Government didn’t fully probe anti-Semitism claim, Harvard says

Attorneys for Harvard University administrators on Monday filed a court memo alleging that the Trump administration failed to thoroughly investigate claims of anti-Semitism on its campus, as well as the university’s efforts to quell such discrimination. The memo came hours after the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism sent Harvard’s president a notice that the school had violated federal anti-discrimination law.

The memo said the government previously froze research grants to Harvard without conducting a meaningful investigation, then cited the school’s own report on campus anti-Semitism after the fact to justify cutting the funds. The memo also argued that the government ignored steps Harvard previously took to address anti-Semitism on campus.

What did the task force say in its notice? Harvard was sometimes deliberately indifferent to anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students, faculty, and staff, and other times willingly participated in it, according to the notice. Most Jewish students experienced negative bias or discrimination on campus, and a quarter felt physically unsafe. Some were attacked and spit on. Few participants in multi-week occupations of campus spaces that intimidated Jewish students received punishment, according to the notice. The school sorted and judged individuals by their membership in an oppressed group, not personal merit, the task force wrote.

Harvard could lose federal funds, in addition to the already terminated grants, for failing to comply, according to Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. The university received more than $794 million in federal financial assistance from the Department of Health and Human Services between the 2023 and 2025 fiscal years, according to the department.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles over its sanctuary city policies.