Shavos Kestenbaum, a Jewish Harvard student who, along with other anonymous students, is suing the Ivy League school for anti-Semitism, spoke out about the dangerous environment at the university last week at an event hosted by former alumna Reeba Nesis.
Testifying before Congress, Kestenbaum said that despite what people have heard or read about what is going on on college campuses, “the situation is far worse” and is trying to raise awareness of the conditions Jewish students face.
“Groupthink is rampant at Harvard and there is little tolerance for dissent,” he told a small group at a private event.
“Some Jewish students I know personally have been spat on. Israeli students have been asked to leave classes because their nationality makes others uncomfortable.”
He also had to hire private security after receiving threats, including an online post in which someone taunted him with a machete.
Gustavo Espada, a staff member in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, known for posting conspiracy theories, was fired in May over the exchange.
“We had to have armed guards and armed security outside our house for a week,” Kestenabum, 24, said of the situation.
“I went to pray at Chabad on Friday night and had a man with a gun follow me to make sure I was OK.”
He said many people are afraid to speak out publicly, and he is the only one using his name in the lawsuit.
“The reason you don’t hear about other students is because they fear professional backlash, they fear social isolation and they don’t want their professors to give them bad grades,” he said.
“This is the reality of being Jewish at Harvard. This is not an exaggeration or hyperbole.”
Kestenbaum identifies as a progressive and said he feels “abandoned” by his liberal peers.
Students from several other universities, including Columbia University, Cooper Union, Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania, also testified before Congress.
“Jewish students across the country face unimaginable prejudice, cruelty and hatred,” Kestenbaum said, invoking the specter of the Holocaust.
“It began with a harmful ideology that was pervasive throughout society. It began with the normalization, acceptance and celebration of anti-Semitism.”
“The time to stand up is now,” he concluded.
Several universities have been accused of anti-Semitism, including the University of California, Berkeley, Ohio State University, American University, Wellesley College, the State University of New York at New Paltz, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned in January after botching congressional testimony and being accused of plagiarism.
