Harvard Hires Graduate Charged With Assaulting Israeli Classmate As Teaching Fellow

Authored by Gabrielle Temaat via The College Fix,

Harvard University recently hired a graduate of its Divinity School who was criminally charged with assaulting an Israeli classmate during an anti-Israel protest. 

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo; Across the Divide/Youtube

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo is now working as a teaching fellow at the school, earning a stipend of up to $11,000, according to The Washington Free Beacon. 

Tettey-Tamaklo’s LinkedIn page states that he advises “faculty on curriculum design” and offers consultation “on complex subject matter by translating expertise in migration and refugee studies.”

In October 2023, a video surfaced showing Tettey-Tamaklo confronting a first-year Israeli business student who can be heard saying “don’t grab me” and “don’t touch my neck.” The student said Tettey-Tamaklo pushed and shoved him. 

In 2024, Tettey-Tamaklo was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. Then, about a year later, a judge ordered him to complete anger management classes and 80 hours of community service. 

The university did not punish him formally, but Tettey-Tamaklo lost his freshman proctor role because students reported feeling uncomfortable. Still, he was later awarded a $65,000 Harvard Law Review fellowship, according to National Review.

While the case moved through the courts, the Trump administration urged the school to expel him, but it refused, the Free Beacon reported. 

Now he’s on Harvard’s payroll. 

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office stated that Harvard refused to cooperate with its investigation, stalled the criminal case, and blocked prosecutors from identifying other individuals involved in the assault.

The school’s conduct in handling the case led the assaulted Israeli student, Yoav Segev, to sue the school in July. 

Segev alleged that Harvard violated his Title VI rights by failing to meaningfully discipline Tettey-Tamaklo and another student involved in the incident, according to The Harvard Crimson. 

However, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit last week.

“While the court does not condone an assault on a fellow student by campus protestors, nothing in the Amended Complaint plausibly supports the notion that his assailants’ conduct was motivated by race-based antisemitism,” U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns wrote. 

Earlier this year, the Trump administration withheld federal grant funding from Harvard, citing its failure to address rampant antisemitism on campus, The College Fix previously reported. 

In September, however, a U.S. district judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the school’s First Amendment rights by freezing research funding, asserting the government’s actions were aimed at promoting a “governmental orthodoxy” rather than genuinely combating antisemitism.