The Trump administration informed Harvard that the school had violated the civil rights of its Jewish and Israeli students in its response to alleged antisemitism on campus.
The letter, reported Monday by the Wall Street Journal, was sent to Harvard President Alan Garber and accused the school of failing to properly address the concerns of Jewish and Israeli students who felt threatened by the pro-Palestinian protests on its campus.
It outlined various instances of harassment against Jewish and Israeli students on campus, including assault and the circulation of antisemitic imagery. The notice of violation called on Harvard to make “adequate changes immediately” to avoid the loss of the remainder of the school’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” the letter read. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
The letter opens the latest front in the Trump administration’s campaign against the school, in which the administration has cited antisemitism as one of the chief reasons for cutting funding and demanding other changes.
Last month, the Trump administration revoked its permission for the school to enroll international students, and also announced its intent to cancel all of its remaining federal funding, approximately $100 million, over the school’s “disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students.”
Critics of those moves. Included some Jewish leaders, have called many of those demands either unwarranted or heavy-handed.
In April, Harvard released its long-awaited internal antisemitism report which was accompanied by a letter from Garber in which he apologized for the campus climate over the last year and a half.
Harvard has sued the Trump administration for freezing nearly $3 billion in research funding. Last week, the National Jewish Advocacy Center, a recently founded group that has filed lawsuits to protect Jews on campuses, filed an amicus brief in the suit siding with the Trump administration.
“No institution is simply entitled to billions of taxpayer dollars,” the brief read, according to the Harvard Crimson. “The federal government, for good reason, does not believe that Harvard is adequately protecting Jewish members of its community and does not want to support this obnoxious facade.”
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, another Jewish advocacy group, also filed a brief last Monday siding with the administration, asking the court to reject three amicus briefs supporting Harvard in the case.
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