Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, founder and president of Harvard Chabad, spoke about antisemitism on Harvard University’s campus, revealing that he had been instructed by school administrators to hide the menorah lit in Harvard Yard each night due to fears of vandalism or other criminal activities.

“We in the Jewish community are longing for a day … that Harvard not only has our back, and not only allows us to finally put up a menorah, but doesn’t force us to hide it at night,” said Rabbi Zarchi during a menorah lighting ceremony which President Claudine Gay attended.

“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.’”

The issue of campus antisemitism was further highlighted in the recent testimony of Harvard president Claudine Gay at a House hearing. Gay, alongside University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Sally Kornbluth, faced intense criticism for not explicitly stating that calls for genocide against Jews violated their university codes of conduct.

In the wake of the hearing, Magill stepped down from her duties, while Gay and Kornbluth retained their positions with support from their respective boards.

Rabbi Zarchi concluded his speech with a hopeful message: “Let’s hope that indeed we’ll be able to look at the light of the Hanukkah candles and see only its light because the power of its light will eliminate all the darkness and transform our community to a place that will be indeed a beacon of light, not only to the lives and to the hearts and minds of all our students, but indeed through our students and through our community to the world.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)