Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi expressed concerns about rising anti-Semitism at Harvard University during a Hanukkah event attended by president Claudine Gay.
Zarchi criticized the university for failing to protect the Jewish community, citing instances of feeling targeted and being advised to get security.
He also highlighted the need for stronger support from university leadership and fellow chaplains. (Trending: Democrat Excludes White People From Holiday Party In Controversial Email)
The rabbi disclosed that the menorah had to be removed and hidden to prevent vandalism, emphasizing the need for lasting change.
Zarchi’s remarks underscored the challenges faced by the Jewish community at Harvard and the call for greater solidarity and action against anti-Semitism.
“It pains me to have to say, sadly, that Jew-hate and anti-Semitism is thriving on this campus,” Zarchi said.
“26 years I’ve given my life to this community. I’ve never felt so alone.”
“We heard how Harvard pledges to have our back,” he said of Gay’s words during the event. “We didn’t feel it last night.”
“The Harvard Police calls our family advising us that we should get security for the night to protect our family, my wife and children, and our students because we’re being accused of hosting a war criminal,” he said.
“I don’t feel that they had the back of me and my family and our community.”
“The email referred to you as ‘Our President,’” Zarchi said to Gay, in the audience.
“We in the Jewish community are longing for a day that we can refer to the president and all of Harvard as ours too.”
“When they witness hateful calls for the death of Jews, you don’t [walk] by and say nothing,” he added.
“You speak, you don’t remain silent.”
“The university, since the first Hanukkah, would not allow us to keep this menorah here overnight because there is fear that it will be vandalized,” he said.
“We in the Jewish community are instructed ‘we’ll let you have the menorah. You made your point. Okay, pack it up. Don’t leave it out overnight because there will be criminal activity, we fear, and it won’t look good.’”
“You know when change is going to happen on this campus?” he pressed. “When we don’t have to pack up the menorah.”
“When the faculty failed us, when leadership wasn’t speaking in a way that it should have, the chaplains could have made themselves relevant and been the moral voice,” Zarchi said.
“This morning I asked where were they to condemn the genocide attack on the Jewish people? Not a word from the Harvard chaplains to this day.”
“They normalized it,” he said of campus calls for intifada. “Completely desensitized and indifferent to the call for murder of Jews.”
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