Harvard Identifies Person Who Tore Down Chabad Poster as University Employee, Condemns Removal as ‘Hateful’

Harvard condemned the actions of a pro-Palestine protester who tore down a poster of Israeli hostages at a Monday rally “in the strongest possible terms” in a Wednesday morning email to University affiliates.

Sherri A. Charleston, Harvard’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, confirmed in her message that the protester was a University employee. Photos of the incident reviewed by The Crimson showed the protester wearing the Harvard ID badge of Jonathan S. Tuttle, a cataloguer at the Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library.

Tuttle declined to comment on the incident on Tuesday.

Charleston wrote that the protester’s actions “violate the university and community values that unite us” and denounced them as “hateful.”

The posters, which were displayed by Harvard Chabad on kiosks in Harvard Yard, depicted the faces of the Bibas children, two Israeli citizens taken hostage by militants during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Hamas returned the remains of the children to Israel in February during an exchange.

Charleston wrote in her email that the poster’s removal violates the University’s rules on the use of campus spaces. The rules, released in August 2024, prohibit “tampering with or removing” approved displays.

The incident took place during a Monday Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine rally, in which protesters moved from the Science Center Plaza into Harvard Yard after several counterprotesters attempted to drown out the rally’s speakers with loud music.

In her email, Charleston described the poster’s removal as an “affront” to free expression on campus in her email.

“The response to speech with which we disagree is more speech, not less; it’s more listening, more dialogue,” Charleston wrote. “It disparages those in our community when their perspectives or experiences are negated by destructive acts like these.”

“Let us stand united in condemning acts that undermine the fabric of our community,” she added.

On Tuesday, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote that the Harvard University Police Department is currently investigating the matter as a “as a bias-related incident.”

Monday’s events follow a March 2024 incident in which a man contracted by the University to do groundskeeping work was filmed removing posters of Israeli hostages from a bulletin board outside Thayer Hall.

The contracted worker was ordered to leave campus and barred from returning to Harvard, and the University condemned his actions in a statement to The Crimson at the time.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.