Harvard Jewish Groups, Pro-Palestine Activists React to Antisemitism Settlement

Harvard’s settlement of two antisemitism lawsuits Tuesday sparked pointed reactions from student groups on campus, ranging from reserved hope to fury.

As part of the agreement, Harvard will adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism and establish an official partnership with a university in Israel to ensure “Jewish and Israeli students are welcome and able to thrive,” according to a University press release.

The agreement ignited debate within Harvard’s Jewish groups and drew outrage from pro-Palestine campus protest organizations, which said the move catered to the new Trump administration and will prevent students from freely criticizing Israel.

At Harvard Hillel, leaders expressed cautious optimism about the settlement.

Amelia M. Heller ’27, who was recently elected as the undergraduate president of Harvard Hillel, wrote in a statement that Hillel is “pleased that the University is reaffirming its commitment to protect Israelis, Jewish, and Zionist students.”

“While we appreciate the reaffirmation of Harvard’s commitment to combating antisemitism, we will see how these measures are enforced in the coming months,” Heller added.

Rabbi Jason B. Rubenstein ’04, the executive director of Harvard Hillel, addressed the settlements in an email to Hillel affiliates hours after the University’s announcement, writing that he will wait to see how the University implements the changes.

“No settlement or report is worth more than the consistency and breadth of its implementation — which will come not through a single agreement but through thousands of decisions by hundreds of distinct individuals and groups within this university,” Rubenstein wrote.

Rubenstein, however, stopped short of explicitly praising the provisions in the settlement.

“These lawsuits are not, and never were, the only avenue the Jewish community is pursuing as we assert our rights at Harvard,” Rubenstein added, giving a nod to the University’s task force on antisemitism, which is expected to release its final report this spring.

Rubenstein also announced the creation of a new Harvard Hillel senior position “to monitor, advance, and sustain the implementation of these settlements and recommendations.” The job was first posted to JewishJobs.com on Friday.

Other Hillel members said Harvard’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism — which classifies certain criticisms of Israel as antisemitic — might suppress speech given disagreement over its interpretation.

“The definition itself is actually extremely vague. But it’s precisely that vagueness that concerns me,” said Noah B. Kassis ’25, a member of the Core Team of the Forward-Thinking Jewish Union, a progressive Jewish student group on campus.

“It has been used by groups whose aim is really to crack down on speech that is in favor of Palestinian people or that’s critical of Israeli policy,” Kassis added.

Harvard Jews for Palestine organizer Violet T.M. Barron ’26 said the move sets a “dangerous precedent” for other universities across the U.S., noting that Harvard is the first Ivy League school to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

“That definition has been widely criticized across the board for its use to conflate anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel with antisemitism,” said Barron, a Crimson Editorial editor.

Barron, also an organizer for Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — the campus pro-Palestine coalition that planned the spring 2024 encampment — said the adopted definition could provide a secondary avenue to discipline pro-Palestine protests.

For past protests, the University has primarily used violations of time, place, and manner restrictions outlined in the University-Wide Statement on Rights and Responsibilities to justify disciplinary sanctions.

The protests themselves often feature chants that specifically condemn Zionism. J4P, for example, was widely criticized for chanting “Zionists not welcome here” outside a Hillel event with former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Ronen Manelis in November.

Barron said she fears such chants could be considered for discipline under the IHRA definition.

“Here we have Harvard giving itself an opportunity to discipline students, not just for a violation of time-place-manner restrictions, as they have been doing, but for the content of their speech,” Barron said.

Both Kassis and Barron said they believed the settlement was a strategic response to President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

“This is a preemptive move, with Trump now in office, made to try to get Congress off of our backs,” Barron said.

“It certainly gives the appearance that Harvard’s administration is compromising its values in order to placate the incoming administration,” Kassis said of the settlement.

Kassis added that in a group chat with more than 50 Jewish students, he received dozens of angry messages about the settlement.

“People are upset that these responses to antisemitism are coming as the result of a settlement, and not as a result of this process that the University has been trying to go through over the past year,” Kassis said, referencing the task force work.

A Harvard spokesperson declined to comment for this article. In the settlement announcements Tuesday morning, a spokesperson wrote that “we are resolute in our efforts to confront antisemitism and will continue to implement robust steps to maintain a welcoming, open, and safe campus environment where every student feels a sense of belonging.”

“Today’s settlement reflects our dedication to this mission,” they added.

Several pro-Palestine campus groups shared the concern that Harvard’s settlement may have been spurred on due to pressure from political leaders in Washington, D.C.

In a statement on their website, The Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers’ Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Caucus wrote that Harvard had “once again chosen to capitulate to the demands of extremist donors and politicians,” in a statement on Instagram.

“Harvard’s adoption of the so-called IHRA definition undermines the constitutionally-protected rights of its community members — including student workers — and specifically targets those who speak out against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the occupation of historic Palestine,” the group wrote.

The Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee also criticized the settlement for adopting the IHRA’s “accompanying examples,” which specify that it is antisemitic to characterize Israel’s existence as a “racist endeavour.”

“Today, Harvard equated criticism of Israel with antisemitism in its disciplinary policy,” the group wrote on their Instagram page.

“Harvard will protect Zionism — a racist, genocidal political ideology — over its students’ right to demand an end to occupation,” they added.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.