Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson, another signer of the divestment petition, said he agreed with Summers’ underlying message about the danger of a rise in anti-Semitism, but said that the protests over divestment were not anti-Semitic.

“This is in no way a protest against the State of Israel, but against the Sharon government, the Bush government and their policies,” Hanson said.

“The same moral convictions that underlie my feelings against anti-Semitism underlie my position on the right of the Palestinians to their own land,” he said.

Summers’ statements Tuesday were his most explicit—and most political—to date on the issues surrounding Israel. Last spring, Summers rejected calls for divestment, arguing that political advocacy is not the proper province of the University.

The speech was also one of Summers’ more personal.

“I am Jewish, identified but hardly devout,” explained Summers, who is Harvard’s first Jewish president.

“In my lifetime, anti-Semitism has been remote from my experience,” Summers said, a fact which he had attributed to a growth in tolerance and an acceptance of the Israeli state’s right to exist.

“But today, I am less complacent,” he said.

He said that he has long been wary of those who raise the specter of anti-Semitism in response to any disagreement over Israel.

But he said such views “seem rather less alarmist in the world of today than they did a year ago.”

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.