Harvard University is being sued by a group of Jewish students alleging that the elite school has become a “bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment.”
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Massachusetts federal court alleges that Harvard has violated Jewish students’ civil rights and failed to punish acts of anti-Jewish hatred on campus. The plaintiffs claim that antisemitism has become “particularly severe and pervasive” at Harvard following Hamas’ attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
“Mobs of pro-Hamas students and faculty have marched by the hundreds through Harvard’s campus, shouting vile antisemitic slogans and calling for death to Jews and Israel,” the suit alleges. “Those mobs have occupied buildings, classrooms, libraries, student lounges, plazas, and study halls, often for days or weeks at a time, promoting violence against Jews and harassing and assaulting them on campus.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The plaintiffs go on to allege that Jewish students have been targeted on social media and faculty members have “promulgated antisemitism in their courses and dismissed and intimidated students who object.” “What is most striking about all of this is Harvard’s abject failure and refusal to lift a finger to stop and deter this outrageous antisemitic conduct and penalize the students and faculty who perpetrate it,” the suit alleges.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alexander Kestenbaum, a master’s student at Harvard Divinity School, and five other unnamed students. All six are members of a group named Students Against Antisemitism. Kasowitz Benson Torres, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, has also filed lawsuits over alleged antisemitism at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University.
The Harvard case comes amid a nationwide reckoning about how colleges handle antisemitism.
Last week Claudine Gay resigned as president of the university after facing a string of plagiarism allegations that emerged while she was already fighting criticism over her failure to clearly state during a December congressional hearing that calls for the genocide of Jews would breach the school’s policies. Liz Magill earlier resigned as UPenn president amid uproar about her testimony at the same hearing.
