Correction: This story has been updated to remove a photo of a woman named Eve Gerber who is not the subject of this article.
Eve Gerber, an author and the wife of Barack Obama’s former chief economist, issued a groveling apology this week after a video of her berating a Muslim student near Harvard went viral.
Gerber, who is married to the Harvard professor Jason Furman, said she “deeply” regrets her racist tirade, in which she referred to the graduate student’s traditional Palestinian keffiyeh as a “terrorist scarf.”
The spat happened on Oct. 14, a week after Hamas militants rushed over the Israeli border and slaughtered more than a thousand civilians, sparking a bloody conflict that’s since left more than 20,000 dead, a majority of whom are Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Gerber said she believed the student she berated, who has not been identified, had just left an event near her neighborhood in Massachusetts where she’d heard chants she found “disturbing.”
In the video, Gerber walks up to the unnamed student, acknowledges that she’s being recorded, and then makes a deeply offensive comment.
“Hi, camera,” she starts. “Thank you for walking through neighborhoods and making families feel unsafe with your terrorist scarf.”
The student looks surprised by the comment, but responds, “Palestinians felt pretty unsafe when Israelis occupied their country,” to which Gerber responded, “I’m glad you’re so proud of the slaughtering of civilians.”
Furman privately apologized to the student in an Oct. 20 text that was shared with the Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper. He said there is “absolutely no excuse” to justify his wife’s behavior, adding that “no one should have to go through” what the student endured.
In her own apology, which she posted Wednesday, Gerber conceded that she used “indefensible words.”
“I was wrong to confront someone based on their dress and to use divisive, accusatory language,” she said. “In the two months since this video, I’ve tried to learn more and take reparative action.”
She added, “Hate and inhumanity in any form are abhorrent to me. I deeply regret what I said and did.”
The clip, which has been viewed millions of times since it was posted by The Sparrow Project on Tuesday, was condemned by scores of public officials, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who called Gerber’s actions “shameful and disgusting.”
The Sparrow Project said the student came forward with the video after three Palestinian students were shot as they walked on the street in Burlington, Vermont, last month, a crime authorities have described as being connected to the war in Gaza.
Addressing Gerber’s video, Rep. Greg J. Landsman (D-OH) posted to X, formerly Twitter, that “this has been a difficult, if not traumatic time for so many, especially Muslims and Jews.”
“We absolutely have to lean into our common humanity, not this,” he said.
