The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Harvard University alleging that the private school violated the rights of Jewish and Israeli students under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
“After Hamas’s attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Harvard has tolerated antisemitic mobs of students, faculty and visitors allegedly expressing their opposition to Israel by assaulting, harassing and intimidating Jewish and Israeli students with perceived racial, ethnic and national connections to Israel,” the department stated.
“Harvard has been deliberately indifferent to its Jewish and Israeli students’ plight and failed to prevent such conduct by selectively enforcing its campus rules to permit it to continue,” the department said. “Harvard ignored what its own presidential task force on combating antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias deemed the ‘exclusion of Israeli or Zionist students from social spaces and extracurricular activities.’”
The federal government further alleges that the Cambridge, Mass., school “failed to meaningfully discipline the mobs that occupied its buildings and terrorized its Jewish and Israeli students.”
Pamela Bondi, U.S. attorney general, stated that since Oct. 7, “too many of our educational institutions have allowed antisemitism to flourish on campus—Harvard included.” (JNS sought comment from Harvard.)
Harvard stated that “we will defend the university against this lawsuit, which represents yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government.”
The Ivy League school said it “cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected and can thrive on our campus.”
It added that it has “taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies on campus.”
“We also have enhanced training and education on antisemitism for students, faculty and staff and launched programs to promote civil dialogue and respectful disagreement inside and outside the classroom,” it said. “Harvard’s efforts demonstrate the very opposite of deliberate indifference.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleges that “for several years, Jewish and Israeli students endured a hostile educational environment.”
“They were repeatedly denied access to educational facilities by antisemitic demonstrators,” it says. “Fearful for their safety, Jewish students wore baseball caps to conceal their yarmulkes or kept out of sight, effectively denying them access to federally funded educational opportunities.”
The university’s response was to “do nothing” and to turn a “blind eye,” the Justice Department alleges.
“Harvard let anti-Israeli demonstrators occupy its libraries,” the suit states. “Harvard allowed an anti-Israeli encampment to persist for 20 days in violation of university policy even though president Alan Garber simultaneously acknowledged the agitators’ ‘indefensible and unacceptable’ behavior.”
“Instructors canceled class or excused students from class to join illicit demonstrations,” it says.
It adds that the university “rewarded students who assaulted, harassed or intimidated their Jewish and Israeli peers” and did not enforce its policies when Jews and Israelis were victims.
“This sent the clear message to Harvard’s Jewish and Israeli community that the indifference was not an accident,” it says. “They were being intentionally excluded and effectively denied equal access to educational opportunities.”
The suit further alleges that a graduate student who assaulted a Jewish Israeli student later received a $65,000 fellowship from Harvard, which appointed him class marshal to represent graduates. It also states that Harvard gave at least 22 students, whom it reinstated after they violated school policy for standing up an anti-Israel encampment, the chance to meet with the university’s governing board to discuss Harvard divesting from Israel.
Harvard professors have also been “complicit” in making a hostile environment for Jews and Israelis, according to the suit.
The university “intentionally discriminated against Jews and Israelis” and “condemns, and even censors, speech that offends members of other protected classes while taking no action on overt calls for Jewish genocide.”
When victims aren’t Jewish or Israeli, Harvard engages in “rigorous enforcement” of its anti-bullying and harassment policies. But when a Jewish Israeli student was assaulted during an October 2023 “die-in” protest, the university “did not announce any suspensions even though the perpetrators faced criminal charges.”
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate the harassment, assault or intimidation of Jewish and Israeli students, and neither should Harvard,” stated Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. “This Justice Department has no tolerance for such brazen violations of federal law.”
Zachary Sardi-Santos, a member of the Harvard class of 2026, told JNS that “there is still lots of work to be done on campus to combat antisemitism.”
“The university has been making strides to rectify the issue, especially under Alan Garber’s leadership, including through initiatives like the antisemitism task force,” he said. “I do hope that these efforts will only grow in both scope and impact for the future, and that a constructive alignment can emerge between the government and institutions that contribute so significantly to the nation’s intellectual vitality.”
