The Trump administration has been attempting to weed out antisemitism at Harvard University by revoking a key certification that allows the university to enroll international students.
But that same effort could force Harvard’s Jewish students from Israel — the very people the administration says it is aiming to protect — to leave the country.
“I find it incredibly ironic that my visa is now under threat because I criticize my own government and that this is somehow presented as a measure to protect Jewish and Israeli students. I think anyone with some common sense can see that it’s a farce,” said Noga Marmor, a Jewish doctoral degree student at Harvard from Israel.
At Harvard’s commencement on Thursday, the potential revocation underpinned much of the speakers’ addresses, including from Harvard President Alan Garber.
At the same time as commencement, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration revoking the certification on Thursday.
About 27% of Harvard’s undergraduate and graduate students are international, according to 2024 to 2025 data.
There are around 250 undergraduate and graduate students from Israel at Harvard, according to a rough estimation from Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, the executive director of Harvard Hillel. The vast majority of those would be impacted by the revocation.
Many are also Israel Defense Forces veterans who are “some of the most effective and passionate advocates for Israel on campus,” Rubenstein said.
Due to the uncertainty on campus, in conversations with international Israeli students, Rubenstein has to say “I hope I’ll see you in the fall.”
Many of those students are considering backup options such as working at startups in Tel Aviv, he said.
“In theory, Harvard’s alumni could make up any funding cuts in the federal government … but there’s no way around the visas,” he said.
New safety concerns
Ophir Averbuch, a Jewish Harvard doctoral degree student from Israel, said he hasn’t felt under threat on campus or encountered antisemitism — until his visa was under scrutiny.
“A lot of us are now like feeling obviously unsafe because we’re worried that we will get picked up by ICE or something,” he said.
What he does criticize are the protests at Harvard over the war in Gaza — which eventually led to an encampment. The protests blew through “all the insensitivity gauges” and were intentionally provocative, Averbuch said. However, he said he didn’t experience antisemitism.
What comes next for Averbuch in his career at Harvard is uncertain. He is considering programs in Europe but is also signing his lease in Cambridge for another year.
The United States is where he wants to be.
“Up until recently, it seemed like a very politically stable place where people have freedom of speech and where there’s no sort of arbitrary targeting, persecution by the government against different institutions or individuals’ ideologies,” he said.
Halfway through his six-year program, the revocation could upend his work. It could even make him leave academia and get a job to return a few years down the road, he said.
However, his longterm concern is not how it will hurt him or other international students, but how it will hurt Harvard and higher education in the U.S.
“It’s as bad arguably for the academia in the U.S. as it is for the individuals of us who will have to find other solutions. Because a lot of us will be able to find other solutions,” he said.
“This leaves a mark already on Harvard — not just Harvard but top academia," he said.
‘From one conflict zone to another’
Unlike Averbuch, Genia Lukin, a third-year Israeli Harvard doctoral degree student, said she has experienced antisemitism on campus and believes to be a “serious and real problem.”
“I came from one conflict zone to another,” Lukin said.
Beginning her program at Harvard in 2023 after transferring from Duke University, she said she was forced to dive “head first” into the tension roiling the campus.
On top of being a student, she has felt like she has had to be a full-time political activist, too.
Holding vigils or tabling for Israeli hostages, Lukin said it has become commonplace for people to yell profanities at her or state that Israeli people “deserve” violence or death.
Others have tried to argue with her about things unrelated to the war in Gaza, such as beliefs that Israel was behind the terrorist attacks of September 11.
Harvard has tried to improve antisemitism on campus in certain areas, but at the same time, especially in its academics, it feels like only Jewish people are increasingly scrutinized and others aren’t held accountable for antisemitic behavior, she said.
She believes there is a clear problem of antisemitism on campus and wishes the federal government would do something about it — such as defining what hate speech is.
It is also apparent to her that the Trump administration isn’t actually attempting to address antisemitism.
“You can have a bad problem and a bad solution,” she said.
As an international student, she isn’t panicking just yet about being forced to leave Harvard. She is waiting for the court case to progress.
If she has to leave Harvard, she said she will have to “scramble” to figure out how to complete what is left of around three years of her doctorate.
Going back to Israel with her husband and cats is one of her options, she said.
As the Trump administration continues its attacks against the institution, she fears it is only diverting Harvard’s resources away from actually addressing antisemitism on campus.
‘It will destroy higher education’
Marmor, a Harvard doctoral degree student from Israel, described the Trump administration’s actions as a “horrific attack against free speech and against democracy” that weaponizes antisemitism for political purposes.
Marmor hasn’t experienced or felt antisemitism on campus. She took part in the protests in response to the war in Gaza.
“I think it’s pretty ironic that I was blamed for antisemitism when I myself am Jewish and Israeli and I took part in the same protests that are now used as an excuse to combat supposed antisemitism on campuses,” Marmor said.“If I were to be in Israel at that time, I would have protested there,” she said.
She came to the United States and to Harvard — which was her first choice — because of the resources it offered.
Now, as an international student, she is unsure whether her doctoral program will continue or whether her research will be upended.
Marmor is in the middle of a seven-year program and currently working in Spain doing research.
“They’re absolutely disjointed. I don’t see how admitting international students is the cause of antisemitism. The two things are entirely unrelated,” she said.
“Not allowing international students at Harvard is not some minor issue. It will destroy not just Harvard. It will destroy higher education in the United States because science and the production of knowledge in general, by nature, are transnational or international,” she said.
