The complaint contains detailed allegations of hostile environment, breach of contract, and disparate treatment. Here is the entire complaint: Kestenbaum v. Harvard (D. Mass. 1-11-24) (complaint) (1)
As in previous complaints related to university antisemitism, I find that the strongest claims are that (a) the university refuses to enforce its own, content-neutral, rules (In this context, for example, I can't see any legitimate reason for HLS to allow pro-Hamas students to take over Casperson lounge); and (b) the university reacts quite differently to complaints of antisemitism than it does to complaints of other sorts of bias, resulting in disparate treatment of Jewish students. Here are the allegations related to Harvard Law School:
50. Harvard PSC, SJP, and similar groups have harassed Jews on campus for years without consequence, exemplifying Harvard's deliberate indifference to its severe antisemitism problem. For example, on April 14, 2016, Harvard Law held an event featuring a speech by Tzipi Livni, a leading Israeli politician. At the event, a student SJP leader accosted Livni, asking her, echoing anti-Jewish stereotypes promoted by, among others, the Nazis: "How is that you are so smelly? It's regarding your odor—about the odor of Tzipi Livni, very smelly." Harvard did not discipline this student, but, instead, the then-dean of Harvard Law—while recognizing that "[m]any perceive [the incident] as anti-Semitic"—responded "that speech is and should be free," notwithstanding that the conduct plainly violated policies including Harvard's Statement on Rights and Responsibilities.
57. In May 2021, in response to a Jewish Israeli student's post in a WhatsApp group, a Harvard Law student, Shayaan A. Essa, messaged, "We shed your blood with stones." A group of Jewish Israeli students reported the incident to Dean Jessica Soban, Deputy Dean I. Glenn Cohen, and Assistant Dean-appointee Catherine Peshkin. In a meeting with the deans, the students explained how this violent threat left them "heartbroken and humiliated" and "no longer feel[ing] comfortable," and asked the deans to denounce Essa's call for violence. The deans refused to do so, instead downplaying the message and telling the students to ignore or respond directly to such harassment. Harvard chose to do the former, and Essa graduated without consequence. Two of the Jewish Israeli students, who are still enrolled at Harvard Law, report that they feel unsafe and have trouble focusing as a result of Harvard's clearly unreasonable response to antisemitism, including Essa's conduct, and the increased anti-Jewish hostility on campus following Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack. One such student told his young children not to speak Hebrew outside their home, out of fear they will be targeted by antisemitic Harvard community members.
59. In October 2021, the Harvard Law Program on Law & Society in the Muslim World and numerous Harvard student groups co-sponsored a pro-BDS event, "Law and Violence in Palestine," at which a speaker was Mohammed El-Kurd, who notoriously espouses antisemitic views, has repeatedly and publicly announced his fantasy of murdering Jews, and claims that Israelis and Zionist Jews eat Palestinians' organs, a vile antisemitic blood libel.
95. On October 16, students chalked antisemitic writings at the entrance to Harvard Law, using phrases such as "from the river to the sea" and "divest from Israeli apartheid." Notwithstanding requests to administrators, no action was taken.
97. The Die-In protesters also harassed and physically assaulted Jewish students. A video that went viral on social media shows a group of students swarming a Jewish Israeli Harvard Business student, holding their keffiyehs open to surround and physically restrain him while screaming, "shame!" over and over again. Ibrahim Bharmal, a Harvard Law Review editor and a Civil Procedure teaching fellow, and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo, a Harvard Divinity student and residential proctor, were among the assailants and are under FBI scrutiny for their assault. Harvard has not imposed any discipline on Bharmal and has done nothing to sanction Tettey-Tamaklo other than relieving him of his proctor responsibilities.
