Why did the co-chair of Harvard’s antisemitism task force resign?

More chaos as business school professor Raffaella Sadun abruptly quits committee after 5 weeks

Harvard Business School Professor Raffaella Sadun abruptly resigned from a university task force on antisemitism. Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images

By Beth Harpaz February 26, 2024

The Harvard Business School professor who was appointed to co-chair a task force on antisemitism at the university abruptly quit the committee after five weeks.

The resignation of Raffaella Sadun was reported Sunday by The Harvard Crimson.

Sadun did not publicly disclose her reasons for leaving the effort and did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Crimson cited unnamed sources saying Sadun was frustrated that the university would not commit, in advance, to accepting recommendations from the task force, rather than regarding any such guidance as optional.

The latest round of chaos at Harvard

It’s the latest round of chaos from the elite university, which has been engulfed by anti-Israel student protests and allegations of antisemitism ever since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

Sadun’s co-chair on the task force, Derek Penslar, who is Jewish and who teaches Jewish history, has also reportedly considered resigning after being criticized for signing an open letter that described Israel’s control over the West Bank as “a regime of apartheid.”

In an interview with the Forward, Penslar defended his viewpoint, saying he saw no contradiction between “being critical of a particular country’s policies and having a deep love of the country.”

Sadun’s resignation just 37 days after her Jan. 19 appointment is the second high-profile departure from Harvard’s efforts to counter antisemitism. In December, Rabbi David J. Wolpe resigned from an antisemitism advisory committee established by then-Harvard President Claudine Gay after Gay was asked in a Congressional hearing if calling for the genocide of Jews was a violation of the school’s code of conduct.

Gay’s response — “It can be, depending on the context,” rather than an unequivocal denunciation of the theoretical statement — resulted in a firestorm. Allegations of plagiarism in her research and writing then forced her to step down as president.

Bill Ackman’s wry tweet

Wolpe’s resignation took place about 40 days after his appointment.

“The half life of a ⁦@Harvard⁩ antisemitism task force member is about 60 days,” billionaire Bill Ackman wrote Sunday on the social media platform X after Sadun’s departure came to light. “I wonder what’s going on.”

Ackman, a Harvard alumnus and hedge fund manager, has been highly critical of the anti-Israel protest movement at Harvard and the university’s response.

The half life of a ⁦@Harvard⁩ antisemitism task force member is about 60 days. I wonder what’s going on. https://t.co/uPaozimCCJ
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) February 25, 2024

In a statement distributed by Harvard, Sadun, who is Jewish, said she was “grateful to have had the opportunity to help advance the vital work to combat antisemitism” and that she would “continue to support efforts to tackle antisemitism at Harvard in any way I can from my faculty position.”

Interim Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement that Sadun planned to “refocus her efforts on her research, teaching and administrative responsibilities.”

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, the founding president of Harvard Chabad, told the Crimson that Sadun had been frustrated about the task force for some time.

Harvard announced that Jared A. Ellias, a law school professor, would replace Sadun.

Beth Harpaz is a reporter at the Forward. She previously covered politics and breaking news for The Associated Press and has written three nonfiction books.

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