By Sarah Holliday

Harvard University is on the hot seat for allowing rampant anti-Semitism on its campus.

Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7, 2023 following the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, U.S. campuses have witnessed an alarming surge in blatant anti-Semitic attacks against Jewish students, with Harvard leading the pack. Released Wednesday, a damning 311-page report has now exposed the Ivy League school’s failures to properly address the anti-Semitism in their midst.

Harvard’s report, “Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias,” revealed a disturbing climate for Jewish students, who have faced relentless harassment, shunning, and fear on campus. One student confessed, “I feel lucky I don’t look Jewish,” adding, “I know if I do the ‘wrong thing’ I might get the antisemitism. So, put your headphones in, make sure you’re not outwardly Jewish, and just walk to class.”

The report reads: “[A] new generation of student activists seems to have begun to perceive Israel as a symbol and vehicle of the evils of the United States and the rest of the Western world. A Harvard faculty member who works closely with students reported to us that some Jewish students choose to hide their identities on campus, which was something the faculty member could not have imagined would ever be the case at Harvard.”

Again, the report’s authors admitted a more dire situation than previously acknowledged: “The more time we spent on this problem, the more we learned about how demonization of Israel has impacted a much wider swath of campus life than we would have imagined.”

In a rare instance, Harvard President Alan Garber issued a public apology. “I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community,” he wrote. “The grave, extensive impact of the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on our campus.” Garber, and the authors of the report, acknowledged that reforms are in order.

As the report stated, “The experiences set out in this report and its recommendations come from Harvard. So, too, must the resolutions and the reforms. Our Jewish and Israeli community deserves nothing less.” Yet, skepticism persists among critics.

In bold efforts to combat campus anti-Semitism, the Trump administration directed Harvard to revise its policies to better safeguard Jewish students and curb excessive activism. When Harvard resisted, President Donald Trump froze $2.2 billion in federal funding. Harvard retaliated with a lawsuit, claiming, as BBC News reported, that “the withholding of federal funding violated Harvard’s constitutional rights and was being used as ‘leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard.’”

Despite some reported changes within the Ivy League, distrust lingers. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) criticized Harvard’s leadership, stating, “Harvard’s president said the school will not abide bigotry, yet that’s exactly what the school’s feckless leadership did.” Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers expressed no surprise, noting on X that the “searing” report “says what many of us have known for a long time, particularly that there are real issues of antisemitism on the Harvard campus.”

Summers added, “The report proposes, in quite constructive ways, a variety of steps that should have been taken some time ago, but much more needs to be done by leadership if the campus culture is to profoundly change.” Walberg, however, expressed optimism about external accountability. “I’m delighted we finally have an ally in the White House who is willing to hold schools accountable for their abject failure to protect students, as required by law.”

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.