Why Shabbos Kestenbaum, the student who has sued Harvard, continues to fight against the university

Shabbos Kestenbaum moved through the crowd that came to him early last month, shaking hands and tried to mask his embarrassment.

He looked collegial in turtles and an amber beard of an amber. But for the more than 300 attendees, who were mostly Jewish, he was a rock star. He was the child who came in Harvard, made his parents proud and then exposed anti -Semitism from the ivory tower.

During the event, a scholarship ceremony in Lake Success, NY, for high school students who fight injustice, Mr. Kestenbaum would talk about anti -Semitism in Harvard, in addition to a survivor of genocide in Rwanda. “Are you the Harvard man?” A rabbi asked him. “Don’t hold it against me,” Mr Kestenbaum replied.

In the past year and a half, Mr Kestenbaum, a 26-year-old Orthodox Jew from the Bronx, has become the face of the Republican led campaign against anti -Semitism In the best universities in America.

His determination to fight against his Alma Mater in court helped to build Momentum for the Trump government to fight what the “ideological catch” calls those university campuses to the political links.

Mr Kestenbaum has documented his unlikely process on social media, with photos of himself with President Trump and other politicians.

He was a second -year student at the Harvard Divinity School when protests about the war in Gaza broke out on campus. A former high school debate captain, he naturally accepted to appear in news items as a conservative student voice and joined a round table with students in Washington to discuss anti -Semitism at universities.

In May 2024 he graduated from the Divinity School. And then in July he was a speaker at the Republican National Convention.

In the following months, Mr Kestenbaum’s agenda for higher education became almost identical for that of Mr Trump. To eradicate anti-Semitism, Mr Kestenbaum is of the opinion that schools should, among other things, have stronger disciplinary measures against protesters that violate law or university policy; Reform of the curriculum that he believes in left -wing indoctrination; And the deportation of international students who have broken the law.

Mr Kestenbaum said he had rich customers who helped to finance his lawsuit, although he would not reveal their identity. He casually said that he spoke ‘with the boys on doge’, or the Ministry of Government Efficiency, a group that has led Elon Musk to reduce the size and expenditure of the federal government.

“They have contacted me and I will sound scouring, but I am active in this room,” he said in one of the different conversations with the New York Times. “I was more than happy to help.”

In January 2024 he was one of the six Jewish students on Harvard who have sued the universityThe accusing of ‘a bastion of unbridled anti-Jewish hatred and intimidation’. The case was arranged the day after Mr Trump’s inauguration, but Mr Kestenbaum refused to join the settlement. He only broke off and continued to litigate.

His lawsuit describes a poisonous atmosphere at Harvard. As an example, he quoted a message for social media in court that is a “pro-genocide second-year-old” that “looks just as stupid as her nose skewed.”

His complaint said that Harvard ignored his many, always angry reports that pro-Palestinian activists are harassed Jewish students. It also said that he was stalked on campus by demonstrators who tried to intimidate him and that he was kicked for his views of a Divinity School WhatsApp group.

Harvard refused to comment on the claims of Mr Kestenbaum. But her lawyers said in judicial documents that the university “did not ever have been indifferent” against complaints of anti -Semitism.

On Tuesday The school published two reportsIn total around 500 pages, documenting widespread anti -Semitism and Islamophobia on campus and proposing reforms. The report on Islamophobia said that Arabic, Muslim and Palestinian students had also reported to experience intimidation, such as blemish as “terrorist” and “towel”. These students and faculty members said they thought they could not freely express their political opinions on campus, according to the report.

The two reports were accompanied by a letter from Harvard’s president, Alan Garberapologizes for it no longer done to protect students.

But demonstrators and proponents of free speech have said that efforts to stop anti -Semitism on campuses have often been too loud. They claim that the definition of anti -Semitism uses Harvard, that It recently hired As part of the regulation of the first lawsuit that Mr Kestenbaum was a part of, it is so wide that it was used to combat the Pro-Palestinian speech.

Mr Kestenbaum has not always identified himself with conservative causes. He registered as a Democrat when he turned 18 and supported Bernie Sanders. But just like some other lifelong Democrats who are Jews, he shifted immediately after the protests of the campus.

While some Democrats see Republican calls to combat skeptical anti -Semitism, Mr. Kestenbaum said that this was not the time to reduce “making a hassle”, and that he was willing to speak out loud what many Jews believe but keep them for himself.

“Shabbos Kestenbaum has given voice to the anger, horror and indignation that is felt by a large number of people,” said Kenneth Marcus, the Chief Executive of Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which fights anti -Semitism on campuses. The group had complained and established Harvard separately.

His popularity reflects a profound fear among Jews that they are no longer completely welcome on American campuses, his supporters say.

“Yesterday I was in Dallas,” Mr Kestenbaum said recently. “Tomorrow I will go to Miami.” Not long ago he spoke in Jerusalem, where he was a guest in the house of Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel. He will speak in Amsterdam in two weeks.

And on Thursday he was in the White House, in the Rose Garden, when Mr. Trump signed an executive order that founded the religious Liberty Commission during a national prayer event. Mr Kestenbaum said that with Marco Rubio, the State Secretary, he spoke about accelerating the deportation of international students who have violated the law and took a selfie.

Some believe that his activism is both sincere and opportunistic.

After the Republican Convention, Shaul Magid, a guest professor in modern Judaism at the Divinity School, wrote a soft reprimand of Mr Kestenbaum in the Crimson, the student newspaper at Harvard. “The fact that Kestenbaum, who knows my left -wing views on Israel, chose to speak in the RNC after being in my class for a year, shows that professors do not indoctrinate,” Dr. wrote. Magid. “They encourage independent thought.”

In an interview, Dr. said Magid that he and Mr. Kestenbaum had been ‘fairly close’. He agreed that there were problems with how the Divinity School and the University had dealt with the protests.

“But I think he is overlooking the situation,” he said.

Mr Kestenbaum, the sixth of seven children, said he comes from an outsider background. His parents, a rare bookseller and an early youth trainer, his British immigrants, and at the Divinity School he said, he noticed because he was an orthodox Jew. The school kept community tea once a week, said: “And there was never kosher food.”

“Being an orthodox Jew that supported the land of Israel as a religious mandate was something that was never accepted,” he added.

One of his favorite professors was David Wolpe, a prominent rabbi from Los Angeles who was a visiting scholar. Rabbi Wolpe caused a stir by resigning from a Harvard advice panel about anti -Semitism and said he didn’t feel that he could make a difference.

He welcomed his former student because he had held on to his case. “He was uncompromising and not in calling what was going on,” said Rabbi Wolpe in an interview.

Mr Kestenbaum enjoys his new role – the trips, the people, the feeling of a higher goal. He says he wants to be considered in inspiring, not oppositionally.

As far as he knows, he is the only Trump supporter in his extensive family, he recently said, sitting in the book-like living room of his youth center.

Growing up, he said, the Friday evening dinner table was open to everyone-Jews and non-Jews, Biden and Trump supporters. A doormat is registered “Welcome to the house of Joe and Kami”, referring to the cats of the family, Joe and Kamala. The family took over them before the 2020 elections and mentioned them as “good luck charms,” ​​said Mr. Kestenbaum.

When asked about what kind of career his advocacy could lead, he perhaps suggested a role in public policy.

For now he is planning to move to Los Angeles for a job at Prageru, a non-profit “Hub for Pro-American content online”, the website said. In the role he said that he will preach ideas as “the importance of religion, the importance of free market capitalism, the importance of keeping institutions for higher learning.” He hopes to reach the next generation of conservatives.