Northwestern Shows Harvard the Way Forward

While Harvard has chosen to defy the Trump administration’s request that it strengthen its policies to better protect Jewish students from antisemitism on its campus, and to end its DEI program, Northwestern had no desire nor need to defy the government, because it had implemented, before any intervention or pressure from Washington, precisely the policies that were needed and that Harvard, to its shame, is resisting. Northwestern has behaved well; Harvard, on the other hand, has behaved badly, and what little it has done about antisemitism on campus has been begrudging, only in response to financial threats, both from Washington and from alumni donors. More on their contrasting records can be found here: “The difference between @NorthwesternU truly fighting antisemitism and @Harvard’s lip service,” Elder of Ziyon, April 16, 2025:

Harvard University is defiantly rejecting Trump administration demands that it address antisemitism on campus as a condition for continued federal funding.

The government demands are far reaching and a good case can be made that they go beyond Title VI requirements. They don’t just say to comply with the law but they mandate how. For example, they demand changes in Harvard’s governance structure. It is indeed a threat to Harvard’s independence and I can understand why the university would want to push back on some of the more intrusive demands.

And yet.

Anything Harvard has done to protect its Jewish students since October 2023 has been done in a reactive way, to avoid lawsuits, bad publicity and government threats.  At no point has it given the impression that it really cares about the welfare of its Jewish students and their right to be proudly, publicly Zionist.

Harvard’s Interim President Alan Garber established a Task Force on Combating Antisemitism (and a separate one on Islamophobia) in January 2024. The task force issued preliminary recommendations in June. Some of those recommendations were partially implemented; there is no evidence that others have been…

Most glaringly, however, is that the task force promised a detailed follow-up report in the fall—but it never materialized…

Why have almost sixteen months passed since Harvard established its Task Force on Antisemitism without the detailed report it promised to provide in the fall of 2024?

Perhaps most importantly, Northwestern has been keeping detailed statistics on antisemitic incidents on campus and is now reporting on them. We have no such data on Harvard even today – there are no university surveys of incidents and no metrics on whether the partial steps Harvard has taken actually help anyone.

On the second day of Passover, antisemitic graffiti was discovered at Northwestern. On Monday, its president issued a clear statement of condemnation in an email to the entire campus community.

But when similar acts of hate and vandalism were found at Harvard (tearing down and writing on top of hostage posters in January 2024), a university spokesperson issued a generic statement – not a pro-active email, not from the president.

The overwhelming impression is that Northwestern cares about its Jewish students and their safety. Harvard pretends to care about its Jewish students and their safety.

I would be a lot more sympathetic to Harvard’s position if they were doing what Northwestern is doing. But they aren’t. They are paying lip service to their Jewish students while publicly defending those who want to attack them.

The model already exists for what Harvard should do. Forget about scoring points against the Trump administration and winning plaudits from the left-wing faculty. Swallow your o’erweening pride, that is less deserved every day. Follow the real leader in waging war against the campus curse of antisemitism. That leader is Northwestern.