Court rejects Harvard’s bid to dismiss antisemitism claims
A federal antisemitism lawsuit against Harvard University can proceed, a judge ruled recently.
The students filed a lawsuit in January arguing that Harvard did not take sufficient action to address antisemitic harassment, according to The Harvard Crimson. The lawsuit claims that the university is liable for “enabling” antisemitism.
“Harvard, America’s leading university, has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,” the lawsuit reads.
Harvard attempted to dismiss the case, arguing that the university had taken appropriate measures to address the concerns raised by the students.
However, U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns found that the plaintiffs had presented enough evidence to move forward with the case, stating that the students’ allegations, if proven true, could constitute a violation of federal law.
“The facts as pled show that Harvard failed its Jewish students,” Stearns stated.
Now the lawsuit will move on to the discovery phase, during which both sides will gather further evidence to support their arguments.
“We are delighted that the judge recognizes what we have been saying for months now: Harvard has enabled, normalized, and celebrated a culture of antisemitism on its campus,” recent Harvard graduate and plaintiff Shabbos “Alexander” Kestenbaum said.
Kestenbaum (pictured) gained further media attention for his complaint when he spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of President Donald Trump earlier this summer.
However, not all of the students’ claims were upheld. The judge decided there was not enough evidence that Harvard engaged in direct discrimination against Jewish students to allow this claim to proceed.
“We appreciate that the Court dismissed the claim that Harvard directly discriminated against members of our community, and we understand that the court considers it too early to make determinations on other claims,” university spokesperson Jason Newton told the student newspaper.
“Harvard is confident that once the facts in this case are made clear, it will be evident that Harvard has acted fairly and with deep concern for supporting our Jewish and Israeli students,” Newton said.
This development comes amid broader scrutiny of Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus.
In June, a U.S. House committee investigation concluded Harvard did not implement the recommendations of the advisory group it formed to tackle the issue of antisemitism on campus, as previously reported by The College Fix.
The report identified “insufficiency of Harvard’s response to reports of antisemitic incidents” and “dramatic declines in Jewish enrollment at Harvard.”
MORE: Harvard antisemitism task force co-chair resigns over lack of action
IMAGE: Living L’chaim/YouTube
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