Congress demands Harvard Corp chair Penny Pritzker answer for increased antisemitism on campus

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce led by Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx penned a lengthy letter to leaders at Harvard, namely Senior Fellow Penny Ptrizker and Interim President Alan Garber, expressing their "grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of [the university's] response to the antisemitism on its campus.

The committee called on Interim President Alan Garber and Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker to assist in their investigation into the university by providing a trove of documentation related to allegations of anti-Jewish activity.
 

"There is evidence antisemitism has been pervasive at Harvard since well before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack," the committee wrote in its letter, drawing attention to a November 2022 report by the nonprofit AMCHA Initiative which found that the university had the "highest rate of threats based on Jewish identity of the 109 campuses they surveyed."

Also cited was a March 2023 thesis titled 'The Death of Discourse: Antisemitism at Harvard College' by Harvard student Sabrina Goldfischer. Her data showed that 62.5 percent of the Harvard students she interviewed had experienced antisemitism on campus or knew people who had, and that 68.75 percent of them had "censored themselves in academic or social settings because of their Judaism or ties to Israel."

The letter's authors went on to list a number of "deeply troubling incidents and developments" on campus in the wake of Hamas' latest terror campaign, adding that "Harvard’s dismal record on free speech exposes the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of its leadership's rationalizations for its inaction towards antisemitism on campus."

The committee asked Garber and Pritzker to provide them with documents revealing "all reports of antisemitic acts or incidents and related documents and communications since January 1, 2021, including but not limited to all reports of antisemitic acts, incidents, or discrimination" made to the president, general counsel, every dean, every DEI office, the campus police department, the HR department, and any other mediums used by the university to collect complaints.

Harvard officials were also asked to provide evidence of any actions taken against students and staff over their targeting of Jews, Israelis, Israel, Zionists, or Zionism since January 2021, as well as a slew of other documents related to foreign funding and incidents both before and after the October 7th attack.

Officials at the university have until Jan. 23 to comply.