One of the six Jewish Harvard students who sued the university for discrimination said it was their “last resort” after they faced months of antisemitism following the October 7 Hamas attack and the university’s “reluctance … to step in and protect us. “
Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, a Harvard Divinity School student — the only one named in the federal discrimination lawsuit — told The Post how he was confronted one day on his way to class by anti-Israel protesters who called for “a global intifada. “
Intifada refers to the Palestinian uprising, specifically the one that took place between 1987 and 1993 and from 2000 to about 2005, which left thousands of people dead.
Kestenbaum said he also had to change where he studied for his classes because Weidner Hall, the Ivy League’s main library, was overrun by protesters.
Other Jewish students, Kestenbaum said, were physically approached on campus.
He said the problem of antisemitism at universities was “systemic”, claiming there was a “clear double standard when it comes to the treatment of minorities and Jewish students.”
Alexander Shabbos Kestenbaum says Harvard’s antisemitism problem is “systemic.” shabbi.kestenbaum/Facebook One of the six Jewish Harvard students who sued the university said it was their “last resort” after they faced months of antisemitism. Boston Globe via Getty Images
“We tried many times to get the administration, [Harvard] corporation, [former president Claudine] Gay, the dean and others to help us, but to no avail,” Kestenbaum told The Post, adding that the lawsuit would hold “Harvard accountable.”
“Hopefully it will create a fundamental transformation,” he said.
According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Boston federal court, Harvard has allowed students and faculty accused of engaging in antisemitic acts to remain on campus — even once pelting groups of anti-Israel protesters “with burritos and candy.”
Student Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum said the Jewish students who joined the suit repeatedly tried and failed to get help from university officials, including former president Claudine Gay. REUTERS Alexander Kestenbaum said he was confronted by anti-Israel protesters chanting “globalizing intifada” on his way to class. FOX News
It claims: “Harvard selectively enforced its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, hired professors who supported anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda, and ignored Jewish students’ pleas for protection.”
The lawsuit also argues that the university “allows students and faculty to support, without consequence, the murder of Jews, and the destruction of Israel, the only Jewish state in the world.
“Meanwhile, Harvard requires students to attend training classes that warn that they will be subject to disciplinary action if they engage in ‘sizeism’, ‘fatphobia’, ‘racism’, ‘transphobia’ or other objectionable behavior.”
Kestenbaum told The Post how he was confronted one day on his way to class by anti-Israel protesters who called for “a global intifada.” AFP via Getty Images
It further claimed that Harvard officials had been “aware of his antisemitism for years, but his response, to say the least, was clearly unreasonable and totally unacceptable not only tolerating, but enabling antisemitism.”
As a result, Kestenbaum said, Jewish students are afraid to return to campus for the spring semester in two weeks because nothing has changed at the university.
Meanwhile, Harvard is actively promoting a summer health program for its students at a West Bank university that called for “glory to the martyrs” in a social media post following the brutal Hamas terror attack.
The Palestinian Social Medicine course at Birzeit University “is designed to introduce students to the social, structural, political and historical aspects that determine Palestinian health beyond the biological basis of disease,” according to the program’s website.
Harvard is actively promoting a summer health program for its students at a West Bank university that called for “glory to the martyrs” in a social media post following the Hamas attack. Getty Images Alexander Kestenbaum said other Jewish students were physically attacked. shabbi.kestenbaum/Facebook
During the three-week program, students will hear from doctors, academics and activists on topics including “Settler colonization and its manifestations in Palestine” and “Health and racism.”
The Post has reached out to Harvard for comment.
A Harvard spokesperson told the Daily Wire that the courses offered were jointly developed by the World Health Organization.
The spokesman also said Birzeit “is a public institution governed by an autonomous Board of Trustees without political, religious or sectarian affiliation” – although the university describes itself on its website as a “thorn in the side of the occupation” that is “transforming Palestinian higher education through its impact on consciousness , culture and community resistance.”
The federal lawsuit alleges Harvard officials have been “aware of his antisemitism for years” and enabled it. CJ GUNTHER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The students suing Harvard are calling for any deans, administrators, professors and other employees who are “responsible for antisemitic discrimination and abuse, whether they engage in or condone it,” to be fired, and the suspension or expulsion of any students who engage in antisemitism.
They also demanded that the university reject and return any donations “implicitly or explicitly conditioned on the hiring or promotion of professors who support antisemitism or the inclusion of antisemitic coursework or curriculum,” and add antisemitism training for members of the Harvard community.
In addition, the student is seeking damages “for loss or loss of educational opportunities.”
“We’re not asking for special treatment under the law,” Kestenbaum insisted, “we’re asking for equal treatment under the law.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
