A House committee is requesting a trove of documents from Harvard University officials, including Penny Pritzker, a senior fellow at the Harvard Corporation, as it continues its investigation into anti-Semitism at the Ivy League school.
The sweeping request sent by the same committee that last month called then-President Claudine Gay to testify now gives Harvard just two weeks to turn over all documents related to Jewish students and anti-Semitism on campus.
The nine-page letter signed by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and sent to Pritzker and Acting Chairman Alan Garber on Tuesday, says members of the Education and Workforce Committee express “serious concerns about insufficient Harvard’s response. to anti-Semitism on campus” and demand answers.
Although Gay announced last week that he would resign, “Harvard’s institutional failures regarding anti-Semitism extend far beyond one leader,” according to the letter, a copy of which was viewed by The Post.
The House Education and Workforce Committee is giving Harvard officials two weeks to turn over a trove of documents as part of its investigation into anti-Semitism on campus. REUTERS
Foxx cited several cases in which conservatives were denied invitations to speak on campus or had their courses eliminated, while taking aim at Gay’s earlier claim that context matters in determining whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate university policy.
“Harvard’s dismal record on free speech exposes the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of its leadership’s rationalization for inaction toward anti-Semitism on campus.”
He also referenced a report on the 2021-22 school year from the AMCHA Initiative, a nonprofit organization that documents anti-Semitism on campus.
It found that among the 109 universities it surveyed, Harvard had the highest rate of threats to Jewish identity.
“There is evidence that anti-Semitism has been widespread at Harvard since long before the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023,” he wrote.
Committee members expressed “serious concerns about the inadequacy of Harvard’s response to anti-Semitism on campus.” CJ GUNTHER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The committee is now seeking more than two dozen different categories of information from the university, including internal emails and text messages between board members, evidence that students and staff faced disciplinary action over harassment of Jewish students and funding documents, especially those showing donations. from Qatari sources.
The Congressional request says:
- Harvard’s Jewish undergraduate population has fallen sharply from about 1,675 students in 2013 to 700 in 2023, according to Hillel International estimates. 16 This constitutes a decline from 25 percent of the undergraduate student body to just 9.8 percent.17 A 2023 survey by The Harvard Crimson found that 5.4 percent of the class of 2027 identified as Jewish .18
- Pro-Palestinian activists disrupted Harvard classes on November 29, 2023, using megaphones to shout hate messages including “globalizing the intifada” and “from the river to the sea.”
- Following the October 7 attack, social media platforms were flooded with anti-Semitic posts by Harvard students. To provide several representative examples, one post said: “Harvard Hillel is burning in hell / Harvard Hillel is burning in hell / And Epstein funded them too.” 7 Posts on the anonymous messaging platform SideChat, which requires a Harvard email address to access, read “LET US COOK” alongside a Palestinian flag emoji and “I proudly accept the terrorist label.”8
The committee also requests any and all reports on allegations of hate crimes that disrupted access to safe learning environments, as well as data showing Jewish enrollment numbers in college, graduate and professional schools since 2003. .
The university has been plagued by reports of anti-Semitism, which worsened when then-president Claudine Gay refused to say that anyone who called for the genocide of Jews at Harvard would be punished in a congressional hearing. REUTERS
It also seeks documents related to any attempts by university officials to “understand the reason for such changes or trends” in enrollment data, including communications from the school’s Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging related to the Jews and anti-Semitism.
The committee is even seeking minutes of Harvard Corporation and Board of Overseers meetings, as well as posts by Harvard students and faculty targeting Jews on social media.
In a statement to the Post, a Harvard University spokesperson said, “The University is reviewing President Foxx’s letter and will contact the Committee regarding her request.”
The university has been plagued by reports of widespread anti-Semitism on campus after Hamas launched its shock attack on October 7.
Immediately after the attack, more than 30 Harvard student groups published a letter blaming Israel for the Hamas terrorist attack, a letter that university leaders did not condemn.
Following his resignation, Gay called the exchange a “well-laid trap” in an op-ed published in The New York Times. New York Times
While under Gay, a Jewish student had been surrounded by pro-Palestinian supporters who shouted “shame on him” as he walked to class, and the campus saw a doxxing truck pass by with faces of students blaming Israel for the Hamas attack. .
Things only got worse when then-President Gay refused to say that anyone who called for the genocide of Jews at Harvard would be punished in a congressional hearing.
“Does calling for the genocide of the Jews violate your university’s code of conduct on bullying or harassment?” New York Rep. Elise Stefanik asked Gay at the hearing.
“It depends on the context,” the academic responded.
Following his resignation, Gay called the exchange a “well-laid trap” in an op-ed published in The New York Times.
“Yes, I made mistakes. “In my initial response to the atrocities of October 7, I should have stated more forcefully what all people of good conscience know: Hamas is a terrorist organization seeking to eradicate the Jewish State,” Gay wrote.
“And at a congressional hearing last month, I fell into a well-laid trap. “I forgot to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of the Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable and that I would use every tool at my disposal to protect students from that kind of hate.”
Gay has had the shortest term as president of Harvard, at just six months and one day. She was the first black leader at the country’s most prestigious university.
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