Haverford College religion professor arrested for antisemitic cyberstalking
Guangtian Ha, an assistant professor of religion at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, was arrested by federal authorities on October 6, 2026 and charged with one count of cyberstalking after prosecutors said he used at least four anonymous X accounts to send roughly 50 threatening antisemitic messages to a Jewish coworker.
The indictment states that the messages, posted between October 2025 and May 2026, repeatedly referenced the victim’s religion, shared the coworker’s home address, a photograph of the mailbox, and threatened violence. One message read, "The goyim have woken up, jew. Run. Flee. Leave. Blurring your home on Google map and installing a security camera next to your mailbox won’t help," while another warned, "Lower Merion will be cleansed of the jew filth."
"I am heartbroken and furious at the possibility that an individual within our community would seek to inflict such pain on another," Haverford President Wendy Raymond said in a statement. "This disturbing news is made even more harmful for many given its proximity to both the Jewish High Holidays and the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks."
Ha, who earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University and has a research focus on Islam in China, has a documented history of extremist online rhetoric praising Hitler and the Holocaust. A Washington Free Beacon review of his now‑suspended X posts found repeated calls for the extermination of Jews, slurs such as "Jew rat," and threats toward public figures, including a January 2026 post calling congressman Randy Fine a "fat Jew pig."
The college placed Ha on administrative leave and barred him from campus while the criminal case proceeds. Officials confirmed that a representative has been in contact with the targeted faculty member, who reportedly increased home security and, at times, stayed with relatives due to fear.
Ha’s conduct surfaced in earlier institutional reviews. In a June 2025 letter to college president Wendy Raymond, Rep. Tim Walberg cited Ha by name and asked whether the college had investigated his antisemitic remarks. Haverford also settled a 2024 lawsuit brought by Jewish students alleging a hostile environment, which required the college to implement annual antisemitism‑awareness training.
The federal charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. Prosecutors argued that Ha’s use of virtual private networks to obscure his IP addresses demonstrated an effort to evade detection.
The case underscores a broader concern about hate speech and harassment in academic settings, prompting renewed calls for stronger campus policies and swift enforcement when digital threats cross the line into criminal conduct.