‘Woefully Inadequate’: GOP Chairwoman Condemns Harvard’s Response to Anti-Semitism Probe

The Harvard University campus is shown in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 23, 2020. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce condemned Harvard for the documents it submitted to the committee’s anti-Semitism investigation, amid growing accusations of anti-Semitism at the world’s top university.

“Upon initial review, Harvard’s production to the committee in response to its anti-Semitism investigation is woefully inadequate,” the committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in a statement. “Rather than answering the committee’s request in a substantive manner, Harvard has chosen to provide letters from nonprofits and student handbooks, many of which are already publicly available.”

Ms. Foxx said the response was unacceptable, adding: “Harvard must produce the remaining documents in a timely manner or risk compulsory measures.”

Earlier this month, the committee requested the university to provide records of how it handles incidents targeting Jewish individuals on campus. Among the records Ms. Foxx requested were all reports of anti-Semitic acts or incidents at Harvard and records of resulting investigations and disciplinary actions.

“There is evidence anti-Semitism 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 anti-Semitism on college campuses, found Harvard had the highest rate of threats based on Jewish identity of the 109 campuses they surveyed.”

The new request comes in the wake of a recent controversial congressional hearing that sparked public outcry, ultimately leading to its president, Claudine Gay, stepping down over alleged plagiarism and her handling of anti-Semitism at the Ivy League school.

‘Severe and Pervasive’ Anti-Semitism

Days after Ms. Gay’s resignation, a group of Jewish students sued Harvard over alleged “severe and pervasive” anti-Semitism on its campus. They accused the school of “egregiously violating the civil rights of its Jewish students.”

“Harvard, America’s leading university, has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,” the students’ lawsuit alleges.

They allege that mobs of pro-Hamas students and faculty have marched by the hundreds through Harvard’s campus, shouting vile anti-Semitic slogans and calling for the death of Jews and Israel.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that Harvard has “a double standard invidious to Jews,” selectively enforcing its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment and ignoring their pleas for protection.

It accuses the university of hiring professors who support anti-Jewish violence and spread anti-Semitic propaganda.

“Those professors teach and advocate through a binary oppressor-oppressed lens, through which Jews, one of history’s most persecuted peoples, are typically designated ‘oppressor,’ and therefore unworthy of support or sympathy.

“The severe and pervasive hostile environment for Jews on campus leaves Harvard’s remaining Jewish population even more isolated and unsafe against their abusers.”

The students further allege that Harvard violates the non-discrimination requirements of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They urged the university to take action against students and professors who are “responsible for anti-Semitic discrimination and abuse, whether because they engage in it or permit it.”

Harvard recently appointed Derek Penslar, a Jewish history professor, to lead its new anti-Semitism task force. The appointment has faced criticism, as Mr. Penslar has previously called Israel an “apartheid regime” in an open letter in August.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), anti-Semitic incidents have dramatically surged from 712 to 3,291, a 361 percent increase, from Oct. 7 to Jan. 7 compared to the same period one year ago. On college campuses, at least 500 incidents were reported, a significant rise from only 12 cases over the same period last year.

In mid-November, the U.S. Department of Education opened civil rights investigations into multiple schools and universities following allegations of anti-Semitism or Islamophobia since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Among the higher education institutions under investigation are four Ivy League schools: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Harvard is among multiple academic institutions that have faced intense criticism since more than 30 of its student groups signed a letter blaming Israel for being “entirely responsible” for the Oct. 7 attack, when Hamas terrorists launched a surprise assault on Israel, killing over 1,200 civilians, including Americans.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Harvard for comment.

Ryan Morgan and Dan M. Berger contributed to this report.