Shabbos Kestenbaum, one of five people suing Harvard University alleging failures to respond to antisemitism, told the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week that he is a proud Orthodox Jew and that the Democratic Party “has become ideologically poisoned.” He also said students are taught “not what to think, but how to think,” that he was harassed for being a Jew, and there was a need to “fight back” against a rising tide of antisemitism including by supporting former President Trump’s policy to deport students engaged in illegal activity.
WATCH: Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish American and Harvard graduate who is suing the college, speaks at the RNC.
“I am proud to support President Trump’s policies to expel foreign students who violate our laws, harass our Jewish classmates, and desecrate our freedoms,” he said. pic.twitter.com/oHGp9NpHS8
— PBS News (@NewsHour) July 18, 2024
“Let’s elect a president who recognizes that although Harvard and the Ivy Leagues have long abandoned the United States of America, the Jewish people never will, because Jewish values are American values and American values are Jewish values,” he said in his speech.
The 25-year-old, who graduated from SAR in Riverdale before earning a Master’s degree from Harvard’s Divinity School in May, told The Jewish Press that problems had been percolating for some time at America’s most heralded university. “There was pervasive and systemic antisemitism before October 7,” Kestenbaum said. “The only difference was on October 7 and afterward, it became inescapable and unavoidable.”
He said he tried initially to engage students and explain that Israel was not committing a genocide. “It was very difficult to have any intellectual debate,” he said. “I am always happy to engage in any respectful debate, but I found that almost impossible at Harvard.”
The recent graduate said he was “shocked but not surprised” at the testimony of Claudine Gay, who resigned as president of Harvard after being grilled by New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik in a hearing last December, in which she declined to say calling for the genocide of Jews was against Harvard’s code of conduct.
“She was a feckless, unqualified leader, for a cowardly institution,” Kestenbaum said of Gay.
He also said he placed around campus American and Israeli flags which were vandalized, and nothing was done, while the police were called on him.
He said he is a registered Democrat who once voted for Bernie Sanders. Why is he changing his tune?
“As Ronald Regan said, ‘I did not abandon the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party abandoned me.’ I will continue to fight the party and reform it from within, but I’m pragmatic and I realize in the short term, there needs to be a re-assessment of our political obedience.”
Kestenbaum’s speech received vigorous applause. What were his thoughts, knowing he would have the rare opportunity to speak to millions of Americans watching on TV?
“I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “I was more overwhelmed by the responsibility I had to represent the voices of students who’ve entrusted their stories to me. I will continue to speak at any venue or on any platform that is willing to combat antisemitism seriously.”
He said he was deeply disturbed about the assassination attempt on former President Trump, and hoped Democrats and Republicans would tone down inflammatory rhetoric that was creating mistrust. He said it was crucial for him to deliver his message, though he didn’t agree with every speaker at the convention. “I walked out when [former Fox News host] Tucker Carlson spoke because I think it’s absolutely unacceptable and inexcusable that someone who peddles antisemitic conspiracy theories would not only be allowed to sit next to Trump but be given a platform at the convention,” he said. “I was deeply frustrated.”
Trump is loved in Israel and by some American Jewish voters for following through on his promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem, officially recognizing the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory, and ordering the killing of Iranian general Qasem Sulemani. But critics point to his allowing rapper Kanye West, who had an antisemitic meltdown, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes to have a meal with him, as highly problematic.
“It was absolutely inexcusable,” Kestenbaum said of Trump’s meeting with West and Fuentes. “I would hold him accountable the same way I would hold any politicians accountable for their associations. Thankfully, he condemned it immediately, but we must make sure something like that never happens again. Nick Funtes, Tucker Carslon, [former Daily Wire and current podcast host] Candace Owens – they have no place in the Republican party. They have no place in mainstream American politics.”
John Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor under Trump, told i24News that the former president is impulsive and might not necessarily support Israel in a second term as he had in the first. Asked if he is concerned about Bolton’s statement, Kestenbaum said he would “continue to hold any politician accountable to the promises they make on the campaign trail.”
Kestenbaum had addressed members of Congress a number of months ago, saying: “By inviting me, you’ve actually already done more than Harvard University has ever done for its Jews, which is listening to us.”
If those watching his speech at the RNC hoped he might become a politician himself, they may be happy: “I hope to pursue elected office to create change on a legislative level for the community that I love,” said Kestenbaum, who is single.
Asked to clarify what he meant by Harvard being a place where students were taught what to think, he said, “There is a high level of political indoctrination. You have professors who say they are not going to teach any narratives from Israeli scholars or professors…When professors are cancelling classes to encourage students to participate in anti-Israel demonstrations, that is them demonstrating their political bias.”
If he had more time in his speech, he said he would have also called out examples of antisemitism from the right, as well as pervasive examples of antisemitism at Harvard. He also said he doesn’t know a timetable for when there might be a judgment from his lawsuit.
Kestenbaum was happy to see one thing at the RNC that he doesn’t expect to see at next month’s convention – attention to the hostages still being held by Hamas.
“I would love to see chants of ‘Bring Them Home’ and the Israeli flags being waved proudly at the Democratic National Convention,” he said. “But I’m not too hopeful.”
The parents of Omer Neutra, an Israeli soldier and American citizen from Long Island taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, also spoke at the RNC.
Meanwhile, in an op-ed in The Forward titled “I’m a Jew studying at Harvard Divinity School. Shabbos Kestenbaum doesn’t speak for me,” Zev Mishell wrote of Kestenbaum that “Republicans have weaponized his individual story and experience to conceal their very real antisemitism.”
“I have great respect for my former classmate,” Kestenbaum responded. “I will add, though, that I certainly was not speaking on his behalf, given that he took a leadership role in the encampments. The claims that I am being used as a token Jew – I hope they are comfortable saying that to Omer Neutra’s parents, who took the stage right after.”
