Even as he cited the “age-old stereotype of wealthy Jewish bankers controlling the world,” a former U.S. secretary of labor wrote in The Guardian that wealthy Jewish donors brought down Claudine Gay as Harvard University president.
“As a Jew, I also cannot help but worry that the actions of these donors—many of them Jewish, many from Wall Street—could fuel the very antisemitism they claim to oppose, based on the age-old stereotype of wealthy Jewish bankers controlling the world,” Robert Reich wrote.
The University of California, Berkeley public-policy professor “purports to oppose the antisemitic stereotype of ‘wealthy Jewish bankers controlling the world’ while simultaneously going out of his way to highlight the Jewish background of a few Harvard Board members, alumni or donors who he claims (falsely) were instrumental in bringing down Gay,” wrote the UK division of the media watchdog CAMERA.
“But, even if ‘many’ of the donors instrumental in Gay’s resignation were ‘Jewish,’ why would that matter?” it said.
“One of the most fundamental truths about antisemitism is that Jewish behavior doesn’t cause antisemitism—just as, for example, white racism towards black Americans isn’t caused by black behavior,” CAMERA added. “It’s a shame that this even needs to be stated, but antisemites—and antisemites alone—are solely responsible for their racist attitudes towards Jews, even if they’re ‘wealthy Jewish donors.’”