The Department of Justice’s newly-created Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism announced Feb. 28 it would visit Harvard University and nine other universities to investigate antisemitism incidents on campus.
The task force was created as a result of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump Jan. 29. In an interview with Fox News, Leo Terrell, a member of the task force, threatened to “take all the federal funding away” from universities.
“We’re going to take their money,” he said. “We’re gonna make sure that every Jewish American student on campus is protected.”
Caleb Fishman, a Jewish sophomore at BU, said the task force’s decision to visit Harvard is “long overdue,” as several of his friends at the school have been victims of antisemitism.
“I know friends who have been assaulted,” Fishman said. “I know friends who have been pushed around and cursed at for being Jewish, for wearing a Star of David.”
Harvard’s previous president, Claudine Gay, stepped down amidst criticism in January 2024 over her testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism in college campuses and accusations of plagiarism.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, sued his alma mater in January 2024 alongside “Students Against Antisemitism,” a non-profit corporation formed to protect higher education from antisemitism.
“I’m not interested in pretending there was no wrongdoing, I’m not interested in a slap on the wrist,” said Kestenbaum, who was the only individual plaintiff named in the case. “I’m interested in structural reforms. I’m interested in accountability and punishment and discipline.”
The case was settled in January 2025, but Kestenbaum said he decided to continue to pursue further legal action toward the school. He said he’s proud of the Trump administration for establishing the task force.
“It makes me upset that the Biden administration could have done this at any point and chose not to,” Kestenbaum said. “It’s a bit of a shame that we had to elect a brand new president for our government to take this issue seriously.”
Michael Zank, a professor of Religion, Jewish and Medieval studies at BU and former Director of the Elie Wiesel Center from 2013-2022, said he believes the timing of the investigation into antisemitism on Harvard’s campus is odd.
“It raises some concern that at the time when so much else is going on with the [Trump] administration … that they would turn again to this issue of campus antisemitism,” Zank said. “One needs to consider that there might be ulterior motives, where this is being put front and center once again with this administration, especially at the time when there’s a ceasefire.”
He said there has been harmful conflation of the definitions of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
“When students go out and protest in support of the Palestinian cause, in support of Palestinian statehood, in support of ceasefire and ending hostilities, they are very often demonized as being anti-Israel and antisemitic,” Zank said. “There is a problem.”
Kestenbaum felt Harvard’s reaction to Oct. 7 was “unforgettable and unforgiveable.”
“What we could not have ever expected,” Kestenbaum said, “is that the most elite, the most educated, the most progressive, those who we allied ourselves with for decades, on the night of Oct. 7th, would cheer on the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
Fishman said he felt conflicted after the events of Oct. 7 due to the intersection between his politics and his Jewish identity.
“As a left wing Jew myself, on October 8th I felt politically homeless in many ways,” Fishman said. “I realized that I don’t align with the right and the policies in the U.S., but when I turn to the left, that me being a Jew means I’m subtly not accepted.”
Zank said he believes Jewish people should be allied with Palestinians and sees a “danger emanating” from “white Christian supremacist rhetoric.”
“[Jews] should be allies of Palestinians in achieving political rights and have a two-state or a one-state solution, or anyway, a political solution that gives Jews and Palestinians equal rights,” Zank said.
As he continues his case against Harvard, Kestenbaum said he looks forward to the task force potentially withholding federal funding from Harvard.
“I was on the receiving end of hatred and discrimination,” Kestenbaum said. “It’s important to encourage other Jewish students, and any student who’s been on the receiving end of hatred and discrimination, to stand up for themselves and stand up for their community.”
