Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) on Tuesday accused Harvard University, her alma mater, of enabling "far-left" anti-Semitism.
"Today, Harvard University has been so corrupted by its apparent desperation to appease the far-left that its moral compass has been long forgotten," she wrote in an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, the school's student newspaper. "It is profoundly disappointing to see Harvard University, a prestigious institution which we care so deeply about, devolve from fostering an age of American independence into an institution that enables abhorrent antisemitism."
Stefanik, who graduated with a B.A. from the school in 2006, brought up Harvard president Claudine Gay's response to dozens of student organizations at the school signing on to a statement after Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attacks that alleged Israel was "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence."
"While this statement is sickening and multiple groups have since retracted their signatures," Stefanik wrote, "what is worse is the failure of Harvard’s leadership to immediately condemn the statement. Harvard’s silence created a vacuum in which heinous antisemitism echoes loudly."
The House Republican Conference chair went on to lament the presence on campus of such slogans as "globalize the intifada" and "from the river to the sea." She criticized Gay for stressing the school's commitment to free speech in her statements regarding Israel's war on Hamas after it ranked last in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression's College Free Speech Rankings one month before the beginning of the war.
"President Claudine Gay has certainly revealed the lack of character of Harvard as an institution—coupled with Harvard’s abysmal record of protecting free speech, the willingness of Harvard University to now vehemently defend free speech when that speech calls for the death of Jews and the eradication of Israel is absolutely revelatory in Harvard’s unacceptable lack of moral clarity."
Stefanik also said the "plague of antisemitism" is "rotting out" other college campuses and that she's committed to using her power in Congress to stop it.
Gay has faced criticism from other prominent Harvard alumni for her handling of her campus. Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) was one of five graduates of the university's business school to sign a letter blasting Gay's conduct and that of other administrators as "not leadership," citing "expressions of hate and vitriol against Jews" on the campus.