Harvard University’s 700 undergraduate Jewish students comprise 10% of the undergraduate student population and 2,500 Jewish graduate students comprise 17% of the graduate student population. There is a Hillel, Chabad and Center for Jewish Studies.

What’s Happening on Campus?

In April 2022, a group of protestors chanting “end the occupation” and “apartheid has got to go” disrupted an event with Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, at the Harvard Kennedy School.

After the October 7 Hamas attack, Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and Harvard Graduate Students 4 Palestine released a joint statement with dozens of other student groups, stating, “we, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” and “the apartheid regime is the only one to blame.”

These groups have reportedly organized multiple protests on campus, including protests during which students have caused disruptions to classes and other campus activities. To date, neither group has been suspended.

Other incidents reported during the fall of 2023 include an individual ripping down flyers depicting hostages, and flyers depicting hostages being defaced with language such as “kidnap the Zionists.”

In November 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a Title VI investigation into allegations of antisemitism on the campus.  In December 2023, in testimony to the House Education and Workforce Committee, then-President Claudine Gay claimed that whether “calling for the genocide of Jews violate[s] Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment” was context-dependent.

In January 2024, six students sued the University, alleging that Harvard had become a “bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment.” This was followed by a February 2024 alumni-led lawsuit that claimed Harvard’s “unrestrained” campus antisemitism has caused the university reputational damage.

In February 2024, an antisemitic cartoon from the 1960s was shared online by two student groups and was re-published by Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, who have since removed the post and apologized.

In May 2024, a 3-week encampment was organized by protestors on campus. In June 2024, a joint statement released by several anti-Israel groups expressed support for "the right to resistance in all its forms."

University Policies and Responsive Action

Harvard has created a task force against antisemitism and also committed to adding antisemitism education to DEI training for students, faculty and staff.

In the fall of 2023, then-President Gay wrote in an email to students, “phrases such as ‘from the river to the sea’ bear specific historical meanings that to a great many people imply the eradication of Jews from Israel and engender both pain and existential fears within our Jewish community.”

Following a 3-week encampment organized by pro-Palestinian protestors, Harvard University reached a deal with the protestors to end the encampment. The University ultimately agreed to walk students through the $49.5 billion University endowment and to quickly review petitions arguing for the reinstatement of protestors who had been suspended. However, in May 2024, some protestors were announced to have been blocked from attending graduation.