Harvard graduate Shabbos Kestenbaum is the Israel advocate we never knew we needed.
On October 7, he went to the Harvard Divinity School's student WhatsApp group (of which he was a member), and he was shocked to find messages glorifying the Hamas terrorists who brutally slaughtered hundreds of Israelis.
"I placed 1,200 American and Israeli flags across the university grounds as a memorial," Kestenbaum recounts, "Within a day, every single one had been desecrated. Simply for being Jewish, I faced harassment from fellow students and received numerous online death threats."
Since October 7th, his fierce advocacy efforts have taken him as far as the stage at the Republican National Party (although he used to be a sworn democrat), where he said, “I am a proud first-generation American, I am a proud Orthodox Jew, and as of five months ago, I am the proud plaintiff suing Harvard University for its failure to combat antisemitism."
Along with 5 other students, he is now suing Harvard for its failure to protect Jewish students from campus antisemitism. Not only are they seeking compensation but also, Shabbos is urging Jewish benefactors to withhold funding until the institution implements significant changes. "We're hopeful that donors will recognize the ethical void at Harvard's core and redirect their financial support elsewhere," he said.
The Jewish World recently received devastating news that six of its hostages, who were held hostage by Hamas, were murdered, shot to death at point blank range.
Of the 6, Israeli-American citizen Hersch Goldberg-Polin was probably one of the best known, as a result of his parents' year long international campaign to bring him home.
At a recent vigil for the hostages and for Hersch, who touched so many hearts, Shabbos delivered an eloquent speech, in his imitable way. He said "In honor of our fellow American Hersh Goldberg Polin, Jewish college students will go into this semester loudly expressing our patriotism, unabashedly upholding our religious values, and publicly fighting for justice."
Video credit: Shabbos Kestenbaum
* The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle contributed to this article.
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