Harvard took its lumps after the university’s long-awaited report on campus antisemitism acknowledged the obvious: that school officials failed to protect Jewish students as they were targeted, bullied and ostracized after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
The 311-page task force report on “Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias” contained accounts of hostility and bigotry toward Jewish students and faculty, as well as examples of politicized classroom instruction used to “mainstream” antisemitism and antipathy toward Israel.
Harvard President Alan Garber apologized for the “disappointing and painful” academic year that followed the Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, prompting an Israeli counterattack and anti-Israel protests to break out on campus.
“I am sorry for the moments when we failed to meet the high expectations we rightfully set for our community,” he said in a message. “The grave, extensive impact of the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel and its aftermath had serious repercussions on our campus.”
Also released late Tuesday was a separate, 222-page task force report on “Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias,” which found many Muslim students felt “abandoned and silenced.”
The reports come with the university locked in a battle-of-the-titans with the Trump administration over Harvard’s handling of campus antisemitism, which prompted the federal government to freeze $2.2 billion in contracts after the university rejected its policy prescriptions.
Harvard sued, accusing the administration of violating its free-speech rights with demands that included “discontinue DEI” and expanding “viewpoint diversity in admissions and hiring,” but the college may have changed its tune.
Among the numerous policies unveiled in response to the Tuesday report were “a major initiative to promote viewpoint diversity” and “reviewing admissions procedures.”
Earlier this week, the university said it would rename its Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, changing it to Community and Campus Life, effective immediately.
Harvard also said it would discontinue its racially segregated “affinity group” events during graduation.
The measures prompted Republican political analyst Scott Jennings to declare on X that “Harvard has CAVED in its fight with President Trump.”
Rep. Tim Walberg, House Education and the Workforce Committee chairman, said the university’s report recognized “what Committee Republicans have highlighted for years: antisemitism is running rampant on Harvard’s campus.”
“Harvard’s president said the school will not abide bigotry, yet that’s exactly what the school’s feckless leadership did,” the Michigan Republican said. “I’m delighted we finally have an ally in the White House who is willing to hold schools accountable for their abject failure to protect students, as required by law.”
The task force said that the “crisis of 2023 did not arrive in a vacuum,” citing the dwindling number of Jewish students on campus.
“At the turn of the millennium, changes in American demographics and Harvard’s admissions policies meant that by 2023 the Jewish student community was much smaller than it had been in the early 2010s,” the report said.
A gut-wrenching comment from an Israeli grad student, on page 140 of the report by Harvard’s internal Task Force on Combating Antisemitism: “I never even did pro-Israel things — I just existed. […] to spend [my time at Harvard] being bullied and ostracized was horrible.” pic.twitter.com/o2cmUs5qmt
— Ben B@dejo (@BenTelAviv) April 29, 2025
Many of the report’s statements from anonymous Jewish students and faculty circulated Wednesday on social media, offering evidence of how they sought to avoid being singled out in the anti-Israel climate after Oct. 7.
“Friends who are more outwardly Jewish and Israelis, the things they are experiencing are horrible,” said one undergraduate student. “I feel lucky I don’t look Jewish. I know if I do the ‘wrong thing’ I might get the antisemitism. So, put your headphones in, make sure you’re not outwardly Jewish, and just walk to class.”
A common theme expressed by students was that Jews who support Israel were culpable for the nation’s actions.
“They tell me Israel is an apartheid and colonial state. Why do they think they’re right and I’m wrong? They’ve never been there?” said a graduate student. “I have two Russian girls in my department. Nobody treats them differently because of what Russians are doing. And Chinese students never get blamed for the Chinese government’s actions. Jewish people are blamed for Israeli policies. This is antisemitic.”
The situation in some classrooms was just as bad, if not worse.
In a required course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the professor displayed a “Pyramid of White Supremacy” that includes references to the Anti-Defamation League and “Settler Colonialism.”
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health featured a course entitled “Settler Colonial Determinants of Health,” taught by a professor from the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, as well as multiple pro-Palestinian events.
“Chan has never had a single event that is pro-Israel or even neutral, it is all very one sided,” one student said.
Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers said the “searing” report confirms “what many of us have known for a long time, particularly that there are real issues of antisemitism on the Harvard campus.”
“The report proposes, in quite constructive ways, a variety of steps that should have been taken some time ago but much more needs to be done by leadership if the campus culture is to profoundly change,” Mr. Summers said on X.
