BREAKING: Jewish Students and Harvard Settle Antisemitism Lawsuit

Dear fellow members of Harvard’s Jewish community,

This morning, Harvard University and  Students Against Antisemitism, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education – announced that they had settled the plaintiffs’ lawsuit against the university for failing to protect the civil rights of Jewish students from anti-Semitic discrimination. Another lawsuit is still proceeding against the university.

The settlement’s key provisions are:

• Adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism for purposes of discipline
• Explicitly recognizing Zionism as a protected category under the university’s non-discrimination policy
• A dedicated position for antisemitism complaints and reporting
• Annual public reporting on antisemitism-related cases and their outcomes for at least five years (including retrospective to October 1, 2023)
• Mandatory outside training for staff reviewing antisemitism complaints
• Expanded academic programming on anti-Semitism
• Partnerships with an Israeli University and with the Brandeis Center

Let’s be clear: the above list does not represent everything that can, should, or must be done. Incorporating the handling of anti-Semitism into the required work-plans and evaluations of division heads; the entrenched anti-Zionist orthodoxy of certain academic fields; and the below-quota-era admissions of Jews to Harvard College and Medical School – all remain urgent areas of advocacy and improvement.

These lawsuits are not, and never were, the only avenue the Jewish community is pursuing as we assert our rights at Harvard. Next month, the Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias’s report is expected – with a broader purview than these lawsuits, it has the potential to invigorate work in other areas. Other, not-yet-public, projects are underway – with distinctive areas of focus, time-lines, and methods. More important than any single event will be our sustained, tireless, and principled advocacy over the years to come. No settlement or report is worth more than the consistency and breadth of its implementation – which will come not through a single agreement but through thousands of decisions by hundreds of distinct individuals and groups within this university. Anticipating this moment, Harvard Hillel has created a new, senior position to monitor, advance, and sustain the implementation of these settlements and recommendations.

In representing the Jewish community, I am committed to using every resource at our disposal – the law, and also persuasion; the pressure of unified advocacy and the trust of friendship – to defend the place of each and every Jewish student, and of Zionism itself, at this great university. And as we fight, we must never lose focus of the fact that every element of our work – even the pitched battle against antisemitism – is in the service of creating a flourishing Jewish life at Harvard, that deepens and sweetens students lives and prepares them to make life-long commitments to write the next chapter of our undying tradition. That harmony of resolve and hope, of fierceness and holiness, is what has drawn each generation of our ancestors to celebrate and defend our existence – and it is the legacy we are bequeathing to each Jewish Harvard student every Shabbat, and every day.

Yours,

Rabbi Jason Rubenstein
Executive Director
Harvard Hillel