Harvard Faces Subpoenas in Antisemitism Investigation: Republican Committee Chair Demands Documents”
The Republican chair of the House Education Harvard and Workforce Committee, Representative Virginia Foxx from North Carolina, announced on Friday that subpoenas have been issued against Harvard University officials in connection with their alleged failure to produce specific documents related to the panel’s investigation into antisemitism.
Harvard
The subpoenas were directed at Harvard Corporation senior fellow Penny Pritzker, interim Harvard President Alan Garber, and Harvard Management Company CEO N.P. Narvekar. Foxx stated that approximately 40% of the documents provided by Harvard were already publicly available, expressing dissatisfaction with the insufficient nature of the documents.
According to the documents, the committee formally initiated an investigation into Harvard’s handling of on-campus antisemitism on January 9. The subpoenas request various items, including “all reports of antisemitic acts or incidents and related documents and communications since January 1, 2021.”
These subpoenas come about six weeks after then-Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned following criticism of her congressional testimony on campus antisemitism during a hearing called by Foxx’s committee. Gay was also accused of plagiarism in her academic work.
The October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the subsequent month-long Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip have led to divisions on college campuses, with Jewish and Muslim students expressing concerns about hate speech and threats.
During the December hearing, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill also faced criticism, leading to her resignation. The controversy arose from the testimony of Gay and her counterparts at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who seemed to sidestep questions about whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ conduct rules.
The White House also criticized the university leaders’ testimony. In a New York Times op-ed published after her resignation, Gay acknowledged making mistakes and emphasized that the campaign against her was part of a broader effort to undermine public faith in American societal pillars. She clarified her stance on Hamas as a terrorist organization seeking to eradicate the Jewish state.
