The Trump administration filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University on Friday, claiming that its leadership violated the civil rights of Jewish students by failing to address ongoing antisemitism that has roiled the Ivy League campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. 

In the 44-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, the Department of Justice said that Harvard unlawfully discriminated against Jewish students by its “intentional conduct and its deliberate indifference to discriminatory harassment of Jewish and Israeli students and creation of a hostile educational environment” since Oct. 7 and “up to the present day.” 

Jewish and Israeli students “were repeatedly denied access to educational facilities by antisemitic demonstrators. Fearful for their safety, Jewish students wore baseball caps to conceal their yarmulkes or kept out of sight, effectively denying them access to federally funded educational opportunities,” the lawsuit argues. 

It further claims that Harvard faculty and leadership’s response was to “turn a blind eye to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.” 

The suit is seeking to recover millions of dollars in taxpayer funds that the school received as these alleged civil rights violations were ongoing.

The litigation marks the administration’s latest crackdown in its ongoing battle with several elite universities including Harvard, which have faced multibillion-dollar funding cuts since last year. The school sued the federal government over the funding freezes, and a federal judge ruled last September that the government violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights and federal law when it froze nearly $2 billion in federal grants. The Trump administration filed an appeal in December 2025, which is ongoing. 

“Harvard University has failed to protect its Jewish students from harassment and has allowed discrimination to wreak havoc on its campus. President Trump is committed to ensuring every student can pursue their academic goals in a safe environment,” White House Regional Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a statement. 

In a statement to Jewish Insider, a Harvard spokesperson said, “Harvard cares deeply about members of our Jewish and Israeli community and remains committed to ensuring they are embraced, respected, and can thrive on our campus. Our actions illustrate this. Harvard has taken substantive, proactive steps to address the root causes of antisemitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies on campus … Harvard’s efforts demonstrate the very opposite of deliberate indifference.”

Since Oct. 7, Harvard has also faced legal action from Jewish groups. In May 2024, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed a federal lawsuit claiming that students and faculty on campus have called for violence against Jews and celebrated Hamas’ terrorism daily as the university ignored harassment— including a physical assault — of Jewish students.  

The DOJ suit comes days after a new report was released by the university’s official Jewish alumni group that found Jewish enrollment at Harvard has fallen to roughly 7% — its lowest level since the pre-World War II era.