Students at Harvard University have reveled their feelings about how the school is responding to pressure from the Trump administration to combat antisemitism.
Harvard students and alumni are speaking out after the university announced it is suing the Trump administration rather than comply with its demands to address antisemitism on its campus.
„The government withheld funds from racist schools that refused to integrate. The Obama administration repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funds to sexist schools that refused to combat sexual assault. The Trump Administration’s efforts are in no way an unprecedented threat on higher education. Should Harvard still like to enjoy American taxpayer money, they can simply choose to comply with federal law at any point“, Harvard student Shabbos Kestenbaum told Fox News Digital.
Kestenbaum is currently suing the Ivy League university, alleging the school failed to properly address complaints of antisemitism and threats of violence directed at him. Harvard’s financial and systems coordinator Gustavo Espada allegedly posted online that Kestenbaum needed to „watch [his] back“ and that he was „coming for much more than blood.“
Harvard has become a flashpoint in the nationwide crisis of antisemitism that swept college campuses across the United States following Hamas‘ barbaric terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which saw more Jews killed on any single day since the Holocaust.
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned from her post in January 2024, after accusations of plagiarism and her disastrous testimony to the House Education Committee where she refused to say whether calls to commit genocide against Jews were against the school’s code of conduct, claiming it „depends on the context.“
Trump administration antisemitism taskforce member Sean Keveney sent a letter to Harvard on April 11 with a list of demands to address antisemitism, racial bias and viewpoint discrimination that the school felt was a bridge too far.
