Dear classmates
From a Jewish American starting Harvard
I’m starting a master’s degree this fall, at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. As the Trump administration claims that it’s keeping international students out of Harvard to protect Jews, figured I’d respond: not in my name.
To prospective students caught up in the chaos, know that you are welcome here. I can’t wait to be your neighbor, classmate, and friend. I’m here to talk, any time. And once you make it to Cambridge, my wife and I would love to invite you over for Shabbos dinner.
I don’t have any legal advice, and I don’t speak for Harvard or anyone other than myself. But I can offer a friendly face, to whoever that helps. Trump can’t stop us from connecting and learning from one another. I’ll be hosting weekly Zoom chats, every Monday at noon EDT (Cambridge time), for incoming HKS students. Drop your Harvard email into this form to stay in the loop. All are invited, whether you’re international, American, or anywhere in between.
I’ll keep the weekly chats rolling as long as there’s interest. I’d love to start each week with a learning studio, 15-30 minute classes about a topic one of us is passionate about. I can talk about government contracting or Cambridge housing policy; you’re an expert in something else entirely, and I’m excited to learn from you.
Scapegoats
A few weeks into the fall semester, I’ll miss class for Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. On Yom Kippur, Jews are spiritually transported back to the ceremony performed by the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem annually, through its destruction in 70 CE. The Torah describes that the Kohen Gadol chooses one of two goats by lot, and sends it away into the wilderness, symbolically carrying our transgressions with it – the original scapegoat.
Creating scapegoats makes no one safer; making two scapegoats, this is doubly true. Banning international students does not remove antisemitism from campus.1 Acting in the name of Jewish students, the administration is indeed setting us up to be a scapegoat ourselves, perversely increasing antisemitism. In addition to fighting back in court, at protests, and through politics, I wish all of us the strength to resist manufactured hatred in our own souls. Let anger not tear us apart.
Young Jews like me feel on edge, and I am a little bit nervous about going back to school right now. To be clear, I’m not worried about violence or physical threats2 having lived in Cambridge and been part of the Harvard community already for 4.5 years. Besides that, anti-Israel protests and posts do, rarely, veer into explicit antisemitism. More often, my discomfort is a reaction to ignorance and willful extremism; people telling simple stories, not seeking truth or peace. Harmful as it may be, though, that isn't antisemitism. Too many Palestinians and Israelis have died and been made miserable, in part because of choices made by Israel's government and our own. It's atrocious. Protests are inevitable and necessary, even if I don't agree with the slogans.
Blocking foreign students would change nothing in the paragraph above. All the offhand comments or unhinged Facebook posts about Israel or Jews that stick in my memory, personally, are from American citizens. In the past 20 years, all of the antisemitic attacks in the United States that killed Jews have been perpetrated by American citizens, including the murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim in DC on May 21.3 Foreigners are Trump’s scapegoat, same as always, and American Jews aren’t fooled that Trump’s overreach will help Jewish students.4
On the contrary, this incoming Jewish student is dreading my classmates’ suspicion that my friends and I are somehow connected to their summer of chaos. Kennedy students are smart, but it’s a reasonable assumption to make! DHS Secretary Noem’s letter to Harvard, which Harvard links to in the first line of its message to the community, singles out Jewish students directly. I remember walking through the Holocaust Memorial in downtown Boston in 2019 with an international student from India who was interning on my team, a super sweet guy, during our lunch break. With genuine empathy, he asked: so why do people hate Jews? He wasn’t blaming us, and obviously didn’t think there were any “good” reasons. But even (perhaps especially) if you’re a curious and kind person, as I expect my HKS colleagues will be, it’s natural to come into a new environment and think there’s more to Trump’s actions than cruelty and pretext.
I hope this blog shows that I’m always open to talking – about war, Israel, Gaza, America, procurement, anything. Get in touch. And know that you are welcome in Cambridge.
DHS Secretary Noem’s letter doesn’t actually say that ending SEVP will reduce antisemitism at Harvard – maybe a tacit admission that this argument is vacuous. It does link “the privilege of enrolling foreign students” with efforts to “root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses.” This vague linkage matches Bill Ackman’s claim that “certain foreign students at Harvard have received funding from foreign actors, have been involved with facilitating funding and/or otherwise been supporting foreign terrorist organizations”
There has been one documented physical incident, from a confrontation at a protest in 2023. Read the article and watch the videos if you want to make your own judgement; my conclusion is that the protestors’ actions were shameworthy, but not violent or antisemitic. It’s beyond stupid for the Divinity School and Harvard Law Review to support the two people who were involved (see top of p. 2 of the letter here), but ultimately it’s small potatoes. If this is the best evidence that Jewish students are unsafe, there’s not much there. (For disclosure, my wife went to Harvard Law School and was on the Law Review until she graduated in May 2023.)
The DC suspect has been charged, but not convicted, so “alleged perpetrator”.
See, for instance, opinions of Harvard Hillel’s Director and past President, and the Anti-Defamation League. Even better, read this amazing letter in the New York Times by my friend Tal.