Harvard forced Jewish student groups to hide their menorahs each night after lighting them for fear of vandalism that “wouldn’t look good” for an Ivy League school, the Harvard Chabad rabbi said.
“On our campus in the shadow of Widener Library, we in the Jewish community are instructed, ‘We’ll let you have a menorah, you speak your mind, OK. Clean it up, don’t leave it overnight because there will be criminal activity that we fear and it won’t look good’,” said Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi at a Hanukkah information service Wednesday night.
Zarchi, founder and president of Harvard Chabad, said the university has asked the group to pick up a menorah every night since the first Hanukkah lighting on campus.
But amid rising antisemitism around the world and on college campuses as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the rabbi said the message is even more poignant.
“You know when change will happen on this campus? When we don’t have to pack the menorah,” said Zarchi.
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi said Harvard Chabad does not need to put up its menorah at night. David McGlynn “We in the Jewish community long for the day when we can refer to the president — and all of Harvard — as ours, too,” Zarchi said. David McGlynn Embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay lit a menorah on campus Wednesday. David McGlynn
He said change will also happen when students do not hide the fact that they are Jewish on campus.
One student told The Post Tuesday that Jews “don’t necessarily feel safe” on school grounds.
“That’s the reality of the Jewish community at Harvard today,” Zarchi said. “We have to pack our menorahs when we’re done… Some students feel they have to release anything about their physical appearance that suggests they’re a target.”
Zarchi then seemed to take a swipe at Harvard president Claudine Gay — who has been criticized for her response to the October 7 Hamas attack and ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
Gay found himself the subject of a national debate last week after refusing to say an unequivocal “Yes” when asked during congressional testimony whether calling for the genocide of Jews on campus violated the school’s disciplinary policy.
“We in the Jewish community long for the day when we can refer to the president — and all of Harvard — as ours, too,” he said. “Harvard really not only supported us, not only allowed us to put up a menorah but didn’t force us to hide it at night and when they saw the call of hatred to the death of the Jews, you didn’t walk by and say. nothing, you say. You don’t shut up.”
Jewish NYU students celebrated Hanukkah in Washington Square Park Thursday night. Snapchat A poster claims NYU won’t let students have their annual Hanukkah lighting on Kimmel’s steps. NYU
Meanwhile, in New York, pamphlets circulated claiming that New York University administrators “refused [students] their annual Hanukkah lighting on the Kimmel steps.”
“Antisemitism has no place at NYU,” the poster stated while advertising an alternative menorah lighting in Washington Square Park Thursday night.
It is unclear who created the poster and advertised the event.
Neither Harvard nor NYU immediately responded to requests for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
