Federal civil rights investigation opened into anti-Semitism at Harvard
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism at Harvard University, where the campus, like many others, has been roiled in recent weeks by demonstrations and clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students. the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The complaint against Harvard, filed Tuesday, joins in a growing list of federal civil rights investigations into complaints of discrimination based on “shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics,” including at Columbia, Cornell, Wellesley College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tampa, and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
The list also includes a handful of school districts, including New York City Public Schools, Clark County School District in Las Vegas and Hillsborough County Schools in Tampa.
The Office for Civil Rights announced on November 16 that it is investigating such complaints as part of its efforts to take “aggressive action to address the alarming nationwide increase in reports of anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and other forms of discrimination . and intimidation on college campuses and in primary schools since the October 7 Israeli-Hamas conflict.”
The Office for Civil Rights makes public the existence of the investigations, but does not routinely reveal who filed a complaint or what it says. However, the agency is required by its regulations to investigate any complaint that asserts a viable legal claim. Universities could lose federal funding due to civil rights violations.
It was not clear Wednesday who filed the official complaint against Harvard, which was originally reported by Fox News Digital and The Boston Globe. The Globe said it had seen a letter from the Ministry of Education saying the complaint accused the university of discriminating against students based on their Jewish or Israeli heritage.
Complaints about anti-Semitism against Harvard are circulating on social media.
On October 18, a confrontation at the business school between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel supporters went viral. Video clips showed pro-Palestinian students trying to rally a young man with a cell phone. He appeared to be taking photos of protesters lying on the ground participating in a “die-in.” As some pro-Palestinian protesters held up their kaffiyehs, or scarves, to stop him, the young man was heard saying, “Don’t touch me.”
On November 4, Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager and alumnus, wrote one open letter to Harvard President Claudine Gay and the Harvard Corporation Board, who mentioned the incident and said there was rising anti-Semitism on campus.
“Jewish students are bullied, physically intimidated, spit on and, in several widely circulated videos of one such incident, physically assaulted,” Mr. Ackman wrote. “Protesters on campus on the steps of Widener Library and elsewhere are chanting, ‘Intifada! Intifada! Intifada! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’”
‘From the river to the sea’ is widely interpreted as synonymous with the eradication of the State of Israel.
Mr. Ackman had nothing to do with the civil rights complaint, his spokesman, Francis McGill, said Wednesday.
Dr. Gay, the president of Harvard, was initially criticized by people like Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard and U.S. Treasury Secretary, for being slow to denounce anti-Semitism. Since then, she has increasingly criticized anti-Semitism and announced the creation of a task force to combat anti-Semitism.
Harvard said Wednesday it would cooperate with the investigation. “We support the work of the Office for Civil Rights to ensure that students’ rights to access educational programs are safeguarded and will work with the office to respond to their questions,” the university said in a statement.