notable work is the column of May 11, which Israel’s Foreign Ministry called one of the worst blood libels in the modern press and which his own Executive Editor would not fully stand behind? Until that question is answered, this decision stands as one more instance of a Harvard that hears its Jewish community and does not answer,” the HJAA argued in the letter.
However, the last letter from Weinstein states that inviting Kristof “does not suggest institutional agreement with the views a guest has espoused”.
“The Harvard Kennedy School hosts hundreds of speakers each year, representing a wide variety of views, backgrounds, political ideologies and policy prescriptions. When they come to campus, we expect all speakers to engage with members of our community, and, in turn, to be challenged by them. This approach reflects the school’s culture of free and rigorous inquiry, in which we promote honest debate and constructive disagreement in our classrooms, research centers, and public events,” read in Weinstein’s response.
This is not the first time Harvard Kennedy School is facing such a controversy. A pro-Israel critic in February 2024 called on the school to retract the invitation to Dalal Saeb Iriqat, a Palestinian professor who had described the 7 October attack on social media as a “normal struggle 4 #Freedom”. But the school did not withdraw, reported The Crimson.
HJAA had not stepped back from their request, and had demanded “withdraw the honour” in their 7 September letter.
“We ask for the School’s answer by Friday, September 11. After that date we will regard the record of this exchange as complete,” the letter read.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)