A small number of Jewish students at Harvard University have filed a lawsuit against the school after what appeared to be “rampant anti-Semitism” taking over the campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Last week, a group called Students Against Anti-Semitism and six students, including a Harvard Divinity School student identified as Alexander Kestenbaum, lawsuit In District Court in Boston, the lawsuit alleges that while anti-Semitic bias has always been a problem at Harvard, the school has recently become a “bastion of rampant anti-Semitic hatred and harassment.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Oct. 7 attack resulted in students, faculty, staff, and administrators harassing students in student lounges, especially students wearing Jewish attire, and offering rioters “burritos and candy.” , claimed to have been “emboldened” by gross anti-Semitic acts. Pro-Palestinian students took control of University Hall in November.
Such instances of anti-Semitic bias reveal a shocking “double standard” in enforcing Harvard's code of conduct, the lawsuit claimed. “Harvard University allows its students and faculty to advocate the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel, the world's only Jewish state, without consequences.” “Meanwhile, Harvard University requires students to take a training class that warns them that they will be disciplined if they engage in sizeist, fatphobic, racist, transphobic, or other objectionable behavior. ing.”
Kestenbaum, known as Shabbos, agreed to an interview. daily mail And he claimed that Harvard's campus had become so hostile to Jewish students that his parents didn't want him to return. “I would not be surprised in the slightest if there was an attack on a Jewish student” at some point during the spring semester, he said.
Worst of all, “Harvard is doing nothing to address these concerns,” he added. The lawsuit even claimed that Harvard had “abjectly failed” in enforcing its rules against anti-Semitism.
Kestenbaum initially claimed that she did not intend to sue the school and only did so as a “last resort.” “We tried to take all the other routes and were turned down again and again. And we didn't know what else to do.”
The lawsuit calls for “disciplinary action against students, professors, and administrators who engage in “anti-Semitic discrimination and abuse,” regardless of whether they committed or authorized the conduct.”
Mark Ressler, an attorney with the law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres who represented the plaintiffs, argued that the problem of anti-Semitism at Harvard extends beyond members of Harvard's immediate community. He noted that the school receives large donations, possibly from foreign countries, on the condition that faculty members explicitly support anti-Semitic or anti-Israel positions.
“The concern is that other countries are giving a lot of money with conditions,” Roessler said in a separate interview with the Daily Mail.
Ressler said that during the litigation discovery process, he and other members of his legal team want to scrutinize various internal office communications between Harvard officials. Among them is former president Claudine Gay, who recently resigned after being accused of ignoring anti-Semitism on campus. Among other scandals, to see if any such donations were ever made. Their goal, he said, is to ensure that “Harvard University will not accept any foreign donations on the condition that professors spew anti-Semitic venom in their classes and on campus.” Ta.
In addition to better understanding the motivations behind donations to the school, the plaintiffs are also seeking tuition refunds from Harvard, citing its failure to follow through on student safety protocols. There is. “Whatever the cost of one year's tuition at Harvard Law School should be refunded because Harvard violated the contract it made with its students,” Ressler argued.
Blaze News has contacted the interim secretariat. president alan garber There was no immediate response to the lawsuit.The school has already declined to comment. Reuters.
Do you like Blaze News? Avoid censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. Please register here!
