Harvard student Shabbos Kestenbaum reacts to UPenn President Liz Magill’s remarks following her House hearing testimony and discusses the rise of antisemitism on college campuses and concerns over threats to Jewish sites and communities.
One Harvard graduate student called out various Ivy League universities for ironically becoming “free speech absolutists” amid the war in Gaza after the presidents of the prestigious colleges drew backlash for refusing to condemn Jewish hate on their campuses.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish graduate student at Harvard, called out the “laughable” stances the presidents of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT took on antisemitism during a congressional hearing earlier this week during “Mornings with Maria.”
“As someone who put up posters four separate times on a public area at Harvard bringing attention to the plight of a 10-month-old Jewish baby who was being held in a dark tunnel somewhere in Gaza, and to have that poster ripped down four separate times, I can assure you that this genocide of Jewish people after October 7th has made a lot of students very, very happy,” Kestenbaum told Maria Bartiromo on Friday.
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“And the idea that all of a sudden these universities became free speech absolutists overnight is laughable,” he continued. “Harvard ranks dead last when it comes to free speech and all-American universities, so spare me this self-pity that all of a sudden they wish they could do something, but they just can’t, because the First Amendment.”
Harvard did not respond to FOX News Digital’s request for comment.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., questioned Ivy League presidents on the surge of antisemitism on college campuses during a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday. She pressed them on whether the concerning trend violates the rules of the universities, but they insisted it would depend on the “context.”
Amid a swarm of scrutiny, UPenn could now lose a $100 million donation as President Liz Magill faces growing calls to step down.
Former Israeli Knesset member Michal Cotler-Wunsh says this has been a ‘real moment of reckoning’ amid major U.S. colleges facing antisemitism backlash on ‘The Evening Edit.’
“Absent a change in leadership and values at Penn in the very near future, I plan to rescind Penn’s Stone Ridge shares to prevent any further reputational and other damage to Stone Ridge as a result of our relationship with Penn and Liz Magill,” Ross Stevens, the CEO of Stone Ridge Asset Management, said Thursday.
However, Magill appeared to walk back her testimony in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
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“There was a moment during yesterday’s congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies,” Magill said. “In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which say that speech alone is not punishable.”
“I was not focused on, but I should have been, the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate,” she continued. “It’s evil. Plain and simple.”
But Kestenbaum was not satisfied with her attempt to retract her controversial remarks, arguing her comments did not constitute an apology.
“I’m not sure if I would qualify that as an apology because the words ‘I’m sorry,’ and ‘I apologize’ were not there,” he said. “It’s pretty shocking that as the university leader of one of the alleged greatest universities in the country, the fact that after meeting with her legal team and 24 hours after a disastrous hearing, that’s the best that she can come up with is pretty pathetic.”
George Washington University student Sabrina Soffer joins ‘The Evening Edit’ to discuss calls for Harvard, MIT and UPenn presidents to resign following their testimony at antisemitism hearing.
“And when she is asked to resign and when she leaves, and hopefully it’s today, I have no pity she brought this upon herself,” he continued.
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Kestenbaum said, although he has not been the target of any antisemitic attacks, he does not feel his colleagues in the classroom have been tolerant of his political perspective.
“In terms of if I feel physically safe, look, thank God I’m fortunate in the sense that I have not had any personal attacks on… my physical safety, but in terms of creating a space where I feel that my political perspective can be given credibility, absolutely not,” Kestenbaum said.
Kestenbaum told Bartiromo he wished Biden would take a more definitive stance on antisemitism as it continues to plague college campuses around the country.
“This is someone who I spent my 18th birthday registering to vote as a Democrat,” Kestenbaum said. “This is someone who has only voted for Democratic candidates, and I am thankful for many like John Fetterman, like Ritchie Torres, but Joe Biden has a lot more work to do.”
Panelists Liz Peek and Deroy Murdock react to Congress grilling university officials over antisemitism on campuses on ‘Kudlow.’
“There’s a lot more policy positions at his disposal that he could take advantage of, but it seems like as the days go on, he becomes scared of this violent radical mob who are pressuring him to call for a cease-fire, who are pressuring him not to do anything about the American citizens who are being held in Gaza,” he continued.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitism has spiked 388% since the war against Hamas began in October.
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