A group of Jewish Harvard students has filed a federal discrimination suit against the storied Ivy League institution, alleging university officials use a “double standard” in which they protect other groups from discrimination and harassment — but fail to do so when Jewish students are targeted.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday night alleges that the university has allowed students and faculty accused of engaging in antisemitic acts to remain on campus — even once pelting groups of pro-Palestinian protesters “with burritos and candy.”
“The cancer of Harvard antisemitism — as Harvard’s past president termed it — manifests itself as a Jew-hating double standard,” reads the lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court and obtained by the Post.
“Harvard selectively enforced its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, hired professors who supported anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda, and ignored Jewish students’ pleas for protection.”
It went on to argue that the university “allows students and faculty to support, without consequence, the murder of Jews, and the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish state in the world.
“Meanwhile, Harvard requires students to attend training classes that warn that they will be subject to disciplinary action if they engage in ‘sizeism’, ‘fatphobia’, ‘racism’, ‘transphobia’ or other objectionable behavior.”
A group of Jewish Harvard students has filed a federal discrimination suit against the university for using a “double standard” where it protects other groups from discrimination and harassment – but fails to do so when Jewish students are targeted. AFP via Getty Images
The suit also claims Harvard officials have been “aware of his antisemitism for years, but his response, at the very least, was clearly unreasonable and totally unacceptable not only tolerating, but enabling antisemitism.”
The suit alleges that prior to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel in October, the Harvard Out of Palestine group “led a relentless campaign against retired Israeli Major General Amos Yadlin, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government” in which students marched through campus. in April 2022, beating a drum and using a megaphone to accuse Yadlin of being personally responsible for the “massacre.”
A few months later, in August, members of the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee also disrupted the university’s convocation for new students by chanting and displaying signs reading “Veritas? Here’s the Real Truth: Harvard Supports Israeli Apartheid,” referring to the university’s financial support of Israel, according to the suit.
“Harvard later shared social media images from the convocation that clearly displayed the banner,” he claimed.
Harvard President Claudine Gay was ousted as accusations of antisemitism on campus rose following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Harvard University/AFP via Getty Images
The situation has worsened following Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israel, the Jewish student claimed.
They cited several examples of Jewish students confronting pro-Palestinian protesters.
In one case, a Jewish student was seen surrounded by protesters who shouted “shame” at him as he walked to class.
At other times, Jewish students were left hiding inside the building as protesters ranted and called for the genocide of Jews, according to the suit.
Professors would cancel classes to allow students to attend these pro-Palestinian rallies, and when “a group of students took over a campus building to further their antisemitic agenda, Harvard’s response was not to throw them out and discipline them, but to supply them with burritos and candy,” said the suit.
The students claimed in the lawsuit that they were treated as “second-class citizens” who “did not deserve the protections Harvard affords non-Jewish students.” AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, Harvard officials allegedly told Jewish students to hide their identities, according to the suit — pointing to claims made by Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi who said the university required him to take down his menorah at night so it wouldn’t be vandalized.
As a result, the suit says the students “are acutely aware that, simply because of their Jewish identity they are viewed and treated as second-class citizens in the Harvard community, undeserving of the protections Harvard affords non-Jewish students.”
The plaintiffs – Harvard Divinity School student Alexander Kestenbaum and five other unnamed Harvard students from Students Against Antisemitism – were unable to focus, study or perform their coursework to the best of their ability, they allege.
The students are now calling for any deans, administrators, professors and other employees who are “responsible for antisemitic discrimination and abuse, whether they engage in or condone it” to be fired, and the suspension or expulsion of any student who engages in antisemitism.
The suit also says the university must refuse and return any donations “implicitly or explicitly conditioned on the hiring or promotion of a professor who supports antisemitism or the inclusion of antisemitic coursework or curriculum,” and adds antisemitism training for members of the Harvard community.
In addition, the student is seeking damages “for loss or loss of educational opportunities.”
The federal suit calls on the university to fire any professor or faculty member “responsible for antisemitic discrimination and abuse” and return any donations “implicitly or explicitly conditioned on the hiring or promotion of professors who support antisemitism or the inclusion of antisemitic coursework or curriculum.” REUTERS
“It is clear that Harvard will not voluntarily correct its deep antisemitism problem,” attorney Marc E. Kasowitz said in a statement to the Boston Globe.
“Jewish students at Harvard are experiencing vile and threatening antisemitic harassment and calls to kill Jews.
“Harvard must be forced to protect its Jewish students and stop using double standards when it comes to anti-Jewish bigotry.”
The Post has reached out to Harvard for comment.
Wednesday’s suit comes amid a Congressional investigation into reports of antisemitism on campus.
In a nine-page letter on Tuesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce demanded that the university remove all documents related to Jewish students and antisemitism on campus.
It gave the university just two weeks to comply.
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