Is Harvard Antisemitic?

The Trump administration’s barrage of press releases insinuate that Harvard discriminates against Jewish Americans.

The university has acknowledged that numerous antisemitic incidents have taken place on its campus. To sort things out, a Harvard task force published a 300-page report on antisemitic incidents and a 200-page report on anti-Muslim episodes.

The charges by the Trump administration about antisemitism at Harvard fly in the face of a broad range of facts.

Almost 10% of its undergraduate students are Jewish, and over 50% of graduate students are Jewish — based on numbers collected by the Hillel Society (Harvard itself does not gather information on its students’ religious affiliation).

Four out of Harvard’s last six presidents, including Alan Garber, Harvard’s recently installed president, have been Jewish.

Five decades ago, American Jews represented about 20% of Harvard undergraduates. The decline in Jewish undergraduate enrollment to 10% reflects the dramatic changes in the racial composition of a class.

Fifty years ago, the student body was about 80% white and 12% Black, with a small percentage of Asian Americans.

For the Harvard class of 2028, the breakdown is 14% Black, 37% Asian American, 16% Hispanic and 33% white (the number for white students, which Harvard did not disclose, is inferred).

Fifty years ago, American Jews were 25% of white students — now they are about 30%. That is impressive for a group that represents 2.4% of all Americans.

Relative to other colleges and the general population, Harvard appears heavily overweighted in Asian Americans (37% versus 6% for other colleges and the U.S. population) and underweighted in whites (33% versus 43% for colleges and 53% for the country).