Harvard forces Jewish student group to ‘hide’ menorah at night for fear of vandalism: rabbi
Harvard forces a Jewish student group to hide its menorah each night after its lighting over fears of vandalism that “won’t look good” for the Ivy League school, the rabbi of Harvard Chabad said.
“On our campus in the shadow of Widener Library, we in the Jewish community are instructed, ‘We’ll let you have the menorah, you made your point, OK. Pack it up, don’t leave it out overnight because there will be criminal activity we fear and it won’t look good’,” Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi said at a Hanukkah lighting Wednesday night.
Zarchi, the founder and president of Harvard Chabad, said the university has asked the group to take in the menorah each night since the first Hanukkah lighting on campus.
But amid a rise in antisemitism across the world and on college campuses due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, the rabbi said the message is even more poignant.
“You know when change is gonna happen on this campus? When we don’t have to pack up the menorah,” Zarchi said.
He said change would also happen when students don’t 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 up our menorah when we’re done… Some students feel they have to remove anything about their physical appearance that suggests that they’re a target.”
Zarchi then seemingly knocked Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay — who has been criticized for her response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the ongoing Israeli airstrikes into Gaza.
Gay found herself 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 are longing for the day when we can refer to the president — and all of Harvard — as ours too,” he said. “That Harvard indeed not only has our back, not only allows us to put up a menorah but doesn’t force us to hide it at night and when they witness hateful calls to the death of Jews, you don’t walk by and say nothing, you speak. You don’t remain silent.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, in New York, a flier going around claims that New York University administrators “denied [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’s not immediately clear who created the poster and advertised the event.
However, NYU spokesman John Beckman told The Post that the desired location had been closed to all events, not just the lighting.
“Some weeks ago, NYU closed off the main staircase in the Kimmel Center, which was often used for events and gatherings over the years, and suspended its use for all events,” Beckman said.
“The Bronfman Center, NYU’s center for Jewish life, originally sought to schedule one of their annual menorah lighting ceremonies on the Kimmel steps,” he said.
“Because the stairs were closed, they were perfectly happy to move it to another, more secure location elsewhere in Kimmel.
“There was no cancellation; that night’s menorah lighting conducted by NYU’s Bronfman Center proceeded very nicely on Monday, presided over by one of the University’s Jewish chaplains and with a couple of deans in attendance.”
