Rabbi slams Harvard over antisemitism in new blow to president Claudine Gay: ‘No sense of urgency or anger’

A Harvard rabbi has launched a blistering attack on the Ivy League college, warning antisemitic students are facing no consequences for their actions.

Rabbi David Wolpe, a visiting professor at its divinity school who was asked by its embattled president Claudine Gay to advise on antisemitism, told The Post that Jewish and pro-Israel students are the target of a “deliberate attempt” at intimidation on campus.

And he said he had felt forced to quit Gay’s high-profile panel on antisemitism because Harvard was treating a crisis for Jewish students as “a bureaucratic snafu.”

Harvard has been roiled by antisemitic on-campus protests since Hamas terrorists massacred up to 1,200 Israelis on October 7 — then plunged into further crisis by Gay’s handling of the situation.

She was forced to apologize for disastrous testimony to Congress earlier this month, which also cost the president of the University of Pennsylvania her job.

Wolpe quit the antisemitism panel after Gay’s appearance in front of Congress and told The Post he had been appalled by Gay’s failure to say that students calling for the genocide of the Jewish people would be disciplined.

“I wanted to tear my hair out,” Wolpe told The Post. “At that moment I felt the crisis had to be addressed.

“I saw it as an urgent crisis. They spoke as if it was a bureaucratic snafu that needed to be corrected. There was no sense of urgency, no sense of anger, no sense of disgust.”

His attack increases pressure on Gay, who has also been accused of plagiarism in her academic work. The Post revealed how the college covered up a weeks-long investigation into whether she used other researchers’ work without crediting it and hired a bulldog law firm to help the cover-up.

Wolpe, 65, a visiting professor at Harvard, has been called “the most influential rabbi in America” and was both a longtime leader of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles — he retired in June — and the inaugural Rabbinic Fellow at the Anti-Defamation League.

He was one of nine members of Harvard’s Antisemitism Advisory Group, convened by Gay in October and made up of what she called “trusted voices,” from faculty, alumni, students and leaders of the Harvard Jewish community.

It includes former Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow and author and former Harvard professor Dara Horn, who wrote the 2021 essay collection “People Love Dead Jews.”

Wolpe told The Post that he has a great deal of admiration for his fellow former panelists, saying “I still talk to everyone.”

He had urged Harvard University to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism but felt the school had “no sense of urgency.”

The Berlin-based group works with governments around the world to promote education about the Holocaust and defines antisemitism to include “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

Anti-Israel demonstrations at Harvard have included a man in a Palestinian keffiyeh calling Jews “Nazis” and “pigs” days after the October 7 attack, and students repeatedly waving banners calling Israel an “apartheid state.”

Adopting the proposal would have put pressure on Harvard to discipline students taking part in the anti-Israel demonstrations.

Harvard has not adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, and a spokesman for the school did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

“I wanted a public disciplinary process for those who violate Harvard’s rules, and I have not seen any consequences,” said Wolpe.

“There are so many incidents of antisemitism. There is a climate of intimidation. This is not about free speech. It’s a deliberate attempt to scare Jewish and pro-Israel students.”

Harvard is being investigated over its handling of antisemitism by the Department of Education under Title VI, a law that bans discrimination based on race, religion or national origin in an institution that receives federal funding.

Wolpe said he was not surprised that the Ivy League presidents sought legal advice for their Congressional appearances from WilmerHale, a prominent law firm whose attorneys charge upwards of $1,500 an hour.

“Sometimes you have to put your principles aside and do the right thing,” said Wolpe. “These are the finest institutions in the land. Where is their fury?”