It’s no surprise, but it’s now official. Harvard is a hotbed of antisemitism and anti-Israelism.
That’s the takeaway of a multi-month, deep dive probe by Harvard into Jew hatred at its schools, especially after the October 7th atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israel.
The investigators interviewed 500 students, faculty and staff and basically what they found is Jewish life at Harvard post 10/7/23 has been a living hell.
There is all sorts of discrimination. There is all sorts of harassment. Twenty-six percent of the Jewish students interviewed say they feel physically unsafe on campus. Physically unsafe! Forty-four percent say they feel mentally unsafe.
As the report revealed, substantial numbers of Jewish students feel that since October 7th, they have lived in an increasingly hostile atmosphere in their residences, classes, organizations, and clubs, as well as in the public spaces of Harvard Yard and the Science Center Plaza.
I’m not going to do a lot of talking about the report. I’m going to let some of the women and men who were interviewed by the committee to tell you, in their own words, how bad it is on the Cambridge, Massachusetts campus.
Here’s how a graduate student summed up Jewish existence at Harvard since October 7th:
I’m American. I always felt comfortable here…the change in dynamics was instantaneous and alarming.
Another grad student said:
After October 7th, I experienced the following in this order:
First, there was pressure, then there was chaos, then hostility.
I do not feel physically or intellectually safe at Harvard, said another student.
Another said, I have felt totally alienated and alone on campus. Anyone who was friendly to me before October 7th has gone to, at best ignoring me, or at worst saying awful comments to me about how ‘no Israeli is a civilian including babies who will grow up to be in the IDF.’
A student identified by the committee as #95 said, The barrage of antisemitic hate speech and protests…is nonstop and unrelenting. I feel completely unwelcome and out of place at Harvard now.
#361 said, I’ve never experienced antisemitism as profound and pervasive as it has been at Harvard…I’ve been stalked across Harvard Yard by students whose faces were completely covered by keffiyehs, I’ve been screamed at while attending outdoor, on campus events held by Harvard Chabad, and have encountered more swastikas and classic antisemitic canards than I did growing up in the Bible Belt.
What about those who claim the campus demonstrators aren’t anti-Jewish, they’re just anti-Zionist? Here’s what a Harvard undergrad said about that:
As I’ve walked to class, I’ve heard people mutter under their breath, ‘fucking Zionist.’ I don’t even know if I’m a Zionist. But I’m a Jew and I’ve learned that that is enough to make me no longer worthy of their friendship or even basic kindness at school.
Another said, There’s a tendency to replace the word Jewish with Zionist. ‘All Zionists should burn in hell’— it’s very frightening…it feels like this is an excuse to use a different term to make the point that they are anti-Jewish.
The report found that anti-Israel and anti-Jewish expressions are tolerated in a way that hostile rhetoric towards other groups would not be, and that Harvard’s DEI department did not take antisemitism seriously.
According to one student interviewed by the committee, hearing the ‘river-to-the-sea’ chants on campus is troubling. I approached an administrator about this, said a undergrad, and their response was that these words could have multiple meanings. If I were part of the LGBTQ community and complained about offensive language, no one would tell me I was wrong to be upset because the language could be interpreted in multiple ways. The same would be true if I were Black and someone used offensive language around me. Why am I being told what is and isn’t antisemitism by an administrator?
The report showed marginalization of Jewish and Israeli students at Harvard isn’t limited to student on student interactions.
It described how Jewish students felt when they attended Harvard-run privilege trainings where they were told that they were deemed to be privileged not only by dint of being identified as White but also because of their Jewishness, which allegedly endowed them with an even higher level of privilege.
Student #1224 said:
The cancel culture rules this campus. If you are not progressive, you should know that expressing your opinion someone will cancel you and some doors will be closed for you, etc.
#44 said:
I have had professors who have found out that I’m Israeli (without even knowing my political beliefs themselves) and treat me completely differently in and out of class after they find out. One professor literally cut me off from speaking in the middle of a response I was giving in class and asked if anyone else wanted to speak instead of me.
Here’s what student #861 said:
For almost eight months Jews living in the Yard have been yelled at, things like ‘globalize intifada’. I experienced the second intifada in Israel, in which suicide bombers kept blowing up in civilians centers, busses, coffee shops, night clubs — murdering over a thousand children, elderly, just people. Having that chanted daily without any repercussion, recourse, or help from the University has been a complete failure of the University to protect one of its smallest minority groups.
A complete failure indeed.
If, after reading the testimonies of these Harvard students, you realize how unbearable Jewish life is at Harvard, it’s a similar situation at other prestigious US colleges and universities.
Jews are being demonized not for what they say or the opinions they express, but simply because of who they are.
Here’s some of what the Harvard administration says it’s going to do to make things better.
- Harvard says it wants to now admit students who are eager to contribute to a learning community grounded in open inquiry and mutual respect.
- Harvard says its classroom experience should be free from antisemitism, anti-Israeli bias, and all forms of discrimination.
- Harvard says student organizations should not have antisemitic or anti-Israeli impacts.
- Harvard says protests must be authorized and must not disrupt the normal operations of the University, including conducting classes.
These are all things that should be SOP at any university, but now because the rot at Harvard is so pervasive, it is easier said than done. And Harvard isn’t alone. The victimization of Jews and of Israel is deeply embedded in the DNA of American academia.
For Jewish students, present and future, that’s the real scary part.