Adams House Withdraws Support for Anti-Zionist Passover Event, Citing Policy on Unrecognized Student Groups

Adams House administrators withdrew funding and revoked a room reservation for a Saturday “anti-zionist Passover seder for liberation” organized by a group of Adams students as Harvard College ramps up efforts to limit the presence of unrecognized student organizations on campus.

House administrator Matthew Burke accused the students of organizing the event with an unrecognized student group, Harvard Jews for Palestine, and demanded they cancel the seder. The students disputed Burke’s claim, and held the event anyway — without intervention from Adams.

In withdrawing support, Burke cited a Harvard College Student Handbook Policy prohibiting unrecognized student groups from receiving “access, support, or benefits” from the College and from conducting “any activity at Harvard.”

Burke wrote in a Tuesday email to an organizer obtained by The Crimson that “it appears the publicity sent out on schmooze” — a reference to the “Adams-schmooze” House mailing list — “matched an Instagram post from Jews for Palestine, an unregistered student organization.” J4P frequently organizes pro-Palestine protests on campus.

“It seems that the SIP Seder on Saturday is co-sponsored by Jews for Palestine, which presents an issue,” Burke added, referring to the Student-Initiated Programing fund that enables students to apply for grants to sponsor non-academic events.

He scratched the room reservation and asked the organizer to email the mailing list to announce the event’s cancellation.

But event organizer Tamar Sella ’25 did not email to announce the event had been canceled. Instead, Sella denounced House administrators in a Saturday message to the mailing list — and wrote that students would be “moving forward” with the seder.

“We — as Jewish students in Adams House — will be gathering in the Adams dining hall TONIGHT and moving forward with our anti-Zionist seder for LIBERATION loud and proud,” Sella wrote.

Despite the House threats, more than 20 Harvard affiliates attended the seder Saturday evening, which was held in a closed-door common room to the side of the dining hall.

The seder organizers did not hold the event under the name of any student group, but J4P publicized the seder in a post on Instagram and solicited RSVPs through a google form linked to their profile. Sella, an organizer for Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — another unrecognized student group — has participated in several J4P demonstrations.

Burke cited J4P’s sponsorship as grounds for the House to withdraw its support — which included roughly $1,000 in funding for catered food, according to Sella.

Sella disputed J4P’s involvement in an interview. She said she had previously been told by the Dean of Students Office that unrecognized student groups could publicize events without being considered sponsors as long as they did not include their logos on promotional materials.

“They said that a reasonable person could determine that this was sponsored,” Sella said. “A reasonable person in my books can’t because there’s zero logo on either of these pubs.”

“I’m seeing a targeted discriminant interpretation of the rules against students with dissenting opinions,” Sella added. “It makes a sad amount of sense that they’re also putting their crooked system into effect to make sure that we actually are silent.”

Adams House administrators and a College spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment over the weekend.

The seder is the second event to face intervention from Adams House administrators on accusations of being tied to unrecognized student groups.

Two weeks ago, Adams House resident Sa’maia J. Evans ’27 received a dean’s warning for reserving a room in the House for a meeting of the African and African American Resistance Organization, an unrecognized student group.

Evans condemned Resident Dean Charles “Chip” Lockwood’s warning over the House mailing list — and around 20 students gathered in the dining hall a day later anyway for a two-hour meeting.

Neither event was shut down by House administrations, and none of the organizers have announced disciplinary consequences.

The event restrictions come less than two weeks after the Trump administration conditioned more than $8 billion in federal funding to Harvard on compliance with a list of demands — one of which includes holding unrecognized student groups accountable for violations of Harvard policy.

On the same day Harvard officials received Trump’s demands, the College placed the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee on probation, accusing them of co-sponsoring an April 2 rally hosted by multiple unrecognized student groups. (The PSC denies their involvement with the protest.)

The University is also currently facing a lawsuit alleging that Harvard has violated its policies and permitted antisemitism by allowing unrecognized groups to hold protests on campus.

Sella accused House administrators of “stifling any manifestation of Jewishness that opposes the escalating genocide in Gaza” in her Saturday email denouncing the decision to withdraw support.

“Adams admin cited the fact that the pub contained the word ‘anti-Zionist’ as one reason why our seder was brought to their attention, which makes it clear that their interpretation of Harvard policy discriminates against dissenting political views,” she wrote.

—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.

—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.