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Harvard Divinity School graduate Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, the lead plaintiff in an ongoing Title VI lawsuit against Harvard, filed opposition to Harvard’s motion to compel him to produce documents relating to the case, claiming Harvard’s argument is “baseless.”

The initial discovery requests — which included communications between Kestenbaum and politicians, including Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and the contents of a private group chat — were filed in December in response to two Title VI lawsuits brought against the University alleging that it had failed to address antisemitism on campus.

The two suits — one from Kestenbaum along with the group Students Against Antisemitism, the other from Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education — were settled in January. Kestenbaum, the lead plaintiff on the first suit, rejected the settlement and is now pursuing litigation under different counsel.

Harvard filed their motion to compel March 21, claiming that Kestenbaum had failed to produce the documents by the Jan. 27 deadline set by the court to either comply with or oppose the request.

“He must either engage in the litigation he brought — including by fulfilling his discovery duties — or else abandon it,” Harvard’s lawyers wrote.

But lawyers for Kestenbaum fired back on Thursday, claiming in court filings that Kestenbaum and Harvard had agreed to pause the deadlines while the settlement in the original lawsuit was being negotiated.

They further argued that the production of documents should wait until after other issues in the case, such as the proposal to add two anonymous plaintiffs to an amended complaint, have been resolved.

In a March 7 email attached to court filings, a lawyer for Harvard wrote to Kestenbaum’s counsel to argue the pause was lifted in December, when Kestenbaum declined to settle.

But Kestenbaum’s lawyers contended in their opposition that “the parties never agreed to lift the pause, and Harvard did not communicate its view that the pause had been lifted until after” Kestenbaum’s Jan. 27 deadline to respond to Harvard’s original discovery request.

Kestenbaum’s lawyers referred to the motion to compel as “gamesmanship” and claimed that Harvard used the motion “to levy personal attacks against Mr. Kestenbaum and to opine about the merits of the case without any evidentiary support.”

In the attached emails to Harvard’s counsel, Kestenbaum’s lawyers argued that Harvard had also delayed its production of documents.

“After delays for settlement and an agreed stay, Harvard made its first document production on March 5, 2025, less than three months before the current close of discovery on May 23, 2025,” the lawyers wrote.

According to their motion, this was 56 days past the original deadline.

Per the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Harvard has so far provided only 10 documents related to the case, all of which are publicly available.

Kestenbaum’s lawyers further criticized the University for what they alleged in their motion to be an “invasive and one-sided collection” of emails from the anonymous plaintiffs.

Harvard informed the lawyers of their intent to begin collecting the emails, in accordance with the University’s Policy on Access to Electronic Information, in a Feb. 18 email. The policy allows the University to access user electronic information “in connection with threatened or pending litigation.” The policy recommends that access should be limited to information necessary for the purpose.

Harvard does not need students’ permission to search their emails — meaning the University has access to the plaintiffs’ emails regardless of when and whether they comply with discovery requests.

Spokespeople for the University did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the opposition was filed Thursday evening.

— Staff Writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at sebastian.connolly@thecrimson.com and on X @SebastianC4784.

— Staff Writer Julia A. Karabolli can be reached at julia.karabolli@thecrimson.com.