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 aPresidential Initiative on Interfaith Engagement, events and activities related to religion and faith,increasedand meal requirements,lecture series and workshops modeling dialogue across difference,and new funding to supportstudent projects related tobuildingbridges.
Last updated April 2026
Supporting religious life
- Interfaith Engagement. In July 2025, Harvard announced the Presidential Initiative on Interfaith Engagement, led by Rabbi Getzel Davis, who spent 13 years as a chaplain ר Hillel. Initial programming included a fall 2025 Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life Fellowship, the pluralism passport program, and a spirituality-inspired photo exhibit. In February 2026, the initiative hosted President Garber and nearly 200 community members at an interfaith dinner in the campus center.
- Engagement with Jewish community organizations.Harvard leaders haveparticipatedinnumerousevents ר 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 ר 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 ר Hillel, Chabad, and other Jewish organizations across our community to hear concerns and suggestions on improving the campus climate.
- Religion, Ethics, and Spiritual Life.HarvardCollege’s Office of Culture & Community hasestablishedReligion, 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.
- Spacefor faith-based activities ר Business School.Over the summer of 2025, Harvard Business Schoolbuilt an outdoor terrace, extending the footprint of its MBA Class of1959 Chapel to accommodate faith-based activities including the siting of a sukkah for members of the Jewish communityobservingSukkot.
- HarvardGraduate School of Education and Harvard Hillel.In October 2025, Harvard Graduate School of Educationpartnered 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.
- HarvardMedical School programming on Jewish culture and history.Harvard Medical Schoolcontinues to offer programming through the HMS Office forCulture andCommunityEngagementfor learning including about Jewish culture and history. In November 2025, HMShosteda lecture, “‘We will tolerate no Jews here’: A History of Medical Education Antisemitism in the United States and Canada.”
- Inclusivescheduling and event planning resources. In December 2024, Harvard launched,a glossary of religious observances, and suggestions for inclusive catering.
- Harvard Business School multifaith calendar.TheHarvard BusinessSchoolOffice for Community and Culture developed a 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(CCL) office (replacing the former Office of Equity, Diversity,Inclusionand Belonging) with a focus on building a culture of belonging for all members of the Harvard community. CCL supports andexpandsprograms 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 2025-26AcademicYear. 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 forspring 2026.
- Faculty advisory group for theOffice for Academic Culture and Community.Launched in July 2025, the Office for Academic Culture and Community (OACC) is focused on fostering community cohesion. OACC hasestablishedan inaugural faculty advisory group to guide the development of this new office and the implementation of its framework. For spring 2026, it has brokered programmatic partnerships with other faculty and administrative groups to support the development and implementation of symposia and programsthat promote historical and cross-cultural understanding.
- Israeli/Palestinian guests ר Law School.Through the Roger D. Fisher Fellowship in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, Harvard Law Schoolis hosting experts working on Israeli/Palestinian conflict resolution during the 2024-25 and 2025-26AcademicYears.
- RappaportForum ר 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 ofRoe v. Wade. Additionally,the Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law regularly hosts crosscutting events thatseekto unpack contemporary questions of Jewish and Israeli legal scholarship.
- HarvardLaw School“Why I Changed My Mind” series.Harvard Law Schoolis continuingtohost 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.
- Model student leaders ר Law School.Harvard Law School (HLS) posted a new “Dean’s Community Impact Award”for2025-2026 that will celebrate one or more graduating students who foster a sense of community and connection between fellow students and/or whose actions have had a meaningful impact on improving relationships between student groups or repairing divisions within the student body.
- “Middle East Dialogues” at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.Harvard Kennedy Schoolwill 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.Infall 2025, HKS hosted Middle East Dialogues with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmertand former U.S. diplomat Rob Malley.
- Harvard Kennedy School debate series.In the2025-26 academic year, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) announced the “Debate, Dessert,Debrief” series, a series of debates between HKS faculty and professional counterparts of significantly different viewpoint, followed by structured debriefs (and dessert)facilitatedby Candid and Constructive Conversation faculty.The first sessionsoccurredinearly March 2026.
- HarvardGraduate School of Educationgrants, fellowships, and programs.In August 2025,Harvard Graduate School of Educationlaunched theCourageous Conversations Fund—with award criteria modeled after the President’s Building Bridges Fund. The Courageous Conversations Fund supports smaller-scale, student-led initiatives thatseekto engage students in learning about how to model difficult conversations with respect and dignity at the forefront.
- HarvardMedical SchoolCollaboration Fund.The Harvard Medical SchoolOffice of Student Affairs created a Collaboration Fund to sponsor projects designed to foster dialogue between at least two different student groups.
- HarvardChan School of Public HealthSessions and Workshops.In September 2025,Harvard Chan School of Public Healthoffices 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 Schoolintroducedtwo 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 רDivinity School.In September 2025, Harvard Divinity School hosted a workshop on religious nationalism, considering a wide variety of case studies. In October 2025, a Jewish Studies scholar delivered a lecture entitled “Who Made American Judaism? A History of Ordinary Leaders.”
- Building communitythrough love.As part of Harvard Divinity School’s Office of Community and Belonging’s (OCB) series “Building Community Through Love,” in October 2025, OCB hosted a workshop called “Faith-Informed Inclusion: Addressing Islamophobia and Intersecting Biases” with Intercultural Networks Group. In November 2025, OCB hosted a workshop on combating antisemitism facilitated by the Center for Jewish Studies and an HDS professor in Modern Jewish 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 inthe2024-25 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 andequitableenvironments by addressing both interpersonal and systemic forms of discrimination.
- Mental health resources.The University securedadditionaltrauma-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 outpatientand 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, whichcomprisemore than 30 faith leadersrepresentingJudaism 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 withSidechat.Inspring 2024, Harvard engaged with the leadership ofSidechat, a social media app that allows college students to post anonymously. Though Harvard has no relationship withSidechat, the University asked the app to strictly enforce its content-moderation policies.