Harvard Tells Jewish Group to Hide Menorah Amid Vandalism Fears

A Jewish student group at Harvard has been instructed to hide its menorah each night over fears that any vandalism "won’t look good," the New York Post has reported.

At New York University, a flier going around claims that school administrators "denied [students] their annual Hanukkah lighting" on the steps of the student center, the outlet reported.

On-campus antisemitism has received increased national attention after three university professors, including Harvard’s Claudine Gay, refused to say whether calling for the genocide or Jews violated their respective school's code of ethics.

Such activity has been seen around the country, especially since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, founder and president of Harvard Chabad, said the university has asked his group to take in the menorah nightly since the first Hanukkah lighting on campus, the Post reported.

"On our campus in the shadow of Widener Library, we in the Jewish community are instructed, 'We'll let you have the menorah, you made your point, OK. Pack it up. Don't leave it out overnight because there will be criminal activity, we fear, and it won’t look good,’" Zarchi said at a Hanukkah lighting Wednesday night.

Saying change on campus would not occur until students refuse to hide the fact that they are Jewish, Zarchi added: "You know when change is gonna happen on this campus? When we don’t have to pack up the menorah."

A Harvard student told the Post that Jews "don’t necessarily feel safe" on the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"That’s the reality of the Jewish community at Harvard today," Zarchi said. "We have to pack up our menorah when we’re done. … Some students feel they have to remove anything about their physical appearance that suggests that they’re a target."

Zarchi then criticized Gay.

"We in the Jewish community are longing for the day when we can refer to the president — and all of Harvard — as ours too," he said, the Post said. "That Harvard indeed not only has our back, not only allows us to put up a menorah but doesn’t force us to hide it at night and when they witness hateful calls to the death of Jews, you don’t walk by and say nothing, you speak. You don’t remain silent."

At NYU, a flier claimed students were denied their Hanukkah lighting on the steps on the Kimmel Center for University Life.

"Antisemitism has no place at NYU," the poster stated while advertising an alternative menorah lighting Thursday night at Washington Square Park.

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