Jewish students sue Harvard over skyrocketing antisemitism on campus

Harvard University is being sued by Jewish students who accused it of allowing its campus to become a “bastion” of rampant antisemitism.

In a complaint filed on Wednesday night, students accused Harvard of “selectively” enforcing its anti-discrimination policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, ignoring their pleas for protection, and hiring professors who support anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda.

“Based on its track record, it is inconceivable that Harvard would allow any group other than Jews to be targeted for similar abuse or that it would permit, without response, students and professors to call for the annihilation of any country other than Israel,” the complaint says.

The complaint accused the prestigious 388-year-old university of violating a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination.

It was filed eight days after Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned, under fire for her handling of antisemitic attacks and incidents in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel by land, sea, and air, and killed 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took 240 hostages.

Gay also faced multiple plagiarism allegations.

Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Other schools, including New York University and the University of California, Berkeley, face similar lawsuits.

Plaintiffs in the Harvard lawsuit include Alexander Kestenbaum, a master’s degree candidate at Harvard Divinity School.

They also include five unnamed students at Harvard’s law and public health schools, and the nonprofit Students Against Antisemitism.

The students said the purported need to let people express themselves freely is no defense for Harvard to sit idly and allow escalating “Jew-bashing.”