Jewish Groups Say Harvard Was Not Indifferent to Antisemitism, Push Back on Justice Department Suit

Leaders of Jewish student groups at Harvard say the University has made meaningful efforts to combat campus antisemitism, pushing back on the Department of Justice’s latest lawsuit that alleges Harvard has been deliberately indifferent to discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students.

The leaders of Harvard Hillel and Harvard Chabad, two prominent Jewish organizations on campus, declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, but said Harvard has taken incidents of antisemitism on campus seriously and worked to address them.

“What's certainly clear to me is that Harvard is taking the issue very seriously,” said Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, president of Harvard Chabad.

While both leaders said antisemitism remained a persistent problem on campus, they rejected the characterization of a university unwilling to act.

“While there is much more to be done, the only plausible characterization of Harvard’s current leadership is as principled and effective in confronting and removing the intolerance which had taken root on campus over more than a decade,” said Jason B. Rubenstein ’04, executive director at Harvard Hillel.

Zarchi said Harvard had “unequivocally not” been indifferent to antisemitism, even as he added that Jewish students are still facing discrimination on campus — likening Harvard to a patient still undergoing treatment.

“It's clear to me that the University is taking serious steps to address it, but clearly, the problem is larger and more pervasive than most people recognize,” he said.

The DOJ lawsuit points to several student experiences as evidence of that broader problem.

Among them is Sarah Silverman ’28, whose experience the lawsuit cited as evidence that Jewish and Israeli students were denied the full benefit of a Harvard education because of their religion.

The lawsuit states that a mezuzah was stolen from Silverman’s dormitory door and that police investigated the act as a “bias crime,” ultimately recovering the mezuzah from another student’s dormitory.

“No known arrest or discipline occurred,” it reads.

But Silverman, a former Crimson News editor, called the DOJ’s characterization “misleading,” saying the mezuzah was found outside — not inside — a dormitory and that police conducted interviews on her floor but were unable to identify the person who took it.

“The way that the lawsuit writes about the incident makes it seem like it was found in a student’s dormitory and Harvard decided to do nothing,” she said. “That’s not true. It wasn’t that Harvard or the police weren’t actively looking for the person.”

A Department of Justice spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Zarchi placed continued instances of antisemitism at Harvard in the context of a broader rise in discrimination worldwide.

“This is not so much a reflection of Harvard, but a reflection of the reality in the world we live in at this moment, which Harvard is part of the world that we live in,” he said.

Miriam E. Goldberger ’28, the president of Harvard Hillel, wrote in a statement that antisemitism was present on campus and urged students to take an active role in improving campus culture.

“All of us students must take it upon ourselves to improve the campus culture by respecting and appreciating our peers who are members of different faiths or come from different backgrounds,” Goldberger wrote.

In the lawsuit, the Department of Justice argued that Harvard had failed to meaningfully address instances of alleged antisemitism on campus following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against Israel. The Department of Education then announced on Monday two new investigations into the University — one of which will focus on complaints of campus antisemitism.

The lawsuit echoes similar allegations made by the federal government in recent years. Last spring, the Trump administration pulled more than $2.7 billion in federal funding, arguing that Harvard had breached its contract with the government by running afoul of Title VI.

At the time, Jewish students pushed back, with more than 100 students signing an open letter calling for funding to be restored.

Tova Kaplan ’26 — a Hillel affiliate who spoke last month at a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights briefing examining campus antisemitism — said that while there have been difficult moments for Jewish students at Harvard, she did not believe recent federal actions against the University have been centered on their interests.

“I believe that sometimes the school has fallen short, and that there have been tense moments on campus for Jewish students,” she said. “But I think it’s very clear when you take a step back and look at the way that the Trump administration has gone about this, that we are not actually the focus of their efforts.”

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at sbc.23. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.