Jewish Harvard graduate, Shabbos Kestenbaum, 'We are living in a culture that is anti-Western, anti-American and antisemitic. The far left-wing tide of antisemitism is rising. But tonight we fight back.'
Israel National News. Jul 18, 2024, 9:20 PM (GMT+3)
Shabbos Kestenbaum spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday and introduced himelf, “My name Is Shabbos Kestenbaum. I am a proud first generation American. I am a proud Orthodox Jew. And as of 5 months ago, I am the proud plaintiff suing Harvard University for its failure to combat antisemitism. I came to Harvard to study religion, the foundation of Western civilization. What I found was not theology, but a contempt for it.”
Kestenbaum continued, “My problem with Harvard is not it's liberalism, but it's i-liberalism. Too often students at Harvard are taught not how to think, but what to think. I found myself immersed in a culture that is anti-Western, that is anti-American and that is antisemitic. After October 7th, the world finally saw what I and so many Jewish students across this country experienced almost every day.”
Kestenbaum said, “When I planted 1200 Israeli and American flags on campus, they were all vandalized within 24 hours. I was harassed by my peers merely for being a Jew and have received countless death threats online. Students and professors have openly called for new Hamas-style attacks against the US. And perhaps most damning, when Hamas terrorists butchered 45 American citizens on October 7th, when they took 12 Americans hostage, Harvard refused to immediately and unequivocally condemn this atrocity.”
Kestenbaum lamented, “my fellow Americans. The antisemitic bigotry unfortunately extends far beyond the universities. Although I once voted for Bernie Sanders, I now recognize that the far left has not only abandoned the Jewish people, but the American people. The Democratic Party, the party I registered to vote for the day I turned 18, has become ideologically poisoned. And it is this poison, it is this corruption, that is infecting far too many young American students. Let's be clear. The far left's antisemitic extremism has no virtue, and the radicalism on our campuses and on our streets has no moral legitimacy.
Kestenbaum concluded, “Sadly, the far left wing tide of antisemitism is rising. But tonight we fight back. I am proud to support President Trump's policies to expel foreign students who violate our laws, harass our Jewish classmates, and desecrate our freedoms. Let's elect a president who will instill patriotism in our school once again. Let's elect a president who will confront terrorism and its supporters once again. Let's elect a president who recognizes that although Harvard and the Ivy Leagues have long abandoned the United States of America the Jewish people never will because Jewish values are American values and American values are Jewish values. God bless the United States. God bless the land of Israel. God bless, protect, and return the American hostages in Gaza now.”
INN
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Harvard alum who filed antisemitism suit against university enthusiastically cheered at RNC
By Jacob Magid.
18 July, 2024, 5:17 am
Harvard University graduate Shabbos Kestenbaum speaks during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on July 17, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP).
MILWAUKEE — Republican National Convention attendees enthusiastically cheer Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard University graduate suing the school for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from discrimination over the past school year.
“After October 7, the world finally saw what I and so many Jewish students across this country experienced almost every day,” he says.
“Although I once voted for Bernie Sanders, I now recognize that the far left has not only abandoned the Jewish people, but the American people,” Kestenbaum claims.
“Let’s elect a president who recognizes that although Harvard and the Ivy League have long abandoned the United States of America, the Jewish people never will. Because Jewish values are American values, and American values are Jewish values.”
Prior to Kestenbaum’s speech, the convention honored a group of fraternity brothers from the University of North Carolina who went viral for guarding an American flag during a hostile pro-Palestinian protest in April.
TOI