Harvard forces a group of Jewish students to hide their menorah each night after lighting it for fear of vandalism that “won’t look good” for the Ivy League school, the Harvard Chabad rabbi said.
“On our campus, in the shadow of Widener Library, we in the Jewish community are told, ‘We’ll let you have the menorah, you’ve made your point, okay.’ Pack it up, don’t leave it out overnight because we’re afraid there will be criminal activity and it won’t look good,’” Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi said during the Hanukkah lighting Wednesday night.
Zarchi, founder and president of Harvard Chabad, said the university has asked the group to take up the menorah every night since the first Hanukkah lighting on campus.
But amid a rise in anti-Semitism around the world and on college campuses due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the rabbi said the message is even more poignant.
“Do you know when change will happen on this campus? When we don’t have to pack the menorah,” Zarchi said.
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi said Harvard Chabad should not have to put away 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 lights a menorah on campus Wednesday. David McGlynn
He said change would also come when students do not hide the fact that they are Jewish on campus.
One student told The Post on Tuesday that Jews “don’t necessarily feel safe” on school grounds.
“That is the reality of the Jewish community at Harvard today,” Zarchi said. “We have to pack up our menorah when we’re done… Some students feel like they have to remove anything from their physical appearance that suggests they’re a target.”
Zarchi then apparently took a swipe at Harvard President Claudine Gay, who has been criticized for her response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and continued Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
Gay became the topic of national debate last week after refusing to explicitly say “Yes” when asked during congressional testimony whether calls for genocide against Jews on campus violated the school’s disciplinary policies.
“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. “That Harvard in fact not only supports us, not only allows us to put up a menorah but does not force us to hide it at night and when they witness hateful calls for the death of Jews, you don’t walk by and say anything, you speak. “Don’t stay silent.”
Jewish students at New York University celebrated Hanukkah in Washington Square Park on Thursday night. Snapchat A sign claims that New York University would not allow students to have their annual Hanukkah lighting on the Kimmel steps. New York University
Meanwhile, in New York, a flier circulating everywhere claims that NYU administrators “denied [students] their annual Hanukkah lighting on the Kimmel steps.”
“Anti-Semitism has no place at New York University,” the sign read while announcing an alternative lighting of the menorah in Washington Square Park on Thursday night.
It is not immediately clear who created the poster and announced the event.
Neither Harvard nor New York University immediately responded to requests for comment.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn