Jewish Harvard alumni are reportedly planning an audit of the university’s course offerings to find out what they believe is causing anti-Semitism at the Ivy League.
Documents viewed by The Boston Sphere show members of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance attempting to intervene with the university’s leadership, whose administrators they say have fearlessly allowed hatred to grow.
The alumni group was founded in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which brought anti-Israel protesters to Harvard’s campus and forced former President Claudine Gay to resign from office after disastrous testimony before Congress that failed to to condemn anti-Semitism on campus.
The Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance held a meeting with interim University President Alan Garber last month asking him to “launch a transparent investigation … to review and revise the goals and practices” of Harvard’s diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
“(W)e were very, very clear how frustrated our group was and the wide range of emotions from anger to disappointment,” group president Eric Fleiss said in a WhatsApp channel viewed by the Globe.
Members of the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance reportedly launch an effort to intervene with university leaders who they say have fearlessly allowed anti-Semitism to grow
The alumni group was founded after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which brought anti-Israel protesters to the Harvard campus
Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance held a meeting with interim university president Alan Garber last month asking him to “launch a transparent investigation”
“We think it’s fair to say that they clearly recognize that they have a problem, and that it is part of/related to the broader issue on campus of free speech and institutional neutrality.”
The group wants Harvard to take “swift, concrete, and public action” to discipline community members who “disrupt classes, occupy buildings, and incite violence.”
The audit aims to identify sources of anti-Semitism within the university’s courses, events and programs.
In messages seen by the Globe, some members said anti-Semitism has been fueled by professors who teach worldviews that divide people into “oppressors” and “oppressed.”
Members of the group expressed hope to identify sources of anti-Jewish sentiment on campus, according to reports labeled “unapproved” by the official Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance.
Dana Horn, a Harvard graduate and member of an advisory board on anti-Semitism organized by former President Gay, said in a message viewed by the Globe: “There are entire Harvard courses, programs and events based on anti-Semitic lies.”
“The real question, in my opinion, is whether we can win the proverbial ‘war’ at Harvard,” Antony Gordon, a 1990 Harvard Law School graduate, said at the forum.
“(W)e were very, very clear how frustrated our group was and the wide range of emotions from anger to disappointment,” said group chairman Eric Fleiss (pictured).
The group wants Harvard to take “swift, concrete, and public action” to discipline community members who “disrupt classes, occupy buildings, and incite violence.”
Roni Brunn, a spokesperson for the alliance, said: “I want to be clear that writing or insinuating that this group or its content represents HJAA is factually incorrect.”
“Harvard holds a cherished place in our hearts, serving not only as an academic institution but also as a symbol of excellence and truth.”
“We came together for one simple reason: a shared concern about the growing anti-Semitism at Harvard,” she said.
Last week, a faculty organization that claims to support Palestine posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on Instagram depicting a Jew hanging black and Arab men.
The cartoon dates back to 1967, according to Tablet Magazine, and was originally published in a magazine affiliated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
It was reposted on Instagram by the group “Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine,” which was formed weeks after Gay’s departure and includes a letter signed by 112 staff members.
The image shows a hand with a dollar sign in a Star of David – the symbol of Judaism. Linking money to religion is a deeply offensive anti-Semitic stereotype.
In January, Jewish Harvard students filed a lawsuit seeking tuition reimbursement from the expensive school over its “abject failure” to protect them from rampant anti-Semitism.
Last week, a faculty organization that claims to support Palestine posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on Instagram showing a Jew hanging black and Arab men.
In January, Jewish Harvard students filed a lawsuit seeking tuition reimbursement from the expensive school over its “abject failure” to protect them from rampant anti-Semitism.
Six students led by Shabbat Kestenbaum are demanding that anti-Semitic professors be fired and that students who troll them be punished.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Kestenbaum – whose legal name is Alex – said he and the other students are also seeking compensation. For some students attending the prestigious law school, that amounts to more than $75,000 per year.
He said Harvard “has not lived up to its end of the bargain” in protecting Jewish students from discrimination, and that the families have the right to ask for their money back.
“Whatever the annual tuition costs at Harvard Law School must be reimbursed. Harvard breached its contract with students.
“Harvard has not kept its promise: Jews are excluded from the code of conduct that is supposed to protect them.”