A group of Jewish students filed a lawsuit against Haverford College on Tuesday, alleging that the university has allowed and, in fact, promoted the existence of a hostile environment toward Jews on its campus and, in doing so, has breached its contract with students through failing to enforce its own policies.
Lori Marcus, legal director of the nonprofit organization the Deborah Project, which is representing the students in the lawsuit, told National Review that the difference between this suit and similar litigation against colleges and universities is that Haverford’s administration has not simply permitted a culture of antisemitism on campus but has in some cases actively participated in antisemitic behavior.
“The difference in this case brought by Jewish students against their college is that Haverford College’s highest-level administrators have — repeatedly and publicly — not only allowed the vile antisemitism to flow unimpeded,” Marcus told NR, “but often encouraged and applauded it, and sometimes even engaged in it themselves.”
The lawsuit filing mentions four Jewish students at Haverford, one named and three anonymous. Ally Landau, a current Haverford senior, “has personally been affected” by antisemitism at her school, having “been forced to change her routine at Haverford to avoid being confronted by blood libels directed at the Jewish people.” She has “been harassed and insulted by other students and faculty at Haverford College purporting to instruct her on what constitutes the tenets of her religious commitment and claiming that her commitment to Israel has nothing to do with her Judaism,” the document states.
In addition to the harassment alleged in the suit, Haverford administrators, including college dean John McKnight, pressured Landau to cancel a planned antisemitism awareness event because such a theme would anger anti-Israel students.
McKnight describes himself on Haverford’s website as “a fierce advocate for social justice, both professionally and personally, [who] believes in the power of education to liberate individuals and deconstruct systems of power and oppression.”
Landau, who played on Haverford’s women’s basketball team, received permission from university vice president Nikki Young in November to dedicate a home game to antisemitism awareness, the filing states. Haverford basketball games are often dedicated to certain themes, like gay pride, black history, and diabetes awareness.
From the lawsuit:
The problem, Ally was told, was that an Antisemitism Awareness basketball game might prove too antagonistic to the pro-Palestinian students on campus. Ally was told by Dean McKnight that the College might not be able to control the anticipated mob of antisemites from storming the basketball court and refusing to leave. Were that to happen, Ally was informed, the Haverford women’s basketball team would have to forfeit the game, as required by the NCAA rules . . . Dean McKnight, President Raymond, and Chief of Staff Jesse Lytle subsequently claimed to complaining parents and alumni that Ally Landau decided on her own to cancel the Antisemitism Awareness component of the game, and that Dean McKnight had offered to support the team if she chose to go forward with it. This is a lie.
Mr. Jeffrey Landau, Ally’s father, spoke to Dean McKnight on February 6, 2024, and asked him why the Antisemitism Awareness component of the game and been canceled. Dean McKnight told Mr. Landau that Ally never had approval for the event. Mr. Landau responded that this was incorrect, and that Vice President Young had notably granted approval, but that the Antisemitism Awareness game had been approved for the February 6 date. Dean McKnight then said that Haverford Vice President Young had given only “general approval.” When Mr. Landau asked Dean McKnight “what is the difference between ‘general approval’ and ‘approval,'” the Dean did not respond.
Mr. Landau told Dean McKnight that it was clear to him that the Dean had pressured Ally to cancel the event. Dean McKnight answered that “maybe the pressure was coming from you [Jeff Landau] and the Chabad Rabbi” — a title he pronounced with clear disdain. Mr. Landau instructed Dean McKnight to cease conversations with his daughter. Dean McKnight answered: “as Dean of the College I can talk to any student whenever I want to.”
Landau found herself on the receiving end of blame for the shooting of three Arab students in Vermont during November — a shooting perpetrated by a man who posted pro-Hamas messages on social media — in a “Grievances Document” in which student activists claimed Landau had blood on her hands. Despite her parents’ contacting the university administration, Haverford did not offer any action on her behalf.
Haverford president Wendy Raymond, who allegedly considered the document naming Landau to be good-faith discourse, told Jewish students that Hamas’s October 7 attack should be conceived of as “people breaking free from their chains,” the suit claims. The students, the Deborah Project’s staff wrote in a press release, “seek a Haverford College that applies all of its policies to Jews as it applies them to all other groups — a school where all people, including all Jews, are accorded ‘trust, concern, and respect.'”