Elise Stefanik says Harvard pro-Palestinian activist should lose federally-funded scholarship
Stefanik also called on the foundation to rescind the scholarship of a Harvard student who she said was “pro-Hamas.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on her nomination to be Ambassador to the United Nations on Jan. 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Rep. Elise Stefanik said a federally funded scholarship should rescind its award to a 2025 recipient who she called a “pro-Hamas, antisemitic student.”
Stefanik, a New York Republican who is a close ally of President Donald Trump and an outspoken pro-Israel voice, was recently appointed to the board of trustees of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. The foundation provides $30,000 scholarships to dozens of students annually who are recognized for public service leadership.
In a letter sent Wednesday, she accused the program of a leftward bent and called on it to address reports of a “clear pattern of ideological and political bias in the selection process of Truman Scholars.”
In particular, Stefanik called for the revoking of a scholarship awarded this year to Eva Frazier, a student finishing her junior at Harvard University. Stefanik accused Frazier of supporting Hamas, citing a letter signed by a coalition of student groups in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that said Israel was “entirely responsible” for the violence. Stefanik wrote that Frazier was a leader of one of the dozens of groups that had signed.
Frazier has served as an organizer for the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Community, according to a public bio on a Harvard website. The group reposted the letter the day after the attack.
“I find it morally reprehensible that the Foundation seeks to reward a student who openly distorts the horrors of October 7th, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and to do so with American taxpayer dollars,’ wrote Stefanik.
This is not the first time Frazier has been targeted by ideological opponents. According to the publication The Vermont Conversation, hers was one of several faces displayed on a panel of a truck, above the caption “Harvard’s Leading Antisemite.” The truck drove through her rural hometown in northwestern Vermont. She is also the subject of a dossier on Canary Mission, a controversial anonymous blacklist of pro-Palestinian activists.
“It is even more important to continue to advocate for justice in Palestine especially as genocide in Gaza continues,” Frazier told the publication in January 2024 regarding the doxxing campaign. She did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Stefanik gained prominence in late 2023 for grilling the leaders of three elite universities, including Harvard, about campus antisemitism — spurring the leaders of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania to resign. She was briefly nominated to be United Nations ambassador and serves in House Republican leadership.
Stefanik called on the foundation’s board to initiate a review of its recruitment, nomination, and selection practices to “evaluate whether they unintentionally suppress or disadvantage applicants with conservative perspectives.”
She added, “It is my hope that this Foundation can reestablish the public’s trust by ensuring a merit-based, ideologically diverse process that truly honors President Truman’s legacy and the full spectrum of American public service and patriotism.”
The Truman Scholarship Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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