In late June, Harvard University student Sarah F. Silverman’s experience became a bullet point in a 57-page report on antisemitism from the Trump administration.
The report found Harvard to be in violation of civil rights law, and, as a result, the federal government threatened to cut all of the university’s funding. Harvard’s lawyers have argued that the report relies mostly on the university’s report on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.
Silverman told MassLive she doesn’t want her experience to be used as a reason for the Trump administration to go after her institution.
“I’m really not trying to be a political person. I’m not supporting the Trump administration, and I’m not supporting the Democrats,” said Silverman, a Modern Orthodox Jew.
Silverman, an incoming Harvard sophomore, said she experienced a hate crime in September 2024 on her first day of classes when her mezuzah went missing.
But she objects to many of the federal administration’s actions, including cuts to research funding. As a biology student, she said, she has felt the effects of these actions firsthand.
“I’m not picking a side. I’m just like, please, don’t destroy the university in my name,” Silverman said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly taken actions against Harvard University since April, including threatening the university’s accreditation, research funding, tax-exempt status, and its ability to enroll international students.
At the same time, Harvard is reportedly open to a $500 million settlement as a means of ending the monthslong battle with the Trump administration.
‘No one asked Jewish students what they thought’
When Silverman learned that her experience was cited in the Trump administration’s report, it wasn’t from the federal government. She said she had never been contacted.
“I feel that a lot of things are being made in the name of helping Jewish students, but no one is actively reaching out to those Jewish students to ask what we feel would make the campus safer,” she said.
She said this goes for both the Trump administration, which made the report, and the Biden administration, since the incident occurred in 2024.
While Silverman said she believes some people in the Trump administration legitimately care about fighting antisemitism at Harvard, she disagrees with how they are approaching the issue.
The Trump administration is harming the very students it claims it is trying to protect, Silverman said.
“What I find particularly disturbing is that I see the consequences. I see on campus all these things that are being done in the name of protecting Jewish students or making the campus a safer place for Jewish students or something involving Jewish students, but no one asked Jewish students what they thought,” she said.
As a biology student, trying to find work at a lab over the summer became harder because many had experienced major cuts to their funding from the cancellation of grants by the federal government.
Silverman doesn’t see how cutting research funding will curb antisemitism.
Ultimately, attacks against Harvard feel like they are not only being done in the name of fighting antisemitism but also being lumped in with dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion or other administrative priorities, Silverman said.
For instance, the Trump administration’s actions against the university’s international students are adversely affecting international students from Israel who are Jewish – the very people the federal government says it is attempting to protect, Silverman said.
“It sometimes frustrates me when people view destroying a school as the way to correct antisemitism on campus. Because if you’re destroying a school, you’re also destroying the lives of the Jewish students at that school,” she said.
A missing mezuzah
It was Silverman’s first day of classes at Harvard University in September 2024 when she stepped outside her room to go to the bathroom to brush her teeth and saw that her mezuzah was missing.
She was the only one who had a mezuzah on the fifth floor of her dormitory, she said.
Walking around her dormitory, she searched the garbage, up and down her hallway and other floors and asked around if anyone had seen it.
She eventually came to believe that it was taken, contacting the Harvard police and attempting to file a formal hate crime report. That report didn’t happen, because the police didn’t have anyone to file it against.
Hours later, the police found the mezuzah on a ledge two doors down from her.
Even though it was recovered, Silverman said it still terrified her to think someone would take a religious object from her dormitory door.
Following the event, every time she had to go to the bathroom at night, she said she would call her father and ask him to stay on the phone with her in case something happened to her.
“I was genuinely scared that first week, I will say, because I was just like – why? How could this happen to me in 2024 in the United States that my mezuzah’s just gone from my door?” Silverman said.
In reaction, a wave of support came from Harvard Business School professors who put up mezuzahs in support of Silverman, and Harvard Chabad started a movement to add more mezuzahs, she said.
The incident came after the war in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, and sparked an encampment and a series of protests at Harvard.
While Silverman knew antisemitism was reported at Harvard before she attended, she said she wanted to go to the university because of its academic excellence, proud Jewish community, and well-funded Hillel and Chabad.
“I didn’t want it to be a deterrent for me to attend a school like Harvard,” she said.