House committee requests documents from Harvard on anti-Semitism response, gives two week deadline
A House committee is asking Harvard for information relating to its response to anti-Semitism on campus.
The House Education and the Workforce Committee sent a letter to Harvard University on Tuesday, requesting documents on how the school has responded to anti-Semitism on campus.
Rep. Dr. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. wrote the letter and said that “Harvard’s institutional failures regarding antisemitism extend well beyond one leader,” referring to the resignation of Claudine Gay.
“We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Harvard’s response to the antisemitism on its campus. In testimony before the Committee on December 5, 2023, Harvard’s then-President, Dr. Claudine Gay, made numerous statements that further called into question the university’s willingness to seriously address antisemitism,” Foxx wrote. “There is evidence antisemitism has been pervasive at Harvard since well before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.”
Foxx cited a 2022 report by the AMCHA Initiative, which found that the Cambridge, Massachusetts university had the highest rates of threats regarding Jewish identity out of the 109 campuses surveyed.
[RELATED: Congress launches investigation into Harvard’s handling of Gay’s plagiarism problem]
The North Carolina Republican also cited a March 2023 thesis by Harvard University Sabrina Goldfischer, which found that 62.5% of students interviewed had experienced anti-Semitism or knew people who have, and 68.75% of people interviewed admitted they had censored themselves because of their Judaism or ties to Israel.
Foxx referred to a statement initially signed by 34 Harvard University student groups, which asserted that Israel is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas.
”The apartheid regime is the only one to blame,” the statement read.
Several student groups have since rescinded their support for the statement after fierce criticism from across the country.
Additionally, the letter refers to an Oct. 18 incident at Harvard where an MBA student was allegedly assaulted during a “die-in” organized by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Foxx gave the university a two-week deadline to provide the following information by Jan. 23:
- ”All reports of antisemitic acts or incidents and related documents and communications since January 1, 2021, as well as all documents and communications related to specified incidents, including the harassment and assault of a Jewish MBA student on October 18, 2023;
- All documents and communications since January 1, 2021, referring and relating to antisemitism, involving the Harvard Corporation and Harvard Board of Overseers (including all fellows and members), as well as minutes of Harvard Corporation and Board of Overseers meetings;
- Documents sufficient to show the findings and results of any disciplinary processes, changes in academic status, or personnel actions by Harvard towards Harvard students, employees, and other Harvard affiliates related to conduct involving the targeting of Jews, Israelis, Israel, Zionists, or Zionism since January 1, 2021; and
- Documents sufficient to show any efforts by Harvard students, faculty, and staff to engage in the BDS movement against Israel since January 1, 2021, and communications by Harvard administrators relating to such efforts.”
The letter comes just over one week after Claudine Gay resigned as president of the university.
The House committee previously advised the university in a December 20, 2023 letter that it had begun an investigation of the school’s “handling of credible allegations of plagiarism by President Claudine Gay over a period of 24 years,” as previously reported by Campus Reform.
Campus Reform reached out to Harvard University for comment.
