Congressional Committee Releases Staff Report on Harvard's Response to Antisemitism on Campus

Yesterday the House Committee on Education and the Workforce released a Staff Report titled Investigative Update-- The Antisemitism Advisory Group and Harvard’s Response: Clarity and Inaction (full text). The Report's Executive Summary says in part:

On October 27, 2023, Harvard University’s then-President Claudine Gay announced the formation of an eight-member Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG, or the Group) amidst considerable scrutiny of the University’s response to increased antisemitism on its campus following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel....

The Committee on Education and the Workforce investigation has found that in mid-December 2023 the AAG presented Harvard’s leaders with a robust set of significant recommendations on combating antisemitism at Harvard, which were not made public and remain unimplemented. 

These recommendations include “zero tolerance” of classroom disruptions; protecting shared learning environments; holding student organizations accountable for adhering to University rules; countering antisemitic speech; reviewing the academic rigor of classes and programs with antisemitic content; reviewing Harvard’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging’s (OEDIB) inadequacy in addressing antisemitism; increasing intellectual diversity; and investigating the potential influence of “dark money” from Iran, Qatar, and associates of terrorist groups on campus....

The failure to implement the AAG’s advice did not come from a lack of engagement by Harvard’s seniormost leaders.... Unfortunately, this involvement, even if well-intentioned, did not translate to taking the actions required to address the explosion of virulent antisemitism at Harvard in a meaningful way.

JNS has a lengthy report on reactions to the release of the Congressional committee staff report.

Students Sue Harvard for Antisemitism Violating Title VI

Suit was filed this week in a Massachusetts federal district court by Harvard University students against the University charging that the University is in violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by failing to protect Jewish students from "rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment." It also alleges breach of contract claims. The 77-page complaint (full text) in Kestenbaum v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, (D MA, filed 1/10/2024) says in part:

Harvard’s antisemitism cancer—as a past Harvard president termed it—manifests itself in a double standard invidious to Jews. Harvard selectively enforces its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, hires professors who support anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda, and ignores Jewish students’ pleas for protection. Those professors teach and advocate through a binary oppressor-oppressed lens, through which Jews, one of history’s most persecuted peoples, are typically designated “oppressor,” and therefore unworthy of support or sympathy. Harvard permits students and faculty to advocate, without consequence, the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish country in the world. Meanwhile, Harvard requires students to take a training class that warns that they will be disciplined if they engage in sizeism, fatphobia, racism, transphobia, or other disfavored behavior....

Harvard’s purported excuse for refusing to take disciplinary measures and sitting by idly as the Jew-bashing on campus escalates—that antisemitic harassment is protected by free expression principles—confirms its antisemitic double standard. Considering that Harvard aggressively enforces policies to address bias against other minorities and regularly disciplines students and faculty members who harass other groups or espouse viewpoints Harvard deems inappropriate, its refusal to discipline students attacking, harassing, or intimidating Jews is glaring. Based on its track record, it is inconceivable that Harvard would allow any group other than Jews to be targeted for similar abuse or that it would permit, without response, students and professors to call for the annihilation of any country other than Israel....

Harvard must now be compelled to implement institutional, far-reaching, and concrete remedial measures, including, among other things: (i) disciplinary measures, including the termination of, deans, administrators, professors, and other employees responsible for antisemitic discrimination and abuse, whether because they engage in it or permit it; (ii) disciplinary measures, including suspension or expulsion, against students who engage in such conduct; (iii) declining and returning donations, whether from foreign countries or elsewhere, implicitly or explicitly conditioned on the hiring or promotion of professors who espouse antisemitism or the inclusion of antisemitic coursework or curricula; (iv) adding required antisemitism training for Harvard community members; and (v) payment of appropriate damages for lost or diminished educational opportunities, among other things.

Harvard Crimson reports on the lawsuit.