Harvard, Not Ready For Its Close-Up

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Harvard is no doubt hoping that its just-released report on antisemitism at the university — that is, its admission of antisemitism on its campus that it failed to appropriately deal with — will quiet its critics. But it won’t, because there is a great deal that Harvard left out of its mea-culpa report. And how outrageous that the university accompanied its report on antisemitism, deep and wide on campus, with another report on “Islamophobia,” which is the word concocted by apologists for Islam in order to deride and undermine all criticism of the faith, no matter how justified, as an expression only of an “irrational fear or hatred” of Islam. There was no harassment, no holding captive, no physical attacks on Muslims on campus, no calls for the death of Muslims akin to the calls to kill Jews which is what the chant “Intifada Now” signifies. Perhaps there was an occasional look of disapproval from a few people at those chanting “from the river to the sea/Palestine will be free,” which, properly understood, means a call for the destruction of the Jewish state and its people, and their replacement by a 23rd Arab state. That is the most the Muslims on campus can complain about. But those Muslims want you to believe that what they endured was far worse, and Harvard’s administration has with this “separate but equal” report on “Islamophobia” pretended to believe it.

More on the Harvard report, and on Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration for trying, the university claims, to stifle “academic freedom,” can be found here: “Yom HaShoah and Harvard’s Complete Refusal to Address Hatred and Attacks on Jews,” by Daniel Pomerantz, Algemeiner, April 30, 2025:

Last week Israel commemorated Yom HaShoah, the country’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

As I stood at silent attention along with an entire country, listening to the one minute long commemorative siren and thinking of the role the Holocaust has played in our collective past, I couldn’t help but hear its haunting echoes in our present.

Harvard University recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, purportedly in defense of “academic freedom.” The specific “freedom” Harvard is defending is to harass, intimidate, and physically assault Jewish students with impunity, and in violation of Title VI of the Federal Civil Rights Act. Harvard now claims that the White House’s actions violate the university’s First Amendment rights. They do not.

A quick note: at RealityCheck we encourage our readers to support (and oppose) policies, rather than people. How one feels about any politician (including President Trump) should be irrelevant to one’s opinion on the safety of Jewish students, and the proper enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Here’s what you need to know to build your own, well-informed opinion.

Since October 7, 2023, Harvard University has been host to more than a year and a half of attacks on Jewish students, including: physical assaults, vandalism, harassment, demonstrations, divestment resolutions, classroom disruptions, calls for “intifada” and other death threats, and a disgraced university president who infamously testified before Congress that calling for the genocide of Jews might not be antisemitic because, “it depends on the context.”

The Trump administration has demanded that Harvard University comply with a list of requirements to ensure basic safety and equal protection for all students on campus, including: banning masks by protesters, cooperating with law enforcement, reviewing disciplinary policies, increasing accountability by those responsible for student safety, and an end to so-called “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs, which for years have been used to limit Jewish and Asian admissions to Harvard (and which have been rejected by the United States Supreme Court).

Upon Harvard’s refusal to comply with its demands, the administration made good on a threat to pull $2 billion in Federal funding, with the promise of more cuts to come, as well as a request that the IRS consider revoking the university’s tax exempt status.

In its lawsuit, Harvard claims it has a First Amendment right to refuse the White House’s Title VI demands. It does not….

I don’t think this piece could be bettered, in short compass describing the full horror of what Jewish students at Harvard have experienced during the past year, the intention of the Trump administration to punish not the speech, but the conduct, of such campus brownshirts as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi (both at Columbia), and rebutting Harvard’s lawsuit against the administration, which rests on its scandalous presumption that it is entitled to the $2 billion in federal funds currently being withheld — even if it is violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Law.