Letter from Mary Anne Whelan

Stefanik Distorts Harvard Message

In her weekly update to constituents, our Congressional Representative Elise Stefanik proudly presents her efforts to have the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, recalled from her presidency on the basis of alleged antisemitism. This is based on Gay’s statement to Stefanik concerning the importance of context in free speech. But here is the message that Gay sent out to the university, its students, graduates and officers on October 12, 2023:

“We can try to be a force for something different and better…Our University rejects terrorism…our University rejects hate—hate of Jews, hate of Muslims, hate of any group of people based on their faith, their national origin, or any aspect of their identity…It’s in the freedom to speak that we reveal our characters…how we go forward as a community is up to each of us.”

This a call to respond to antisemitism, not an endorsement of it.

We note that Stefanik was dismissed from her Harvard committee at the Kennedy School as a senior advisor because of her persistent intellectual dishonesty in denying the validity of the past presidential election. Her distortion of Gay’s position and her call for the resignation of [Harvard’s] president reflects her resentment of her censorship by that institution.

Indeed, context is important.

Mary Anne Whelan
Cooperstown