Dept. of Education opens antisemitism investigation at Sarah Lawrence College, where Hillel alleged atmosphere of intimidation

(JTA) — The federal Department of Education is opening a Title VI antisemitism investigation into Sarah Lawrence College in response to a complaint from the campus Hillel chapter that the school fostered a hostile environment for Jewish students.

The private liberal arts college in Westchester, New York failed to properly respond to harassment of Jewish students in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, Hillels of Westchester alleged in its formal complaint, which a lawyer for the group filed in March 2024.

In a Dec. 23, 2024 letter viewed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the department’s Office of Civil Rights, which oversees Title VI investigations, confirmed it would investigate “whether the College failed to respond to alleged harassment of students on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) in a manner consistent with the requirements of Title VI.”

“We hope this investigation initiates a meaningful culture shift at SLC to improve the campus environment,” Rachel Klein, executive director of Hillels of Westchester, said in a statement. Klein and various Hillel board members added that the school has not engaged its Hillel in any efforts to address campus antisemitism, but that they hoped the school would do so now.

A representative for the college did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday.

While there have been dozens of Title VI investigations into allegations of post-Oct. 7 campus antisemitism, it is rare for a Hillel chapter to have filed the instigating complaint. Title VI antisemitism complaints have typically originated from students, community members, Jewish organizations or activists unconnected to the university.

But Hillels of Westchester, which also serves five other campuses in the area, has long been outspoken about what the group sees as an unsafe environment for Sarah Lawrence’s Jewish students. In November 2023, weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, the Forward reported that the Hillel organization sent a letter to Sarah Lawrence’s president saying that “Jewish students are harassed, intimidated, bullied, and ‘canceled’ for simply expressing themselves as Jews, or discussing or identifying with Israel.”

Among the incidents detailed in the complaint in the days after Oct. 7 were an instance when a Jewish student was allegedly harassed with violent and threatening text messages, and another when the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion office promoted an “Hour of Solidarity with Palestine” without mentioning Jewish students. Hillel also said the school had harmed Jewish students by recognizing its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter with a “group excellence award” in the spring, even as the student group had, months prior to Oct. 7, honored what it said was a Palestinian “martyr” who had murdered worshippers at a Jerusalem synagogue.

Sarah Lawrence College, historically a women’s college, today has an estimated 300 Jewish undergraduates, around 20% of the total student population, according to Hillel International estimates. One of those Jewish students was Sammy Tweedy, son of rock musician Jeff Tweedy, who became outspoken about what he described as a toxic campus environment for Jews after the Oct. 7 attacks.

Hillels of Westchester says the campus environment for Jews has only gotten worse in the months since it filed its initial complaint, citing a days-long activist takeover of a campus building in November 2024 at which students pushed the college to divest from Israel. (The campus chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, the anti-Zionist group, was among the protesters.) In its letter confirming the investigation, OCR declined to pursue every complaint, saying an allegation that the college had denied Jewish students’ requests for religious accommodations fell outside its purview.

Adam Lehman, president of Hillel International, also praised the investigation’s opening in a statement declaring that the environment for Jewish students at Sarah Lawrence “has been among the worst we’ve seen.” He further accused college leaders of refusing “to take more aggressive steps to promote the safety and inclusion of its Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff.”

The Department of Education is continuing to open new Title VI investigations in the waning days of the Biden administration, even as president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to shutter the department altogether and come up with alternate, more aggressive means of fighting campus antisemitism.

OCR has also resolved several major Title VI antisemitism investigations in recent weeks. On Tuesday it announced a resolution at Johns Hopkins University, finding that the school had failed to properly investigate cases of Jewish and pro-Palestinian students being threatened. As part of its resolution agreement, Johns Hopkins agreed to more intensive staff and student discrimination training and reporting requirements, regular campus climate assessments and a thorough review of previously reported instances of antisemitic and anti-Arab harassment.

The department has also recently resolved Title VI antisemitism cases at various University of California campuses and at Rutgers University.

Among recently opened Title VI cases are new ones investigating alleged anti-Palestinian bias at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, both filed by chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

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