Being known for anti-Israel campus activism not only won’t hurt one’s chances at Harvard University, but the Ivy League school apparently looks favorably upon such people when it weighs which “high-prestige, competitive” fellowships it ought to support institutionally, according to a newsletter article by Ira Stoll.
The private university in Cambridge, Mass., has given nine fellowships—including Rhodes and Truman scholarships—to anti-Israel activists recently, Stoll wrote.
“These fellowships function as rewards that Harvard bestows upon anti-Israel activists,” he wrote. “Some of them are scholarships that Harvard awards itself. Others have external decision makers or funding, yet are still driven by Harvard handpicking candidates to recommend effusively and to endorse officially via faculty letters and the Harvard fellowship office.”
“It is an important dynamic, because incoming and neutral Harvard students, who haven’t made up their minds on Israel-related issues, see the social cues,” Stoll added.
The nine have views that range from “foolish” to boycotting the Jewish state to disrupting campus activities. He named the students “to fault the grownups at Harvard,” who “are the ones who are supposed to be in charge of these matters,” he wrote.
“It appears to be something like official policy at Harvard to ensure the most antisemitic, anti-American students receive the most prestigious awards and fellowships, including Rhodes scholarships,” wrote Noah Pollak, a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Education.
Among the nine is Thomas Barone, a Rhodes scholar, who wrote in the Crimson, the Harvard student paper, in May 2024 that “Israel is committing atrocities in Gaza,” and Eva Frazier, who wears a keffiyeh in a photo in Harvard’s announcement of her Truman scholarship, according to Stoll.
Elsewhere on the Harvard site, Frazier identifies as “an organizer with the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Community.”