Feeling like a medieval messenger, Abraham Verghese said, the distinguished physician and writer had “slipped into the besieged community” of Harvard University late last month to deliver the school’s commencement address.

Any other year, such a metaphor would have been absurd. Even a year ago at Harvard, the very notion of community was stretching the definition of the word, with students and faculty at odds over the school’s response to the conflict in the Middle East. A matter of weeks ago, twin internal Harvard reports had found both a rise in “Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli bias” and in “Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian bias.” No wonder the university’s President Alan Garber called the 2023-24 academic year “disappointing and painful.”

But nothing squelches internal fight

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