Religious, community, and campus life 

Harvard and its Schools have prioritized efforts to build and affirm a feeling of belonging for every member of our community. The University has committed to support belonging among Jewish and Israeli students, faculty, and staff, including through community-building initiatives, specially trained support staff, and funded religious and cultural events. Highlights include a Presidential initiative on Interfaith Engagement, events and activities related to religion and faith, increased awareness of religious observances and meal requirements, lecture series and workshops modeling dialogue across difference, and new funding to support student projects related to building bridges.

Last updated December 2025

Supporting religious life

• Interfaith Engagement. In July 2025, Harvard announced a new university-wide initiative on interfaith engagement, under the leadership of Rabbi Getzel Davis, who spent 12 years as a chaplain at Harvard Hillel. Through the lens of interfaith engagement, the University seeks to foster respect for diverse identities, build relationships between communities, and encourage cooperation for the common good.
• Engagement with Jewish community organizations. Harvard leaders have participated in numerous events at Harvard Hillel, Harvard Chabad, and other Jewish organizations across the community. They have also engaged with the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and the Anti-Defamation League to gain insights into best practices for tracking and addressing antisemitism on college campuses.
• Enhanced Kosher dining options. Harvard College has expanded options at Harvard Hillel and on campus to ensure hot Kosher meals are available to students on Harvard College’s meal plan.
• University leadership attendance at events. Harvard leaders attend dinners at Harvard Hillel, Chabad, and other Jewish organizations across our community to hear concerns and suggestions on improving the campus climate.
• Religion, Ethics, and Spiritual Life. Harvard College’s Office of Culture & Community has established Religion, Ethics, Spiritual Life as a pillar of its work and collaborates regularly with the newly appointed Director of Interfaith Engagement to ensure communication, alignment, and collaboration.
• Space for faith-based activities at Harvard Business School. Over the summer of 2025, Harvard Business School built an outdoor terrace, extending the footprint of its MBA Class of 1959 Chapel to accommodate faith-based activities including the siting of a sukkah for members of the Jewish community observing Sukkot.
• Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Hillel. In October 2025, Harvard Graduate School of Education partnered with Harvard Hillel to host a Bagel Brunch and provide information about Hillel for those interested in becoming involved, as well as to provide a broader introduction to Jewish culture.
• Harvard Medical School programming on Jewish culture and history. Harvard Medical School continues to offer programming through the HMS Office for Culture and Community Engagement for learning including about Jewish culture and history. In November 2025, HMS hosted a lecture, “‘We will tolerate no Jews here’: A History of Medical Education Antisemitism in the United States and Canada.”
• Inclusive scheduling and event planning resources. In December 2024, Harvard launched a webpage that includes a multifaith calendar, a glossary of religious observances, and suggestions for inclusive catering.
• Harvard Business School multifaith calendar. The Harvard Business School Office for Community and Culture developed a multifaith calendar that lists observances which typically involve fasting or accommodations for class attendance or time off, provides background and guidance, and features a Religious Observances Calendar download that can be added to Outlook.
• Jewish student representation. The University has clarified that its inclusion and belonging efforts must reach all members of our community and has ensured that its “Belonging Student Leadership Council” includes Jewish student representation.

Community and Campus Life

• Community and Campus Life. In April 2025, Harvard launched the new Community and Campus Life (CCL) office (replacing the former Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging) with a focus on building a culture of belonging for all members of the Harvard community. CCL supports and expands programs that encourage engagement across differences.
• Symposia and learning opportunities. Harvard has committed to hosting an academic symposium on antisemitism, the first of which will be held in the 2025-26 Academic Year. Additionally, Harvard will provide space to the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law to host a day-long campus event, which is planned for spring 2026.
• Israeli/Palestinian guests at Harvard Law School. Through the Roger D. Fisher Fellowship in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Harvard Law School is hosting experts working on Israeli/Palestinian conflict resolution during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 Academic Years.
• “Middle East Dialogues” and similar programming at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Harvard Kennedy School will continue to organize a set of co-curricular events and activities with speakers from Israel, Palestine, and the broader region through which students can explore a diversity of perspectives on the Middle East.  In fall 2025, HKS hosted Middle East Dialogues with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former U.S. diplomat Rob Malley.
• Harvard Graduate School of Education grants, fellowships, and programs. In August 2025, Harvard Graduate School of Education launched the Courageous Conversations Fund—with award criteria modeled after the President’s Building Bridges Fund. The Courageous Conversations Fund supports smaller-scale, student-led initiatives that seek to engage students in learning about how to model difficult conversations with respect and dignity at the forefront.
• Rappaport Forum at Harvard Law School. At Harvard Law School, faculty serve as organizers and moderators of the Rappaport Forum, designed to promote and model full, vigorous, and civil discourse on critical and complicated issues facing our community, our nation, and our world, and which has hosted debates on topics such as whether the Constitution supports a unitary executive; the future of the administrative state; the propriety of universal injunctions; censorship, content moderation, and the First Amendment; stare decisis and the future of Roe v. Wade.  Additionally, the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law regularly hosts crosscutting events that seek to unpack contemporary questions of Jewish and Israeli legal scholarship.
• Harvard Law School “Why I Changed My Mind” series.  Harvard Law School is continuing to host an event series, “Why I Changed My Mind,” where prominent faculty discuss an important legal and social issue where they became convinced to change their original view.
• Harvard Medical School Collaboration Fund. The Harvard Medical School Office of Student Affairs created a Collaboration Fund to sponsor projects designed to foster dialogue between at least two different student groups.
• Harvard Chan School of Public Health Sessions and Workshops. In September 2025, Harvard Chan School of Public Health offices hosted “Resisting Hate Together: Muslim and Jewish Voices Against Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Anti-Palestinian Racism,” featuring external experts. This two-hour session provided students with strategies for intervention in response to both implicit and explicit bias, using scenario-based activities and offering educational content about the lived experiences of these communities.  Additionally, the School introduced two new workshops in October: “Finding Your Voice: How Receptiveness Shapes Solutions” and “The Price of Silence: Solving Problems Within Our Own Networks.”
• Constructive engagement models at Harvard Divinity School. In September 2025, Harvard Divinity School hosted a workshop on religious nationalisms, considering a wide variety of case studies.
• Seminar on countering Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli bias. In October 2024, Harvard hosted “Honoring our Shared Humanity: Countering Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, one of a series of seminars held in the 2024-25 Academic Year. This seminar for students explored the history of antisemitism and anti-Israeli racism. A key focus of the session was providing practical strategies to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli biases on campus. The session aimed to foster more inclusive and equitable environments by addressing both interpersonal and systemic forms of discrimination.
• Mental health resources. The University secured additional trauma-informed counseling resources through Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services, prioritizing awareness of and access to its mental health and counseling resources, including the 24/7 CAMHS Cares line and in-person and virtual counseling support offerings. In January 2024, Harvard University Health Services removed visit limits for outpatient mental health care and medical consultations under Harvard’s student health insurance plan.
• Community support sessions. In 2024, Harvard organized community support sessions led by the counseling team and Harvard’s chaplains, which comprise more than 30 faith leaders representing Judaism and other religions.
• Resources in Times of Crisis. Harvard launched a support and resources website, Resources in Times of Crisis, to provide community members with a central hub of resources for personal safety, online safety, and mental health and community support.
• Engagement with Sidechat. In spring 2024, Harvard engaged with the leadership of Sidechat, a social media app that allows college students to post anonymously. Though Harvard has no relationship with Sidechat, the University asked the app to strictly enforce its content-moderation policies.