Pro-Israel activists, Jewish students and Harvard alumni have erupted in fury over the appointment of Nicholas Kristof’s wife to a leading role on the university’s oversight board.
Critics have accused the Ivy League giant of rewarding a family with a record of inflammatory commentary on Israel at the worst possible moment.
Sheryl WuDunn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Goldman Sachs executive, has been named vice chair of the executive committee of Harvard’s Board of Overseers – the institution’s second-highest governing body – for the coming academic year.
The board is made up of 30 alumni who advise university leadership on academic priorities and institutional direction.
The appointment of WuDunn, 66, who is married to New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof, 67, landed like a grenade on a campus already under intense scrutiny for its handling of antisemitism in the wake of Hamas‘s October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Harvard has faced funding freezes, federal probes and lawsuits from the Trump administration over allegations of a toxic campus culture that too often equates anti-Zionism with the routine exclusion of pro-Israel students and staff.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Kristof’s May 11 column in the Times included graphic allegations that Israeli prison guards had committed sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly branded the piece a modern-day ‘blood libel’ and Israel’s prison service categorically rejected the accusations of sexual abuse contained in the column.
The Times defended it as a ‘deeply reported piece of opinion journalism’ that had been ‘extensively fact-checked.’
WuDunn publicly backed her husband, praising his reporting as ‘careful, meticulous, and courageous.’
Kristof, for his part, celebrated his wife’s Harvard appointment on X, calling her a ‘fantastic choice.’
Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, a major pro-Israel educational group, slammed Harvard for ‘elevating someone who defended an article filled with factual inaccuracies.’
‘This is an unfortunate, though not a surprising decision, given Harvard’s ongoing failure to adequately address antisemitism affecting Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus,’ Rothstein told the Daily Mail.
‘Harvard’s leadership should recommit itself to academic rigor, intellectual honesty, and a safe environment for all its students, where serious issues are approached with facts rather than sensationalism.’
The fiercest public rebuke came from Samantha Ettus, an author and Harvard graduate, who went straight for the university’s president.
‘Harvard’s antisemitism problem isn’t getting better,’ she posted on X. ‘It’s getting promoted into leadership. She is married to blood libelist Nicholas Kristof. Harvard knew. Harvard chose her anyway.’
Alexander ‘Shabbos’ Kestenbaum, a Harvard alumnus and one of the most prominent public voices against antisemitism at America’s oldest university, told Fox News the timing of the announcement was deeply troubling.
‘The university knew exactly what type of backlash this would receive and decided after the article had already been published to reveal this information,’ he said.
‘I don’t judge her necessarily by the actions of her husband, but it’s really the timing that seems odd – to put it mildly.’
Kestenbaum went further, arguing that Harvard had taken on the Trump administration’s funding demands with ‘far greater alacrity and seriousness than they ever even pretended to fight against antisemitism’ – a charge that will sting an institution desperately trying to repair its battered public image.
Social media critics piled on, questioning what qualifications WuDunn brought to the oversight role beyond her status as Kristof’s wife and co-author.
Some demanded lawmakers ‘defund Harvard’ over what they described as the university’s continuing tolerance of antisemitism.
Harvard leadership has privately acknowledged growing bipartisan anger toward elite universities and the mounting damage to the institution’s reputation.
WuDunn is a formidable figure in her own right. A former New York Times journalist and senior executive, she later moved to Goldman Sachs before co-founding the business consultancy FullSky Partners.
She and Kristof jointly won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in China.
The celebrated couple has three children and lives on a sprawling multimillion-dollar farm in Yamhill, Oregon, which produces wine and cider.
Harvard president Alan Garber praised both WuDunn and newly appointed Board of Overseers president Raymond J Lohier Jr – a federal appeals court judge – as ‘distinguished alumni’ with a ‘deep commitment’ to student wellbeing and the university’s long-term mission.
The Daily Mail reached out to WuDunn, Kristof, and Harvard for comment, as well as major pro-Israel organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the American Jewish Committee. None responded.
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