Harvard found in 'violent violation' of Title VI over anti-Semitism
The Trump administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism has found Harvard University in 'violent violation' of Title VI for failing to prevent anti-Semitic harassment on campus.
'Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,' a task force letter says.
The Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism has found Harvard University in “violent violation” of Title VI for failing to prevent anti-Semitic harassment on campus.
In a letter released on Monday, the group announced the results of a federal investigation into widespread discrimination against Jewish students at the Ivy League school.
The task force warns that failure to implement reforms could cost Harvard all its federal funding. “Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” the letter states.
The letter was co-signed by four federal officials, including Thomas Wheeler, acting general counsel of the Department of Education, and Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Department of Justice.
According to the notice, “the majority of Jewish students reported experiencing negative bias or discrimination,” while “a quarter felt physically unsafe.” Investigators cite incidents of students being “assaulted and spit on,” and say Jewish students were forced to “[hide] their kippahs” and “[conceal] their Jewish identity from classmates for fear of ostracization.”
Federal officials charge that Harvard administrators were “in some cases deliberately indifferent,” while in others officials were “willful participant[s] in anti-Semitic harassment.”
“Images were widely circulated among the Harvard community that trafficked in obvious anti-Semitic tropes,” the letter says, including a graphic of “a dollar sign inside a Star of David.” One anti-Israel sticker is said to have replaced the Star of David on the Israeli flag with a swastika.
The letter also criticizes Harvard for lax discipline in response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations that “included calls for genocide and murder” and “denied Jewish and Israeli students access to campus spaces.”
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Campus Reform has reported about the federal governments’ attempts to remove grants for Harvard over the school’s support for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and its response to anti-Semitism.
In June, an anti-Israel group, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Harvard administration in its legal battle against the Trump administration.
In April, a billionaire on the dean’s council at the Harvard Kennedy School resigned after a lawsuit was filed against him that alleged he had connections to Hamas and supported the group’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel.
Campus Reform has contacted Harvard University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
