The leader of a House committee investigating allegations of anti-Semitism on Harvard’s campus criticized the Ivy League school for its “woefully inadequate” response to the committee’s document request and warned that the university could face “mandatory action.” “if he continues to fail to comply. with the query.
Harvard had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to turn over all documents related to Jewish students and anti-Semitism on campus, including internal emails and text messages between board members, evidence that students and staff faced disciplinary actions for harassment of Jewish students and funding documents, especially those showing donations from Qatari sources.
But Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), head of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said university officials have so far only turned over publicly available documents.
“Rather than respond to the committee’s request in any substantive way, Harvard has chosen to provide letters from nonprofit organizations and student handbooks, many of which are already publicly available,” Foxx said in a statement.
“This is unacceptable,” he continued. “Harvard must submit the remaining documents in a timely manner, or risk mandatory action.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx criticized Harvard’s response to the House Education and Workforce Committee’s response seeking documents, while filing a similar request at the University of Pennsylvania. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Such “mandatory measures” may include subpoenas, committee spokesman Nick Barley told The Post.
The Post has contacted Harvard for comment.
In a statement to Bloomberg, spokesperson Jason Newton said the university is committed to cooperating with the congressional investigation by providing information and answering questions.
“We denounce any form of anti-Semitism in the strongest possible terms and are committed to the safety and well-being of our students,” he said. “We intend to continue dialogue with the committee to respond to their ongoing requests.”
Additionally, the committee sent officials at the University of Pennsylvania a similar request for documents as it investigates allegations of anti-Semitism on that campus.
Harvard University officials had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to turn over a trove of documents related to anti-Semitism on campus. The committee sent another request for information to officials at the University of Pennsylvania as it investigates allegations of anti-Semitism there.
Foxx wrote Wednesday in the 14-page letter to university President Ramanan Raghevendan and interim President Larry Jameson that the committee has “serious concerns regarding the inadequacy of Penn’s response to anti-Semitism on campus.” .
He cited multiple instances in which school property was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, including an incident in late October in which a Jewish fraternity house was scrawled with “Jews R Nazis.”
Two Jewish students also claimed in a civil lawsuit that Jews on campus “are routinely subjected to vile and threatening anti-Semitic insults and chants,” Foxx noted.
As a result of these anti-Semitic acts, a December 2023 Brandeis University study that surveyed Jewish students on 51 college campuses following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 “placed Penn in its worst category, ‘Highest Anti-Semitic Hostility’ ‘” Foxx wrote in his letter on Wednesday.
The request to Harvard officials demanded that they turn over evidence that students and staff faced disciplinary action for harassment of Jewish students. Twitter/@AvivaKlompas
But anti-Semitism was prevalent on campus even before the attack, and the university hosted a Palestinian literature festival in September at which one speaker called for “Death to Israel,” the congresswoman argued.
Then, when asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated the school’s code of conduct, then-president Liz Magill said it was a “context-dependent decision.”
Although she and former board chair Scott Bok resigned from their positions, “Penn’s institutional failures regarding anti-Semitism extend far beyond two leaders,” Foxx argued.
Other university officials, he said, have “demonstrated a clear double standard by tolerating anti-Semitic vandalism, harassment and intimidation, but suppressing and penalizing other expression they considered problematic,” citing “numerous… cases in which Penn canceled or sanctioned speeches that disfavored.”
In Wednesday’s request, Foxx cited multiple instances in which university property was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. Robert Miller
Foxx is calling on the university to also turn over all internal communications, board meeting minutes and evidence that students and staff faced disciplinary action over the harassment of Jewish students.
It also requests that the university provide any documents “related to or reflecting” the Palestine Writing Festival, as well as those “sufficient to show any changes to Penn’s governance documents and code of conduct” following the October 7 terrorist attack. . .
The university has until February 7 to deliver the trove of documents.
The Post has contacted officials at the University of Pennsylvania for comment.
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