Harvard University campus on May 24, 2025, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo: Zhu Ziyu/VCG via Reuters Connect

Hillel International said it would withdraw an amicus brief supporting Harvard University in its legal battle with the Trump administration, explaining that the filing had not passed through the Jewish campus organization’s internal review process.

The reversal came only hours after Hillel submitted the 22-page brief Wednesday to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where the Trump administration is seeking to reinstate billions of dollars in federal funding cuts imposed on Harvard over its handling of antisemitism and other alleged civil-rights violations.

“The brief was filed without having gone through our internal review process,” Hillel International spokesman Kenneth Baer told The Harvard Crimson. “As soon as the court opens in the morning, we will move to withdraw it.”

The brief prompted criticism from some Jewish activists, who argued that an organization dedicated to protecting Jewish students should not have intervened on Harvard’s behalf after the university faced widespread accusations that it failed to confront antisemitism following the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hillel International, however, did not defend antisemitic conduct on Harvard’s campus or dispute that Jewish students had faced serious harassment. Instead, the brief argued that the administration’s across-the-board suspension of research funding was an ineffective and potentially counterproductive response.

“The government’s view is that it terminated Harvard’s federal grants in a genuine effort to address antisemitism and racial discrimination at Harvard,” the brief said. “Even assuming that is true, however, Hillel does not believe that the government’s across-the-board funding cut is a constructive solution to the problem at hand.”

The filing warned that the cuts could harm Jewish students and researchers while threatening scientific and medical work whose benefits extend far beyond the university.

“Indeed, the government’s funding cuts risk harming the Jewish students and researchers the government claims to protect — to say nothing of the harm that will befall the countless others who benefit, today and in the future, from the scientific and medical research now in jeopardy,” the brief said.

Hillel also credited Harvard with taking several steps to address antisemitism, including strengthening protest rules, clarifying procedures for reporting civil-rights violations, expanding instruction on Jewish identity and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and arranging antisemitism training for teaching assistants. The brief maintained that substantial problems remained but said Harvard was “on the right track.”

That assessment drew a sharp response from Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, a former Harvard Divinity School student who sued the university over its alleged failure to protect Jewish students.

“Rather than take responsibility for their failure to respond to the explosion of antisemitism on American campuses post October 7th, Hillel has instead decided to support the perpetrators,” Kestenbaum wrote on X. He encouraged Jewish donors to direct their support toward organizations including Chabad, Jewish day schools and summer camps.

Kestenbaum later told The Crimson that Hillel International President and CEO Adam Lehman had not seen the brief before it was filed. The newspaper reported that Lehman did not respond to its request for comment.

The controversy placed Hillel in the middle of a broader disagreement within the Jewish community over how the federal government should respond to antisemitism in higher education.

Some Jewish students and advocates have welcomed the Trump administration’s willingness to impose substantial consequences on universities accused of tolerating anti-Jewish discrimination. Others maintain that sweeping funding cuts can damage medical research, academic programs and Jewish students themselves without directly addressing the conduct that created hostile campus environments.

Hillel International is the world’s largest Jewish campus organization, serving nearly 200,000 students annually at more than 850 colleges and universities. Its stated vision is to inspire students to make an enduring commitment to “Jewish life, learning, and Israel,” and it describes Israel as being “at the heart” of its work.

Last week, the organization announced a $27 million commitment from the Marcus Foundation to expand Jewish education, Israel education, student leadership and community advocacy on campuses over the next three years.

Harvard Hillel, the independent organization serving Jewish students at the university, was not involved in either filing or withdrawing the brief, its executive director, Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, told The Crimson.

The underlying litigation concerns approximately $2.7 billion in federal grants that the Trump administration froze after Harvard rejected a series of government demands in April 2025.

US District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled in September that the administration’s actions violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights and federal administrative law. The Trump administration appealed the decision in December, arguing that Harvard had failed to address antisemitism adequately and that the government was not obligated to continue financing an institution accused of unlawful discrimination.

Hillel’s now-withdrawn brief urged the appeals court to uphold the lower-court ruling, describing the funding cuts as a “draconian one-size-fits-all” response.

The organization’s explanation for withdrawing the filing focused solely on the breakdown of its internal approval process. It did not immediately issue a fuller statement explaining which arguments in the brief, if any, Hillel’s leadership rejected.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.