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Thursday, July 23, 2026
Hillel backtracks after siding with Harvard in federal funding fight — report
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Hillel International reportedly says it will withdraw a court filing backing Harvard University’s fight against the federal government seeking to keep billions in funding that were frozen by the Trump administration due to what it said was the school’s inadequate response to campus antisemitism.
A spokesperson for Hillel tells the Harvard Crimson that the 22-page amicus brief was filed with the First Circuit Court of Appeals last night “without having gone through our internal review process.”
“As soon as the court opens in the morning, we will move to withdraw it,” the spokesperson says.
The filing had argued that though antisemitism remains an issue on campus, cutting $2.7 billion in federal grants was a “draconian one-size-fits-all” response that would not help the matter.
Harvard discriminates against Jews (among others). It is thus shocking to see this brief by @HillelIntl filed defending Harvard in the civil rights lawsuit. Genuinely shocking that Hillel is abandoning its students to defend one of the highest profile antisemitic universities pic.twitter.com/V3qGDqgACX
— Eric W. (@EWess92) July 22, 2026
The federal government is challenging a ruling in September that ordered the funding restored despite Harvard refusing to comply with Washington’s demands for reforms and oversight, saying the freeze had violated the school’s First Amendment rights.
According to the Crimson, Hillel’s amicus brief had sparked an angry backlash. Shabbos Kestenbaum, a former Harvard student who sued the school over antisemitism, called for donors to pull funding for the Jewish campus group, and made claims against the local Harvard Hillel, which said it was not involved in the filing.
I am shocked that Hillel International has just filed an Amicus Curiae in SUPPORT of Harvard University against the Trump Administration.
Rather than take responsibility for their failure to respond to the explosion of antisemitism on American campuses post October 7th, Hillel…
— Shabbos Kestenbaum (@ShabbosK) July 22, 2026
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