Women say director James Toback assaulted them at Harvard Club of New York
With its leather sofas, oil paintings, and exclusive membership, the Harvard Club of New York City bills itself as an oasis for the Ivy League university’s alumni and faculty.
But five women say the private Manhattan club is where they were sexually harassed and assaulted by a longtime member, the movie director and Harvard University alumnus James Toback. They are demanding an apology and answers from the club and the university — which does not own the club — about how Toback’s behavior seemed to go unchecked for decades.
“Please take action to be accountable for what the Harvard Club turned a blind eye to, at best, and condoned at worst,’’ one of the women wrote in letters sent recently to the Harvard Club and Harvard’s president, Drew Faust, detailing their experiences with Toback. “Please take responsibility and action, on behalf of all of us who were damaged by a predator who used its premises and the prestige the club infers to lure in naive, unsuspecting girls and women, who have suffered in the aftermath of Toback’s abuse.’’
