Written by Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – A US judge presiding over lawsuits accusing Harvard University of anti-Semitism on Tuesday narrowed but refused to dismiss a lawsuit by two lawyers’ groups accusing the Ivy League school of making it intolerable for Jewish students to study there.
US District Judge Richard Stearns said the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education could pursue a hostile education environment claim on behalf of the students.
A Boston-based judge dismissed allegations that Harvard directly discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students, and retaliated against them for complaining about anti-Semitism.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not comment. Harvard and its attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In August, Stearns refused to drop a related lawsuit by Jewish students who accused Harvard of allowing its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts to become a hotbed of antisemitism.
Both lawsuits accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funds from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin, and sought to stop further violations.
Tuesday’s decision mainly concerns Harvard’s alleged mishandling of incidents from the spring and fall of 2023.
In one, a Jewish professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School allegedly pressured students in a public action planning course to abandon a project predicated on the existence of “liberal Jewish democracy,” because associating “Jews” with “democracy” creates “insecurity.” space” for your classmates.
Another concerns the viral “die-in” near Harvard Business School where attendees accused Israel of war crimes, chanted anti-Semitic slogans and allegedly beat a Jewish Israeli student.
Stearns said the plaintiffs could try to prove Harvard’s “deliberate indifference” to the harassment, which shows its failure to punish the professor and the alleged lack of speed in investigating various incidents.
“To conclude that the mere act of launching an investigation without further follow-up defeats a claim of willful negligence, would be to prioritize form over function,” Stearns wrote.
Stearns, however, found no credible allegation that Harvard’s responses reflected anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli animus, or vindictiveness.
The lawsuits are among many accusing major universities of condoning and promoting anti-Semitism following the outbreak of the October 2023 war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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