Lucas: Harvard chief a good fit for Boston City Council
Claudine Gay should run for Boston City Council. She would fit right in.
In fact, she could swap her job as president of Harvard University — as long she has it– to become president of the city council.
As for now, Gay is safe – unlike University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill who resigned following the furor over her failure before Congress to recognize and address waves of antisemitism on college campuses.
Gay could join in with City Councilor Tania Fernandes-Anderson and others and open council sessions with the anti-Jewish chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and get applause for doing so.
If there is any criticism, she could say that it’s all about the context.
That aside Anderson, on behalf of the city council, presented a resolution to two New Mission High School students for leading a pro-Palestinian walkout at the school. They went on to chant the anti-Jewish slogan, the meaning of which they undoubtedly don’t know.
Outgoing City Council President Ed Flynn, who signed the document, said he never would have had done so had he known what was in it and only later found that it was “blatantly antisemitic.” Other councilors said they did not know what was in it either.
The money Gay would be paid as Flynn’s successor, should she be elected, may not be as great as what Harvard pays, but the dignity, respect and authenticity of the office might be greater than what surrounds Gay following her dismal performance before Congress.
Her brief tenure as president of Harvard was in danger after Gay, in testimony before the House Education Committee hearing on antisemitism on college campuses last week, waffled badly when it came to condemning genocide against the Jews.
She testified that calls for the genocide of Jewish people would only be wrong “depending on the context” caused a furor.
The uproar has already forced the resignation of Magill, who said the same thing, only with a condescending smirk. The third witness was MIT president Sally Kornbluth who seems to have disappeared.
The Gay explosion came when New York Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik asked Gay, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?”
Gay replied, “It can be, depending on the context,” a line she repeated several times to Stefanik’s annoyance,
Stefanik, berating Gay, responded “It does not depend on the context. The answer is yes, and this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board.”
Gay later apologized and walked back her remarks even as a plane trailing a banner reading “Harvard Hates Jews” flew over the college and Saturday’s Army/Navy football game at Gillette Stadium.
Gay said, “What I should have had the presence of mind in that moment was to return to my guiding truth, which calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard and will never go unchallenged.”
What she should have said is that violence against Jews has no place anywhere, but maybe that was asking too much.
And her apology may be too little too late, even though Gay will keep her job, at least for the time being. That is because Congress has promised to investigate antisemitism at Harvard, and there is a lot to investigate.
Were she not so locked into the leftist, woke, pro-Hamas anti-Jewish hysteria that has taken over colleges, Gay could have spoken like Gov. Maura Healey who stood in solidarity with the Jewish community on the first night of Hanukkah last Thursday on Boston Common.
Healey said, “It’s also important we stand up for what is right and what is true — standing against genocide, standing against antisemitism, standing against those who wish to visit pain on others because of their religion, their gender, their identity.
“I want to make clear as governor that we are grateful to the Jewish community, we cherish the Jewish community, and we celebrate the Jewish community,” Healey said.
Amen.
Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist