The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is advancing an investigation into the prevalence of antisemitic activity at Harvard University, with a new request this week for the Ivy League institution to turn over documents detailing its internal reporting and adjudication of harassment targeting Jewish individuals on campus.
“There is evidence antisemitism has been pervasive at Harvard since well before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack,” Ms. Foxx’s letter stated. It continued, “A November 2022 report by the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit that documents antisemitism on college campuses, found Harvard had the highest rate of threats based on Jewish identity of the 109 campuses they surveyed.”
Congress began more closely scrutinizing how Harvard and other U.S. colleges handle antisemitic incidents, following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel and the resulting conflict. Many campus student organizations, including a number at Harvard, have expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause amid the ongoing Gaza conflict.
Ms. Foxx also noted comments posted on SideChat, an anonymous messaging platform that requires a Harvard email address to access. Among the anonymous comments Ms. Foxx noted in her letter was one that read “LET EM COOK” alongside a Palestinian flag emoji and another that stated, “I proudly accept the label of terrorist.”
Ms. Foxx requested Harvard turn over records of communications from SideChat and other social media posts targeting Jewish people, Israeli nationals, the state of Israel, or the principles and supporters of Zionism—a movement for the establishment and maintaining of a Jewish ethnoreligious state in the land inhabited by the Jews in the Bible.
In her letter, Ms. Foxx also asked Harvard to turn over documents of any efforts by Harvard students, faculty, and staff to engage in the boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) movement.
In a statement shared with its student news publication, The Harvard Crimson, a Harvard spokesperson said, “the University is reviewing Chairwoman Foxx’s letter and will be in touch with the Committee regarding their request.”
NTD News reached out to Harvard University with additional questions about the document requests and its policies, but has not yet received a response.