The work of Isabel Wilkerson is a favorite in Harvard faculty circles, yet many have forgotten or ignored a key lesson of her book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. In her seminal work, Wilkerson declares, “Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.”

Over the past two years, the depths of anti-Semitic hate have been on full display on college campuses nationwide, with Harvard being a national leader in trafficking intolerance, moral rot, and hatred toward Jews. Despite public statements that the university would meaningfully address these concerns, the school paid lip service to the ideas of diversity, and almost nothing substantive happened to address the rampant anti-Semitic climate. Notably, aside from pro-terror faculty supporting campus disruptions and unending calls for violence and harm, the core of the university—the Harvard faculty—has remained silent, absent, or retreated into tepid statements of procedural neutrality.

Harvard faculty showed little courage or morality over the past two years; many failed to speak and take action to protect Jewish students and exemplify the school’s mission of “advanc[ing] new ideas and promot[ing] knowledge.” Harvard’s mission can only be realized when ideas and merit are respected and people are not threatened based on religious or other immutable characteristics.

Faculty and administrators across Harvard must have been aware of what was playing out on campus; the faculty-led protests and disruptions in Widener Library made national news. Flags and keffiyehs were omnipresent, as were the principles of DEI, from Harvard Yard to the Medical Quad, which fixated on identity and harm and managed to politicize every facet of the education and discovery process. However, members of the faculty ignored the suffering of the Jewish community and the shared responsibility for their own institution’s behavior.