Harvard Won't Protect Jewish Students From Antisemitic Harassment, Physical Confrontations: Plaintiff

Six Jewish students at Harvard are suing the university for discrimination. One of the students, Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, described the lawsuit as a “last recourse."

Kestenbaum recalled in an interview with the New York Post an incident in which a pack of anti-Israel demonstrators confronted him, calling to “globally expand the intifada.”

The intifada refers to Palestinian uprisings from 1987 and 1993 and from 2000 to about 2005, leaving thousands dead.

Other demonstrators have physically accosted Jews across campus, says Kestenbaum.

Specifically, anti-Jewish protesters ran Kestenbaum and other Jews out of the oft-commemorated Weidner Hall library.

What did Harvard do to protect the at-risk Jewish students? According to the lawsuit, the school did nothing.

Harvard did not inflict any repercussions upon those who participated in such antisemitic behavior. Nor did the school provide assistance to protect Jewish students from further harassment and physical intimidation.

"We tried countless times getting the administration, Corporation, Gay, deans and others to help us, but to no avail,” said Kestenbaum.

Rather, Harvard mandated students take a training class that "warns that they will be disciplined if they engage in ‘sizeism,’ ‘fatphobia,’ ‘racism,’ ‘transphobia’ or other disfavored behavior," per the plaintiff.

There's photo proof that this course exists. It's, uh, really something:

Harvard has a zero tolerance for fatphobia. Yet the school will still not declare calls for genocide of Jewish people a "violation of campus hate policies."

Imagine that.

"Harvard selectively enforces its policies to avoid protecting Jewish students from harassment, hires professors who support anti-Jewish violence and spread antisemitic propaganda, and ignores Jewish students’ pleas for protection," concludes the suit.

Naturally, Kestenbaum says Jewish students fear returning to campus for the spring semester in two weeks.

Nothing has changed.

Hence why we are reluctant to believe Claudine Gay's successor, whomever that may be, will effectively mitigate the degrees of antisemitism ingrained in the culture of the university.

At Harvard, antisemitism is systemic. Combating antisemitism has never been a priority. It still isn't a priority.

And Jewish students are now fearful to walk across the campus of Harvard University.