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Harvard president shows up for menorah lighting photo-op amid antisemitism uproar

December 14, 2023 | | Print Article

Just one day after learning that she won’t be fired for her refusal before Congress to condemn calls for genocide against Jewish people on her campus as harassment, Harvard President Claudine Gay turned up for an annual campus menorah lighting on Wednesday — a move that one user on X likened to “some 1990’s level of pandering.”

According to the New York Post, “The under-fire president was among the roughly 100 people to gather at the daily lighting ceremony, organized by the Harvard Chabad, at the campus’ Harvard Park.”

“Gay, who attended alongside her colleague Professor Jeff Bussgang, was spotted lighting the first candle,” the outlet reports.

Following her disastrous testimony earlier this month, Gay attempted to walk back her remarks.

“There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” she said. “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”

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As BizPac Review reported, members of a key oversight board of Harvard University announced on Tuesday that they “affirm” and “support” Gay in her role and will not seek to remove her despite the heated backlash.

“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University. Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the university’s governing body said in an email to the school community.

“Calls for genocide are despicable and contrary to fundamental human values. President Gay has apologized for how she handled her congressional testimony and has committed to redoubling the University’s fight against antisemitism,” the email stated.

On campus, some Jewish students are still uneasy.

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“If she’s willing to take action to actually protect us, that’s fine,” one student told The Post. “If not, she needs to go.”

While the ceremony went off without interruption, Harvard Chabad’s Rabbi Zarchi noted that the menorah was to be taken down after the ceremony, to prevent any antisemitic students from vandalizing it.

“You know what happens to the menorah?” he asked reporters. “After everyone leaves the yard, we’re gonna pack it up. We have to hide it somewhere.”

The university, he explained, “would not allow us to keep this menorah here overnight because there’s fear that it’ll be vandalized.”

“Think about that,” he urged listeners.

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“‘We in the Jewish community are instructed, ‘We’ll let you have your menorah. You made your point, okay. Pack it up. Don’t leave it overnight, because there will be criminal activity, we fear, and it won’t look good.'”

“Harvard wishes you a happy Chanukah,” wrote one user on X. “Now go hide.”

Melissa Fine
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