"Harvard University and the Lipper Foundationwill continue to discuss the establishment of achair to support a tenured professor in Holocaustand Cognate studies at Harvard in the comingyears," a University press release said.

But now that the search committee has beendisbanded and the Lippers' original gift has beenreallocated, it is unclear how Harvard will fundor fill such a post.

"It is my understanding that the committee isno longer meeting and the process is on hold,"said Ruder.

The Lippers themselves are not certain ofwhether they would be willing to fund a Holocaustchair if Harvard approached them with a candidatein the future.

"We would talk about it at that time," saidEvelyn Lipper.

Maier says that with or without a chair,Harvard will continue to teach Holocaust studies.Maier himself is also teaching a seminar onHolocaust historiography this semester.

"We teach the Holocaust," he said. There's noone tenured scholar for whom the Holocaust is aprimary research interest, but sometimes Holocaustscholars get appointed to regular chairs, not justHolocaust chairs."

Still, some said the failure to fill the chairis a missed opportunity to solidify Harvard'sposition at the forefront of Holocaustscholarship. Peretz predicted that Harvard willeventually establish a Holocaust chair.

"I think that since there are Holocaust chairsnow being discussed at other very distinguisheduniversities like, for example, Yale, Princetonand the university of Chicago, Harvard will sooneror later have a Holocaust chair," said Peretz.

"But alas, it won't have done it when it whenit had this opportunity," he said