A damning report by a group of Harvard alumni catalogs pervasive antisemitism at America’s oldest university.
Aish, Dr. Yvette Alt Miller, May 19, 2024
How had so much Jew-hatred managed to fester at Harvard for so long, only to explode after Hamas’ horrific attack on October 7, 2023? That is one of the key questions Harvard alumnae Jessica Levin and Zoe Bernstein set to find out in the innovative investigation into their alma mater that they spearheaded. They and the Education Committee comprised of other alumni from the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance (HJAA) recently published their report, The Soil Beneath the Encampments: How Israel and Jews Became the Focus of Hate at Harvard, uncovering a history of anti-Israel bias at Harvard that has exploded into anti-Jewish “hate” that’s infected America’s oldest university.
The report is the product of many months of research and represents over 3,000 Jewish Harvard alumni who are demanding that Harvard acknowledge the antisemitism in its institution and take concrete steps to change. Aish.com spoke to Jessica Levin about her findings.
On October 7, 2023, while Hamas fighters were still raping, torturing, and kidnapping over 1,450 Israelis, student leaders at Harvard were busy drafting a letter that blamed Israel for the attack.
The final document, issued late that night, was signed by 33 campus clubs and organizations. (In the following weeks, members of clubs listed in the letter complained that they hadn’t been consulted by their club leaders.) As the rest of the world was still digesting the scale of the carnage, 33 Harvard groups declared: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence.” It was a strange, gratuitous piece of hate that sought to exonerate Hamas before Hamas’ victims were even cold.