ADL CEO Credits Harvard With “Real Shift” on Antisemitism, Says Work Remains

Anti-Defamation League Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Greenblatt said the organization had seen a “real shift” in Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus, attributing the change to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76’s leadership and pressure from alumni groups.

In a webinar co-hosted by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, the Harvard Business School Jewish Alumni Association, and the Harvard Law School Association Jewish Alumni Network last month, Greenblatt said Harvard’s response to antisemitism has “absolutely changed” under Garber. While he said more remains to be done, he praised Harvard for implementing stronger policies in the past two years.

“They’ve made more clear that antisemitism won’t be tolerated,” he said.

The ADL, an anti-hate organization founded in 1913, gave Harvard a C grade on its antisemitism report card in March 2025, up from the F grade the University received in April 2024, shortly before protesters launched a 20-day pro-Palestine encampment in Harvard Yard.

The group again gave Harvard a C in its 2026 report card.

Greenblatt specifically pointed to the establishment of a presidential task force on antisemitism, whose initial findings were publicly welcomed by the ADL, and the creation of Office for Community Support, Non-Discrimination, Rights and Responsibilities to handle Title VI- and Title IX-related matters.

But Greenblatt said he stood by the ADL’s decision to leave Harvard’s grade at a C, saying that antisemitism was too prevalent on campus to warrant a higher grade.

When asked about the relationship between academic freedom and campus inclusion, Greenblatt said University leaders had a responsibility to protect both.

“Academic freedom and campus inclusion, I believe they should be complementary; that they’re not mutually exclusive, and we need leaders to lead, and therefore we need administrations — campus administrations — to maintain that academic freedom doesn’t somehow preclude us from protecting against anti-Semitism,” he said.

In an interview, Adrian D. Ashkenazy ’96 — president of the HJAA and one of the webinar’s moderators — said that, despite numerous attempts to meet with Garber about civil rights reporting guidelines, Garber had not met with him and had instead referred him to the Harvard Alumni Association.

Garber and other administrators spoke with Ashkenazy before the release of an HJAA report this March on Jewish enrollment, according to Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton. The report estimated Jewish enrollment at about 7 percent, drawing in part on Crimson survey data.

The report called on Harvard to investigate what it described as a decline in Jewish enrollment, particularly compared with other prestigious universities.

Ashkenazy said he has received no communication from Harvard following the report and reached out to Garber again last month asking for a “substantive written response.”

Greenblatt criticized Harvard during the webinar for not responding to the report.

“We’ve seen a reduction in the number of Jewish students enrolling at a number of Ivy League schools versus where the numbers were say, 10 or 20 years ago,” Greenblatt said, “there may be different reasons for that, but we’ve got to keep the pressure on. I can’t believe they haven’t responded to Adrian.”

Newton referred The Crimson to a March statement issued after the report’s release.

“Harvard does not collect data on applicant shared ancestry or religious identity,” he wrote.

“Any estimates that exist on applicant data come from external surveys, which vary widely in methodology and cannot reliably measure changes over time, outline differences across schools, or explain application, admission, or enrollment patterns,” Newton added.

Jason A. Sorger, president of the HBS Jewish Alumni Association and a moderator of the panel, said the group had seen more luck engaging with the University. He said he met with senior administrations and HBS Dean Srikant M. Datar over an HBS case study on divesting from companies with ties to Israel.

Sorger said the group was told that the school would conduct a full academic review of the incident.

“We haven’t heard much about it, but as an alumni association, our job is to really hold the school accountable to their own values, which really do serve all of us,” he said.

HBS spokesperson Brian Kenny declined to comment on the review, noting that the language of the case was revised shortly after it drew criticism.

Greenblatt said Harvard’s antisemitism task force was less successful than investigations run by other schools like New York University and Vanderbilt University.

“One of the reasons why I think it created so much uncertainty up front was a failure to explain early on, like what they were doing and when it was going to wrap up and what was going to happen,” Greenblatt said.

The webinar came just weeks after a judge dismissed the Justice Department lawsuit against Harvard for its handling of campus antisemitism following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The Justice Department appealed the decision last month. The Trump administration is also appealing a ruling that restored about $2.7 billion in federal funding.

—Staff writer Alexa M. Schmitt can be reached at [email protected] or Signal at alexaschmitt.15. Follow her on X ​​@alexa_m15_s.