CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts – Jewish students at Harvard University continue to experience a sense of unease on campus over anti-Semitism that they say the school could be doing more to prevent, according to a sophomore.
“Jews here don’t necessarily feel safe,” sophomore Alex Bernat said Tuesday afternoon at a Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony on campus.
“I think the university can do a lot more to start quelling some of the anti-Semitism and try to teach people why it’s wrong,” said Bernat, a member of Harvard Chabad and Students for Israel.
Bernat was one of several speakers at the ceremony in front of Widener Library who expressed concern about anti-Semitism on campus.
At one point, a woman interrupted, shouting that anti-Semitism was a myth, adding, “your whole story is false!” before leaving into the night.
Describing some of her lectures raided by anti-Israel protesters, Bernat said she did not believe embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay was anti-Semitic, but rather that the problem was “much more systemic than one person, one university or one department.”
“I think there is a much deeper problem at all American universities when it comes to anti-Semitism,” he said, adding, “I really just want to emphasize the widespread and systemic nature of this, as opposed to any particular action.”
Members of Harvard University’s Jewish community gathered for a Hanukkah lighting ceremony on campus Tuesday night, which was interrupted by someone who said anti-Semitism was a myth. AFP via Getty Images
“I think Harvard needs to have a much, much deeper analysis than even this current anti-Semitism committee about how it is permeating the academic departments, how it is permeating the administration, how it is permeating the entire staff, and how it is permeating the student body.” .
That anti-Semitism committee Bernat referenced was convened following outrage over the school’s response to deadly Hamas attacks on Israel and subsequent anti-Israel protests on campus in which Jewish students were harassed by protesters chanting ” Intifada” and “From the river to the sea”. – two phrases considered calls for genocide against the Jews.
Last week, prominent rabbi and committee member David Wolpe resigned from his committee position with a dramatic statement that echoed sentiments shared during Tuesday’s lighting ceremony: He called Chairman Gay a good person, but accused the school under his leadership of harboring deep-rooted opposition. Israeli prejudices and anti-Semitism.
Gay found himself in the middle of a firestorm 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.
Joining her at the hearing was now-former University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, who resigned four days after the disastrous testimony.
At one point, a woman interrupted, shouting that anti-Semitism was a myth, adding, “your whole story is false!” before leaving into the night. AP
However, Harvard’s president managed to keep her job after the school’s highest governing body and more than 500 faculty members gave her their support, even as the school reportedly lost more than $1 billion. in donations from testimony.
Psychology professor and author Stephen Pinker, who published a five-point plan to address campus anti-Semitism in the Boston Globe on Monday, joined speakers at the lighting ceremony in Harvard Yard and said firing Gay would be a gesture. meaningless and with little real effect.
“I think it would be like firing a coach when your team isn’t doing well. “It’s a symbolic sacrifice, but it doesn’t address the real problems on college campuses,” Pinker said.
Harvard President Claudine Gay is in hot water 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. fake images
He expressed his belief that schools should commit to supporting free speech among students and faculty while remaining neutral as institutions, adding that Harvard “should not tolerate forced interruptions, with students invading lecture halls, chanting slogans into megaphones.” or bullying other students. “
Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, founder of the Jewish student group Harvard Chabad, told The Post that it was “sad” that people had been calling for an Intifada on Harvard and other college campuses.
However, Zarchi said that the difficulties that Jewish students have faced in the last two months had only served to bring that community closer together, and that displays of solidarity like the lighting ceremony demonstrated this.
“These are the students who have been, and this is the community that has been, suffering on this campus. “That they have been neglected, that they have been victims of such hateful and, at times, even aggressive violence.”
“When the adults in the room do not fulfill their responsibility and sometimes not only do not condemn [the violence]but inciting him is very sad,” Zarchi said.
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