Trump admin probe formally accuses Harvard of violating civil rights of Jewish, Israeli students

The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that an agency investigation has found Harvard University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with its indifference over the harassment of Jewish and Israeli students since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

The agency's Office for Civil Rights enforces Title VI, which prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating in its programs and activities based on race, color, or national origin. 

Harvard received $794 million in federal financial assistance from HHS from fiscal years 2023 to 2025, according to the department.

The letter that formally accuses Harvard of such violations is the Ivy League school and the Trump administration's back-and-forth since the campus, anti-Israel protests – which includes Trump threatening to take away Harvard’s federal funding and quiet negotiations between the two, court fights and threats to Harvard’s research funding and foreign student enrollment.

The HHS office found that Harvard still has a hostile environment that "includes harassing speech, threats, and intimidation targeting Jewish and Israeli students, including calls for genocide and murder." Also, the investigation found that there were "acts of physical intimidation and violence between students. This hostile environment denied, and continues to deny, students’ fundamental educational opportunities."

“Harvard’s public pledges to improve its disciplinary framework for harassment and misconduct are inadequate to meaningfully address these serious findings,” HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Paula Stannard said in a statement on Monday. “HHS stands ready to reengage in productive discussions with Harvard to reach resolution on the corrective action that Harvard can take to remedy the violations and come into compliance with its Title VI obligations.”

The Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism – which includes HHS, the departments of Education and Justice and the General Services Administration – sent Harvard President Dr. Alan Garber a letter on Monday, informing him of the investigation's findings.

"The majority of Jewish students reported experiencing negative bias or discrimination on campus, while a quarter felt physically unsafe," the task force wrote. "Jewish and Israeli students were assaulted and spit on; they hid their kippahs for fear of being harassed and concealed their Jewish identity from classmates for fear of ostracization."

Also, following "an impermissible, multiweek encampment" on campus "that instilled fear in, and disrupted the studies of, Jewish and Israeli students," those "who participated in the encampment received lax and inconsistent discipline – and as the discipline was reviewed by higher levels among the faculty, it was often downgraded," according to the letter. No one was suspended over the encampment.

"Harvard’s commitment to racial hierarchies – where individuals are sorted and judged according to their membership in an oppressed group identity and not individual merit – has enabled anti-Semitism to fester on Harvard’s campus and has led a once great institution to humiliation, offering remedial math and forcing Jewish students to hide their identities and ancestral stories," the task force wrote.

"Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government. Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again."

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton said on Monday that the university had taken “substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism” and provided details about those efforts to the administration in a statement, according to The Harvard Crimson.

"Harvard is far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government's findings," Newton added. "We remain committed to ensuring members of our Jewish and Israeli community are embraced, respected, and can thrive at Harvard."