Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a leader among moderate Republicans, has said he’ll no longer participate in planned fellowship programs at Harvard University, condemning what he says is the “dangerous antisemitism that has taken root,” at the Ivy League University.
In a letter posted Monday to X, formerly Twitter, Hogan said the school’s response to actions by student groups in the wake of a sneak attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas, is a “moral stain” on the university.
“While these students have a right to free speech,” Hogan wrote in the letter sent to Harvard President Claudine Gay, and the deans of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Politics and T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “they do not have a right to have hate speech go unchallenged by your institution.”
Hogan, who served two terms as Maryland’s governor from 2015-2023, said he’d been “honored” to accept fellowships at the school, and was looking forward to attending, particularly after having participated in a program at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics last week.
But he had no choice but to withdraw.
“Unfortunately, this letter is to officially inform you that I must regretfully withdraw my offer to participate in this engagement. I cannot condone the dangerous anti-Semitism that has taken root on your campus, especially by more than 30 Harvard student organizations attempting to justify and celebrate Hamas’ terrorism against innocent Israeli and American civilians,” Hogan wrote.
The “horrific terrorist attack was the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust and it should be universally condemned for what it is is: pure evil,” Hogan wrote to Gay and the Harvard administrators.
Harvard has faced ongoing national backlash over the statement signed by more than 30 student groups immediately after the attack, which showed support for Palestinians, blamed the violence in the region on the Israeli government, and expressed disappointment in the university administration’s response.
“This not a decision I have taken lightly, but it is my hope that it may help further spur you to take meaningful action to address anti-Semitism and restore the values Harvard should represent to the world,” Hogan wrote.
He added that “the lessons of history are clear: we must all do our part to take a clear stand in the face of genocidal acts against the Jewish people or any group.
“There is no ‘both sides’ when it comes to the murder, rape, and kidnapping of innocent women and children. I believe very strongly that in this matter there is no room for justification or equivocation,” Hogan wrote.
Hogan’s post had been viewed 1.9 million times as of Tuesday morning, eliciting 1,552 responses. It was reposted 3,937 times.
Last week, the Wexner Foundation, a major donor to Harvard’s Kennedy School, severed ties with the university after seeing what it called a “dismal” response to the war in Israel, MassLive previously reported.
“We are stunned and sickened at the dismal failure of Harvard’s leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians by terrorists,” the foundation wrote in a letter to Harvard’s board of overseers, which was shared on X, by Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan.
The controversy also has found its way to the 2024 presidential campaign.
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a GOP candidate for president in 2024, is backing a bill that would cut off federal funding from Harvard University and other schools that he says “[peddle] blatant antisemitism,” as hundreds of their students advocate for Palestinian rights, MassLive previously reported.
“We must not only call out this hate but crush it wherever it rears its ugly head,” Scott said in a statement posted to his Senate website. “If these schools don’t change their ways, my legislation hits them where it hurts – they’re pocketbooks. No college or university should receive a single cent from the federal government to fund violent antisemitism.”
In an Oct. 10 statement posted to Harvard’s website, Gay said that while “our students have the right to speak for themselves, no student group — not even 30 student groups — speaks for Harvard University or its leadership.
“We will all be well served in such a difficult moment by rhetoric that aims to illuminate and not inflame. And I appeal to all of us in this community of learning to keep this in mind as our conversations continue,” Gay continued.
