House committee chair says Harvard’s ‘unacceptable’ response to antisemitism probe is ‘woefully inadequate’
The leader of a House committee investigating claims of antisemitism on Harvard’s campus has slammed the Ivy League school for its “woefully inadequate” response to the committee’s request for documents and warned that the university could face “compulsory measures” if it continues to fail to comply with the inquiry.
Harvard had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to turn over all documents related to Jewish students and antisemitism on campus — including internal emails and text messages between board members, proof that students and staff faced disciplinary actions for the harassment of Jewish students and funding documents — especially those that show 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 answering the committee’s request in a substantive manner, Harvard has chosen to provide letters from nonprofits and student handbooks, many of which are already publicly available,” Foxx said in a statement.
“This is unacceptable,” she continued. “Harvard must produce the remaining documents in a timely manner, or risk compulsory measures.”
Such “compulsory measures” may include subpoenas, Nick Barley, a spokesman for the committee, told The Post.
The Post has reached out to Harvard for comment.
In a statement to Bloomberg, spokesman Jason Newton said the university is committed to cooperating with the congressional inquiry, providing information and addressing its questions.
“We denounce any form of antisemitism in the strongest possible terms and are committed to the safety and well-being of our students,” he said. “We intend to continue to engage with the committee in a dialogue to respond to their ongoing requests.”
In addition, the committee sent officials at the University of Pennsylvania a similar request for documents as it investigates claims of antisemitism on that campus.
Foxx wrote in the 14-page letter to university chairman Ramanan Raghevendan and interim president Larry Jameson on Wednesday that the committee has “grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Penn’s response to antisemitism on campus.”
She cited multiple instances in which school property was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, including one incident at the end of October in which a Jewish fraternity house was scrawled with “The Jews R Nazis.”
Two Jewish students have also claimed in a civil lawsuit that Jews on campus “are routinely subjected to vile and threatening antisemitic slurs and chants,” Foxx noted.
As a result of these antisemitic acts, a December 2023 Brandeis University study that surveyed Jewish students at 51 college campuses in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel “ranked Penn in its worst category, ‘Highest antisemitic hostility,’” Foxx wrote in her letter Wednesday.
But antisemitism was prevalent on campus even before the attack, with the university hosting a Palestinian literature festival in September that featured a speaker who 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 claimed that it was a “context-dependent decision.”
Even though she and former board chairman Scott Bok have since resigned from their posts, “Penn’s institutional failures regarding antisemitism extend well beyond two leaders,” Foxx argued.
Other university officials, she claimed, have “demonstrated a clear double standard by tolerating antisemitic vandalism, harassment and intimidation, but suppressing and penalizing other expression it deemed problematic,” citing “numerous … cases of Penn canceling or sanctioning speech it disfavored.”
Foxx is calling on the university to also hand over all internal communications, the minutes from board meetings and proof that students and staff faced disciplinary actions for the harassment of Jewish students.
She is also requesting that the university provide any documents “relating to or reflective of” the Palestine Writes Festival as well as those “sufficient to show any changes to Penn’s governance documents and code of conduct” in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack.
The university has until Feb. 7 to turn over the trove of documents.
The Post has reached out to University of Pennsylvania officials for comment.
