Harvard tells Jews to ‘hide’ menorah nights during Hanukkah

Harvard told Jewish leaders to pack up their menorah every night during Hanukkah, fearing the display could be vandalized and the crime would make the school look bad, a Jewish chaplain at the university said last week.

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, who leads the Jewish student organization Harvard Chabad, spoke about issues with the display Dec. 13 as the sun set behind the menorah, according to a YouTube video of his speech.

“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,’” Zarchi said.

“It pains me to have to say sadly, that Jew hate and antisemitism is thriving on this campus,” he said.

On other campuses, Jewish students and leaders have said much the same after seeing a swastika and hearing calls of “intifada” during Hanukkah this year, which took place Dec. 7 to 15.

At Harvard, Zarchi said the Jewish community gathered every night to light the menorah. And every night, he said they had to take down the display because of university leaders’ fears about vandalism.

In a similar incident, New York University administrators were accused of denying Jewish students “their annual Hanukkah lighting on Kimmel steps” last week, according to a flier circulating on campus, the New York Post reported.

However, a spokesperson told the New York Post that the university recently began prohibiting all events at the location, not just the religious celebration.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Jewish faculty and students have reported a huge rise in antisemitism on U.S. campuses, including messages that “Hitler was right,” “gas the Jews,” and “Holocaust 2.0,” The College Fix reported.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/rabbi-harvard-tells-jews-to-hide-menorah-nights-during-hanukkah/