Stefanik slams Harvard for ‘cultural rot,’ alleging suspect in antisemitic attack will be allowed to graduate

House GOP Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., penned a scathing letter to the leaders of Harvard University, alleging that by slow-walking its investigation into the assault of a Jewish student on campus in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, the Ivy League school will effectively allow one of the perpetrators to graduate “despite having committed a well-documented antisemitic hate crime.”

The letter, addressed to Dr. Alan Garber, interim president of Harvard University, and Penny Pritzker, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation, referenced how on Oct. 18, 2023, Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee staged a “die-in” at Harvard Business School where students protested Israel’s efforts to defend itself following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, displaying a sign stating, “From the river to the sea.”

“During this event, an Israeli Harvard Business School student recorded the act and was quickly surrounded by a mob of anti-Israel protesters, who assaulted and harassed him,” Stefanik wrote. “These assailants blocked his path, repeatedly grabbed him, and shouted ‘Shame! Shame! Shame!’ at him. This assault is well documented and was denounced by many alumni who were rightly outraged by the actions of these protesters and called for accountability.”

Stefanik cited documents obtained by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce showing that Harvard engaged the law firm of Jenner & Block to conduct an independent investigation of the Oct. 18 incident. Jenner & Block met with the victims’ attorneys at the law firm Holtzman Vogel in early January 2024 and received relevant video evidence of the incident, Stefanik said.

“Further information shows that local prosecutors are currently in the process of negotiating court dates with two of the Harvard students who assaulted the victim. On March 25, Holtzman Vogel learned that the ‘Clerk’s Hearing’ in the criminal case has been postponed to May 7,” Stefanik wrote. “One of the assailants in the incident, a Harvard Divinity School graduate student, is scheduled to graduate in May 2024. Due to this postponement, the assailant will gain the lifelong distinction of being an alumnus of Harvard despite having committed a well-documented antisemitic hate crime against a fellow student.”