Harvard’s Hypocritical Chickens Come Home to Roost

On Tuesday, a Massachusetts federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Harvard University had been deliberately indifferent to antisemitic harassment on campus and had breached its contract with Jewish students by failing to enforce its disciplinary policies against their harassers. The judge in Kestenbaum v. Harvard held that the plaintiffs had plausibly alleged that Harvard had stood by as Jewish students were subjected to “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment,” had refused to “evenhandedly administer its policies,” and has, ultimately, “failed its Jewish students.” The court ruled, in other words, that Harvard’s hypocrisy may be unlawful.

As a proudly pro-Israel Jew who has dedicated my career to fighting for free speech on campus, the past year has been surreal and distressing. I have spent the past 20 years of my career trying (and largely failing, short of taking them to court) to get universities to respect the right to free speech. So hearing the presidents of major universities testify before Congress about their strong institutional commitments to free speech should have been music to my ears. Instead, I just felt sickened by their rank hypocrisy. The only thing that seemed to motivate these institutions to finally proclaim their fealty to First Amendment principles were calls for genocide against Jews. It was painful.

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Samantha Harris

Samantha Harris is a partner at Allen Harris PLLC.

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On Tuesday, a Massachusetts federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Harvard University had been deliberately indifferent to antisemitic harassment on campus and had breached its contract with Jewish students by failing to enforce its disciplinary policies against their harassers. The judge in Kestenbaum v. Harvard held that the plaintiffs had plausibly alleged that Harvard had stood by as Jewish students were subjected to “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive harassment,” had refused to “evenhandedly administer its policies,” and has, ultimately, “failed its Jewish students.” The court ruled, in other words, that Harvard’s hypocrisy may be unlawful.

As a proudly pro-Israel Jew who has dedicated my career to fighting for free speech on campus, the past year has been surreal and distressing. I have spent the past 20 years of my career trying (and largely failing, short of taking them to court) to get universities to respect the right to free speech. So hearing the presidents of major universities testify before Congress about their strong institutional commitments to free speech should have been music to my ears. Instead, I just felt sickened by their rank hypocrisy. The only thing that seemed to motivate these institutions to finally proclaim their fealty to First Amendment principles were calls for genocide against Jews. It was painful.