Mission Statement
Harvard holds a cherished place in our hearts, serving not just as an academic institution but as a symbol of excellence and truth. Together, we at the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance affirm our dedication to the values that define us as a pluralistic community, both as Jews and as Harvard alumni. We unite to protect the students, faculty, and staff of the Harvard Jewish community. We remain inspired by the transformative, welcoming experiences we enjoyed at Harvard and hope our actions today pave the way for a future where integrity, inclusivity, understanding, and mutual respect guide us.
Objectives and Requests
As concerned alumni of Harvard University we, the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA), advocate for (in Harvard’s words) “a community that is open, welcoming and inclusive and that supports all community members in pursuit of the University’s mission of learning, teaching, research and discovery.”
We believe that to achieve the University’s stated mission requires an environment that encourages informed dialogue, critical thinking, mutual respect, empathy, academic integrity and academic freedom. Harvard’s mission also requires a safe learning and non-hostile work environment. To repair, restore, and strengthen our beloved school, we respectfully request that the interim- President of Harvard and the Harvard Corporation promptly:
- Take swift, concrete and public action to enforce the University’s codes of conduct uniformly and without exception, and discipline students, faculty and staff who violate them. Disrupting classes, occupying buildings and inciting violence should not be tolerated.
- Adopt the widely-accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, including all of its examples, as part of the official Harvard policies for identifying and investigating alleged incidents of antisemitic discrimination, harassment, intimidation and other conduct.
- Adopt University-wide a set of clearly articulated principles of academic freedom and institutional neutrality such as those promulgated by The Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard.
- Initiate an independent, third-party investigation and public report of various practices at each Harvard school, including curriculum, student orientation, events, admissions, faculty hiring, teaching assistant and research oversight, and enforcement of policies, which may violate Harvard’s anti-discrimination policy or its anti-bullying policy or the IHRA definition.
- Launch a transparent inquiry, with input from both internal and external stakeholders, followed by a public report, to review and revise the objectives and practices of each Harvard school’s respective Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (ODEIB), in light of their recent failure to sufficiently include Jews and antisemitism in their mission and programming.
- Mandate that all faculty, staff and all offices whose responsibility is to address issues of discrimination receive ongoing training on the IHRA definition of antisemitism with all of its helpful examples and on the use of social media and other platforms to spread hate and bigotry. We reference Harvard Anti-Discrimination Policy and Harvard Anti-Bullying Policy each effective as of September 1, 2023.
Board
President | Eric Fleiss |
Vice President | Adrian Ashkenazy |
Secretary | Zoe Bernstein |
Treasurer | Clarence Schwab |
VP Social Media/Media Relations | Roni Brunn |
VP Harvard Outreach | Lori Fein |
VP Campus Support | Kiran Lang |
VP Education | Jessica Levin |
VP Membership | Libby Shani |
Board Member At-Large | Edmond Safra |
Board Member At-Large | Michael Esrubilsky |