A Jewish Harvard student has accused the Ivy League’s board of ‘breathtaking hypocrisy’ for standing by its president Claudine Gay.
Shabbos Kestenbaum appeared on Fox News on Tuesday to respond to his university’s decision to keep Gay as president after her disastrous congressional testimony where she refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews breaks Harvard’s rules.
He said the board’s decision sends a message that ‘In 2023, calling for the genocide of Jewish people would be considered context-dependent, according to the best academic institution in the world. And the individual who calls for that is able to keep their job.’
Kestenbaum added: ‘I would ask those faculty, and I certainly disagree with them respectfully, but I would ask them to, number one, talk to us, talk to Jewish students and see what our experience has been in the past three months.
‘And then I would also ask them, what if this was a different minority? What if Claudine Gay had said this about black people? About Gay people, about Asian Americans? Would you be as defensive as you [are] now?’
Shabbos Kestenbaum appeared on Fox News on Tuesday to respond to his university’s decision to keep Claudine Gay as president after her disastrous congressional testimony
Kestenbaum said: ‘What if this was a different minority? What if Claudine Gay had said this about black people? About Gay people, about Asian Americans?’
Kestenbaum said that while he welcomes Harvard’s ‘sudden interest in commitments to free expression,’ the school has long been accused for suppressing speech.
‘We have to keep in mind that this is a president whose university mandates that all students attend a Title Nine training where they are told that sexism and fatphobia are forms of violence, using the wrong pronouns as a form of abuse.
The student also mentioned the case of law professor Ronald Sullivan, who claims he was booted from his post as residential dean because of his work on Harvey Weinstein’s defense team.
Sullivan, who was the first black dean of a Harvard school, accused Gay and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana of lying about their motives for dismissing him when they claimed it was because he fostered a toxic work environment.
‘The actions were cowardly and craven and Dean Gay and Dean Khurana just consistently and repeatedly lied to the student body and they know better,’ he said, according to The Harvard Crimson.
‘Their problem was that I represented an unpopular person… They said it to my face and other senior members said it to my face and then they turned around and lied to the student body.’
Following the school’s announcement, billboards trucks demanding Gay’s firing were once again seen on the Cambridge campus on Tuesday
Given Harvard’s past controversies regarding free speech, Kestenbaum concluded: ‘So the fact that when it comes to Jewish people, all of a sudden we wish we could do something, but we just can’t because of the First Amendment is is breathtaking in its hypocrisy.’
University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill is the only one of the three ivy league presidents to step down following their testimony last week. The school said on Tuesday that Dr J. Larry Jameson has agreed to serve as interim president.
He previously served as Executive Vice President of Penn medicine.
‘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 Harvard Corporation said in a statement following its meeting Monday.
Following the school’s announcement, billboards trucks demanding Gay’s firing were once again seen on the Cambridge campus on Tuesday.
Republican rep Elise Stefanik, who questioned Gay during her testimony, slammed the board’s decision as a ‘moral failure.’
Meanwhile Barstools Sports founder Dave Portnoy doubled down on his pledge to never hire a Harvard graduate again, writing: ‘Just to reiterate I will never hire a Harvard Grad again. Your diploma is useless to me. The entire country should do the same.’
Former Winthrop House faculty dean Ronald Sullivan accused Gay of dismissing him from his role because of his work on Harvey Weinstein’s defense team
University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill is the only one of the three ivy league presidents to step down following their testimony last week
Dr Carol Swain, one of the authors allegedly plagiarized by Gay, wrote on X: ‘This is a terrible blow to civil rights and academic standards. What signal does it send to young people and the world? Shame on Harvard!… The Harvard Corporation did not have the cojones to own and remedy their mistakes regarding Dr. Gay.
Only months into her leadership, Gay came under intense scrutiny following the hearing in which she and two of her peers struggled to answer questions about campus antisemitism in the wake of the latest Israel-Hamas war, which erupted in early October. Their academic responses provoked backlash from Republican opponents, along with alumni and donors who say the university leaders are failing to stand up for Jewish students on their campuses.
A petition signed by more than 600 faculty members had asked the school’s governing body to keep Gay in charge.
In an interview with The Harvard Crimson student newspaper last week, Gay said she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.
‘What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged,’ Gay said.