Shabbos Kestenbaum stood on stage at the Republican National Convention on July 17 wearing a black kippah and a dog tag necklace for the hostages in Gaza. He told the crowd, “My name is Shabbos Kestenbaum. I am a proud, first generation American. I am a proud Orthodox Jew. And as of five months ago, I am the proud plaintiff suing Harvard University for its failure to combat antisemitism.”
The audience cheered loudly, with some jumping up out of their seats to show their support.
This wasn’t the first time Kestenbaum had gotten involved in the political sphere. Back in February, he and other Jewish students testified before Congress about antisemitism on their college campuses. At the time, he was working towards his master’s degree at Harvard Divinity School, and he told members of the House Education and Workforce Committee that he’d written to Harvard’s antisemitism task force more than 40 times about the hate he’d seen on campus – but he never received a reply. As he recounted other shocking accounts of antisemitism, he told the committee, “This is the reality of being a Jew at Harvard in 2024.”
Kestenbaum then filed a lawsuit against Harvard, now his alma mater, alleging that the school “has become a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment… What is most striking about all of this is Harvard’s abject failure and refusal to lift a finger to stop and deter this outrageous antisemitic conduct and penalize the students and faculty who perpetrate it.”
Deliberations have begun on the lawsuit, but Kestenbaum told the Journal the judge won’t issue a ruling for some time now. While he’s waiting, he’s going to continue to speak out and support other students who have experienced antisemitism on their own campuses.
“Hundreds of students reached out to me over the last couple of months,” he said. “The Jewish community is in deep crisis, and we need to fight back.”
“The Jewish community is in deep crisis, and we need to fight back.”
Getting onstage at the RNC and showing how proud he is to be a Jew, as well as suing Harvard, are how Kestenbaum is choosing to stand up to the hate.
The outspoken grad received a call from the Trump campaign a few weeks before the convention; they said they were concerned about the experiences he and too many other Jewish college students were going through.
“I was fortunate I got to speak about my own experiences and about bipartisan policy I believed would help the Jewish community,” said Kestenbaum. “I was extremely nervous to speak, as I was not aware that the former president would be at the convention at the time. I knew that I was speaking on behalf of many people, and that this movement was much bigger than just one person.”
Kestenbaum’s moving speech lasted five minutes, and he ended it with “God bless the land of Israel. God bless, protect and return the American hostages in Gaza now” to thunderous applause. After he got off the stage, he was embraced by those in the crowd.
“People stopped to hug me and say they were praying for me,” he said. “One person was from a parish in Iowa, and other people were putting up hostage posters in their communities where there are almost no Jews. It was deeply moving and gratifying.”
Before his speech, Kestenbaum was in the waiting room with the parents of the Israel-American hostage Omer Neutra – they also addressed the convention.
“Just like Omer’s parents, I was there to bring a bipartisan message,” he said. “It was a message of the plight of the Jewish hostages, the experience of Jewish Americans on college campuses and the importance of the state of Israel. I did not endorse a person – I endorsed policies. Should the Democratic party have me or any Jewish student, or any family of the hostages, we would be honored to do so.”
No matter what happens with his lawsuit, Kestenbaum urges Jewish students not to give up or leave their respective universities. Even before Oct. 7, he saw antisemitism on campus, and there was always, as he said, “an unwillingness from Harvard to do anything about it.”
However, he doesn’t think that Jewish students should give up without a fight.
“Do not acquiesce your place there,” he said. “We are working with donors and students to create real change. Making sure there is sustained public pressure on these universities is critical. Hopefully, Congress will take away the tax-exempt status and subsidies they give to these universities.”
Despite dealing with his disappointing alma mater, and seeing discrimination at Harvard and at other colleges, Kestenbaum is appreciative of the fact that he gets to be such a public advocate for the cause.
“It will be difficult to shake off the memory of not only 34 student groups writing a letter on the night of Oct. 7 blaming Jews for the massacre, but in my personal WhatsApp group, seeing individuals say, ‘Long live the Palestinian resistance. Victory is ours’ and having students respond, asking how they could help. That will always scar me. After Oct. 7, I booked a one-way ticket to Israel, dug graves for fallen soldiers, went to the hospitals and played guitar, delivered goods to the Army bases and did whatever I could to help and get out of Harvard.”
He continued, “That experience will always be with me, and it’ll always be a difficult part of my story. But at the same time, I’m very thankful that I was able to speak out on behalf of the community I love so much.”
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