Over 100 Jewish professors, staffers at Harvard condemn Trump administration’s ‘weaponization of antisemitism’
More than 100 Jewish faculty and staff members at Harvard University have signed an open letter that condemns the lawsuit the Justice Department filed last week against the university that argued Harvard leaders had not done enough to combat antisemitism against Jews and Israelis on campus.
The Jewish professors wrote that the Justice Department’s “characterization of Harvard as fostering a climate of ‘hostile antisemitism’ paints a portrait of a Harvard that we do not recognize.”
“As members of Harvard’s Jewish community, we reject the government’s false claim to act in our name during its yearlong assault on our university and our democracy,” the letter says. “We urge the Department of Justice to drop this lawsuit. And we urge the University to defend itself and its Jewish community by condemning the weaponization of antisemitism.”
Professors with varying views “about Israel, Gaza, and pro-Palestinian protests on campus” signed the letter.
“We stand united in the belief that this lawsuit can only harm Harvard’s Jewish community,” the letter says.
The DOJ’s most recent complaint draws from findings by Harvard’s task force on antisemitism, which was published last April. The lawsuit claims university leaders showed “deliberate indifference” after Jewish and Israeli students were “harassed, physically assaulted, stalked, and spat upon” in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
On Monday, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened two new investigations into the nation’s oldest university, about race-based preferences in admissions and antisemitism on the campus, after receiving recent complaints.
“In our view, the Trump administration does not aim to protect Jewish people at Harvard,” the letter continued. “It cynically exploits concerns about antisemitism to justify what can only be described as an authoritarian assault on institutions of higher education. Using accusations of antisemitism to attack academic freedom and free expression is reprehensible – and we want no part in it.”
The letter added that government attacks on higher education will “only harm Jewish communities, while advancing a broader agenda of censorship and persecution.”
Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton declined to comment.
Hilary Burns can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @Hilarysburns.
