US judge rules Harvard University must face narrowed lawsuit over antisemitism
District court lets hostile educational environment claim proceed, nixes accusation that school discriminated against Jewish, Israeli students in federal civil rights lawsuit
A US judge overseeing lawsuits accusing Harvard University of antisemitism on Tuesday narrowed but refused to dismiss a case by two advocacy groups accusing the Ivy League school of making it unbearable for Jewish students to study there.
US District Judge Richard Stearns said the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education can pursue a hostile educational environment claim on behalf of students.
The Boston-based judge dismissed claims that Harvard directly discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students, and retaliated against them for complaining about antisemitism.
In August, Stearns refused to dismiss a related lawsuit by Jewish students who accused Harvard of letting its Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus become a bastion of rampant antisemitism.
Both lawsuits accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion, and national origin, and sought to stop further violations.
The lawsuits are among many accusing major universities of allowing and encouraging antisemitism following the October 2023 outbreak of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Tuesday’s decision primarily concerned Harvard’s alleged mishandling of incidents from the spring and autumn of 2023.
In one, a Jewish lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School allegedly pressured students in a course on organizing community action to abandon a project predicated on the existence of a “liberal-Jewish democracy,” because associating “Jewish” with “democracy” created an “unsafe space” for classmates.
The other concerned a viral “die-in” near Harvard Business School where attendees accused Israel of war crimes, chanted antisemitic slogans, and allegedly physically assaulted an Israeli-Jewish student.
Stearns said the plaintiffs can try to prove Harvard’s “deliberate indifference” to harassment, reflecting its failure to discipline the professor and alleged lack of speed investigating various incidents.
“To conclude that the mere act of launching an investigation without any further follow-through necessarily defeats a deliberate indifference claim, would be to prioritize form over function,” Stearns wrote.
Stearns nonetheless found no plausible accusations that Harvard’s responses reflected anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli animus, or retaliation.
Harvard spokesman Jason Newton said antisemitism has no place on campus, and that the school has taken steps to support its Jewish community, encourage civil dialogue, and strengthen disciplinary policies and rules on using public spaces.
“This work is ongoing, and Harvard is fully committed to it and confident we are moving in the right direction,” he said.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate comment.
Students sued in January, accusing Harvard of selectively enforcing its anti-discrimination policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, ignoring their pleas for protection, and hiring professors who supported anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda.
The Harvard lawsuit was filed eight days after the university’s former president, Claudine Gay, resigned after coming under fire for her handling of antisemitism following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response. Gay also faced plagiarism allegations.
Massive anti-Israel protests erupted at universities across the US following the October 7 attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Demonstrators chanted pro-Palestinian slogans like “Free Palestine,” but protesters at some universities also called for an intifada — a word used to describe two periods of unrest in Israel that were characterized by constant terror attacks — or called for another “1,000 October 7ths.”
Gay’s resignation came after a congressional hearing on the handling of campus antisemitism which she faced along with the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT.
A Republican lawmaker at the hearing asserted that support for “intifada” equates to calling for the genocide of Jews, and then asked if calls for the genocide of Jews violated campus policies. The presidents offered lawyerly answers, declining to say unequivocally that it was prohibited speech.
In June, Harvard task forces on antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias each concluded that the campus was beset by discrimination and harassment, with reports of intolerance toward people with pro-Palestinian as well as pro-Israel views.
The antisemitism task force called for measures including anti-harassment training for students and for steps to ensure a “welcoming environment” for religiously observant Jewish students.
Meanwhile, the task force on anti-Muslim bias recommended measures including steps to prevent the “doxxing” of students who support the Palestinian people, and clarification of school policies toward bullying and bias.
