Harvard’s New President is a Jewish Doctor
Dr. Alan Garber has been formalized as Harvard University’s President after a swirl of Ivy League controversy due to pro-Palestinian campus activities, and the reactions to it.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
In the world of musical chairs for Ivy League university presidents, Harvard’s new choice of Dr. Alan Garber stands out.
National news headlined former President Claudine Gay’s early January resignation from Harvard as she was unable that admit that hypothetical calls for genocide of Jews was bad, versus “depending on the circumstance,” along with the departure of University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill.
Dr. Garber was Harvard’s Provost and stepped in as interim president for seven months. On Aug. 2, he was given the official title until mid-2027.
Unlike recent newsmaker Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania, who lists his Jewish day school background (along with his wife’s), not much is known about Garber’s personal life. His wife, Dr. Anne Yahanda, of Asian descent, with whom he shares four children, is also an MD. Garber hails from Illinois, and attended Stanford University in addition to Harvard.
Because he was Provost at Harvard, he was the likely choice to step in as interim president. With its billions in capital accounts, Harvard equals money. The Ivy League schools have lost donor funds because of administrations’ failures to address antisemitism on campus and in the classroom. Thus, Garber has been working to allay fears to get back on course.
Some noteworthy positions surface in his background; recently, a PETA activist, who was subsequently arrested, threw gold glitter at Garber during a speech. With much aplomb, he maintained his poise and laughed, “I could use a little glitter.” Then went on to maintain that Harvard would always allow freedom of thought and speech.
He was involved in a case in 2016 against faculty/grad students unionizing. He recently drew criticism by not allowing 13 undergraduates to collect their diplomas at commencement because of their pro-Palestinian protest activity.
Garber is on record as having collected in the millions for serving on pharmaceutical boards — with full legal disclosure.
Student Shabbos Kappenstein was a star of the Republican National Convention when he passionately spoke about his own experience at Harvard. With the appointment of Garber, just how does the pendulum swing from antisemitic to Jewish, or not so fast, as the dust settles?
Senior statesman, the late Henry Kissinger, said that to maintain credibility, one has to have the appearance of fairness; in other words, not being too openly pro-Jewish or pro-Israel. Rabbi David Wolpe, included in Newsweek’s “Most Influential Rabbi in America” in 2012, and author of “Why Faith Matters,” recently resigned in protest from Gay’s Harvard advisory group on antisemitism; while this reporter implored him to stay and fight from the inside instead of risking the appointment of a hostile replacement.
Penny Pritzker, a Jewish-American billionaire heiress from Chicago and is related to the family who co-founded Hyatt Hotels and the current Illinois governor, is the current U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery. Also a Stanford and Harvard alum, she wrote the recent statement formalizing Garber’s appointment:
“This Fall will bring new and existing students and faculty back to campus. All eyes are on what will or will not change. Photos of a bearded 69-year-old Garber could easily be that of a Yeshiva ‘bucher’ (boy). In terms of Garber’s appointment, local retired physician and political pundit, Steve Morris, MD, said, ‘It depends on what kind of Jew … a Bernie Sanders Jew? Just because someone is Jewish, we can no longer presume they are pro-Israel or even Zionists or even if they have the best interest of Jews in their core DNA. I like Brett Stephen’s editorial, ‘For Jews, everyday must be October 8.’”
Columbia University’s Egyptian-born president Minouche Shafik, a Muslim baroness and economist, resigned unexpectedly on Aug. 14 amid months of swirled controversy. Atlanta’s Jewish Emory University president Dr. Greg Fenves has been in the eye of the storm, so far successfully navigating college unrest with a liberal faculty not willing to support him.
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