Harvard Ignored Advice From Its Anti-Semitism Advisory Group, House Committee Finds

Protesters hold signs in support of Palestine “resistance” during a rally at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 14, 2023. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

A new congressional report based on Harvard University’s internal communications suggests that the Ivy League school repeatedly ignored recommendations of its Antisemitism Advisory Group (AAG), a situation that at one point caused a majority of the group’s members to threaten to resign en masse.

The final report, released Wednesday by the House Education and the Workforce Committee, detailed an internal conflict between former Harvard President Claudine Gay and the advisory group she created to combat antisemitism on campus.

Recommendations Not Taken

Ms. Gay, whose initial response to the Hamas terror attacks on Israel drew intense backlash from students, high-profile donors, and Harvard-educated lawmakers, founded the group in late October to “frame an agenda and strategy for combating anti-Semitism.”

In a speech announcing the formation of the group, Ms. Gay said the group’s members would dedicate themselves to “the vital work of eradicating anti-Semitism from our community.”

“They will help us to think expansively and concretely about all the ways that anti-Semitism shows up on our campus and in our campus culture,” she said at Harvard Hillel, the university’s Jewish center.

While Ms. Gay attended most of the group’s meetings, her administration has done little to implement the group’s recommendations for making the Harvard community a more welcoming place for Jewish students, faculty, and staff, according to the House committee’s report.

The House committee, investigating several of America’s top universities over their handling of antisemitism on campus, found that the AAG submitted a “robust set of significant recommendations” to Harvard’s leadership in mid-December.

The recommendations include, among others, “zero tolerance” of classroom disruptions; protecting shared spaces such as libraries and dining halls from protests and sit-ins; reviewing the academic rigor of classes and programs with antisemitic content; and countering speech that dehumanizes, threatens, or potentially incites violence against Jewish community members.

Those recommended steps and goals were not made public and remained unaddressed, the report said.

Resignation Threats

The report, which heavily relies on internal documents submitted by Harvard as well as a transcribed interview with AAG member Dara Horn, further revealed that five of the AAG’s eight members threatened to resign en masse on Nov. 5, 2023, less than 10 days after Ms. Gay announced the group’s formation.

In her interview with the House committee, Ms. Horn explained that the administration’s lack of “concrete actions” prompted the resignation threat.

“It didn’t seem like the deans at the various schools were taking this particularly seriously,” she told the committee. “There was Claudine Gay’s speech at Harvard Hillel, which was supposed to be sort of this public announcement of our group, [but] its work had never been sort of shared with the entire university community.”

According to the report, the resignation ultimatums included a series of short-term demands, such as that Ms. Gay publicly condemn certain slogans chanted by pro-Palestine protesters, ban masked protests on campus, ban lectures from pressuring students to engage in political activism, and, more practically, provide the AAG with “a virtual drop box and staffing.”

In response to the threats and demands, Ms. Gay and Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker called an emergency meeting with the AAG on Nov. 6, trying to convince the resigning members to stay.

“Areas of common ground have come attached with an ultimatum, one that if interpreted literally leaves me with 24 hours and puts me and the University in a terrible position,” Ms. Gay told the group, according to a transcription of the meeting published in Wednesday’s report.

“You serving is to be helpful, and you’re trying to be helpful; resigning en masse if you don’t get these things in 48 hours would be explosive, and would make things even more volatile and unsafe,” she added.

Ms. Gay did make some concessions to the group following the emergency meeting. On Nov. 9, Ms. Gay explicitly condemned the use of the slogan “From the River to the Sea,” and announced the university would implement antisemitism training and education for its affiliates. She also set up an email hotline for the group.

However, the report suggests that Ms. Gay did not seek the AAG’s advice before testifying to the House committee on antisemitism, even though the group was a natural place for her to go for guidance on that particular topic.

“I was disappointed not to be consulted and also thought it was strange not to be consulted,” Ms. Horn told the House committee.

Another member, Rabbi David Wolpe, publicly resigned the day after Ms. Gay’s Dec. 5 testimony before Congress, during which she said it would “depend on the context” to determine whether calling for the genocide of Jews would constitute a violation of Harvard’s anti-harassment policy.

Harvard Responds to Report

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the House committee, said the report proves that the AAG was “propped up all for show.”

“Not only did the AAG find that antisemitism was a major issue on campus, it offered several recommendations on how to combat the problem—none of which were ever implemented with any real vigor,” she said in a statement. “This shocking revelation reveals an inner look at how dysfunctional Harvard’s administration is and the deep-seated moral rot that clouds its judgement.”

Harvard criticized the committee’s report as “an incomplete and inaccurate view” of its overall efforts to combat antisemitism since last October.

“It is disappointing to see selective excerpts from internal documents, shared in good faith, released in this manner,” a spokesperson for Harvard wrote in a statement. “Harvard has demonstrated its focus and commitment and attentiveness to combating antisemitism, and these efforts are reflected in the many voluminous submissions to the committee.”

Ms. Gay, who remains a faculty member after stepping down from the presidency, did not respond to a request for comment.