By COLlive reporter
A large Menorah celebrating Chanukah was put up by the New Haven Chabad Yeshiva Beis Dovid Shlomo, in the New Haven Green, a park and recreation area in the downtown district of New Haven, Connecticut.
About 150 people joined the Menorah lighting ceremony on Thursday evening, the first night of Chanukah. It was lit by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Gershon Borenstein alongside Mayor Justin Elicker.
“It’s especially important this year to spread light,” said one of the event’s organizers and the yeshiva’s program director, Chaim Rapoport. “That’s the way you fight hate, through light and goodness.”
Sadly, that positive show of faith and light was tainted 2 days later when a man was filmed climbing up the Menorah during an anti-Israel protest on Shabbos.
The man, thought to be a student of Yale University, was seen planting a Palestinian flag on the Menorah. Other protestors around called on him to stop. “It looks bad for us,” one of them said.
Anti-Israel activity across the United States and the world has long been a masquerade for antisemitic motives. Just last week, a congressional hearing exposed how called for “a global intifada” actually called for the annihilation of all Jews.
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Why couldn’t it be seen as a symbol of unity, or a compliment ?
And this right here is how you gaslight someone…
probably because he had his face covered
Would you say the same thing if he had put up a swastika? Or, heaven forfend, a picture of DJT?
So what
Who cares
Be it seemed like there was a significant crowd outside of the camera view chanting cut it down. And when the blasphemous flag was placed on the menorah I could here very loud cheers. The few that came forward to try to stop this act of antisemitism and hate were just a few. It sounded very frightening, though the camera only showed a small group, but the sounds were of a very large crowd of hate mongers nearby possibly outside of the camera’s view.
That is what it could seem from the video and that is the reason CollLive and others should do their due diligence and report accurate information. The facts are bad enough as they are. There is no reason to make it even more scary for people and especially people in New Haven. The chanting and cheering had nothing to do with the Menorah desecration. What you are hearing is “shut it down”, presumably referring to the war, at a different part of the Green and facing the direction of the court house across the street.
It’s not “a clear act of antisemitism”. They’re putting their flags on every pole/building/statue they can get their hands on.
It’s a vile act but why are you inflaming things further by making it sound worse than it is. Trust me, we’re all angry enough and disgusted enough, we don’t need more kerosene.
Would placing an Israeli flag on a mosque or other symbol of the Islamic faith in Yale be okay?
You know what the reaction to that would be.
Why are your minimizing the actions here?
If I’d climb a sign stating ”Ramadan Mubarak” belonging to a mosque and I’d attach to it something as innocuous as an Israeli Flag, that would be an act of hate. The only reason would be to enflame against Islam. And they did the equivalence (albeit with a more inflammatory flag)
Expelled from college
And from the country
Freedom of speech does not include this type of behavior
Leave it there til tonight and … oops…
Misleading and Inflammatory Headline “Yale Student Filmed Placing Palestinian Flag on Chabad Menorah” Your “article” and Instagram posts are readily shared by many, many thousands, I’m sure, on all variety of social media. This is irresponsible journalism at its best, actually – at its worst. As of now, as far as I know, no one knows the identity of the person who climbed up the menorah and placed the flag there. Is your goal to make things worse on the Yale campus? Spreading misinformation and disinformation is exactly what we accuse others of. Why would you lower yourselves to that… Read more »
Yes, agree 100%. There’s absolutely no indication this was a Yale student. I just with the person who filed the incident and he agrees and he never indicated that it was a Yale student.
You don’t know the identity. He was wearing a kfiya. Why are you trying to defend?
I’m shocked by the previous comments. Hanging a Palestinian flag on a Jewish menorah is an act of antisemitism. The guy knows its wrong. Just look how he covers his face so he won’t be identifiable. He is doing it to spark antisemitism, not peace.
Wow! Go New Haven Shluchim, best group of shluchim ever!!!!!!
Since the event happened on the grounds of Yale University, and there was a loud student rally that can be heard in the background chanting “shut it down”, and other student age persons ran after him and told him to take him it down like they knew him, it is reasonable to assume that the person was a Yale student. Instead of being concerned with Yale allowing hate and anti-semitism on campus, the original commenter is more focused on Yale’s image. Just as Harvard students entirely blamed Israel for the attacks of Oct 7, some will now blame Colive for… Read more »
1. It’s not on Yale’s campus it’s downtown New Haven green. 2. The people chanting shut it down were not talking about the menorah. 3. They were actually all facing the New Haven courthouse and most likely referring to the war funding. 4. There is literally no reason to believe at the Yale student. 5. Yes I’m local Chabad and disgusted by these protests. I’m also disgusted when a frum news source adds unnecessary fuel to a local fire.
The article did disclaim and say the protestor was THOUGHT to be a student from Yale, but is immaterial in light of recent Yale’s anti-Israel student actions and should not be the focus, but Emes, your points are well taken and persuasive. Note the reaction of his fellow protestors/students was “this will make us look bad”, as opposed to this is wrong. If the protestor is not in fact a Yale student, he is no doubt on his way to a scholarship based upon his contribution to the resistance. 1) Oct 9, 2023 –Yalies4Palestine wrote in an Instagram post: “We… Read more »
I am definitely against the yaliesfor Palestine and I support yidden of course. I also think that it’s important for us to be extremely honest. There’s a tendency in media today to report and draw conclusions without having the facts. I would be curious to know who started this idea that the person was thought to be a Yale student. I’m not saying that it’s not possible that this was a Yale student. I’m also not saying that it’s beyond the capabilities of a Yale student to do this. I do know that there was a widely publicized Menorah lighting… Read more »
Not on Yale grounds. First falsehood.
No basis on which to conclude it was a “student rally”. If you’ve read actual news articles about these events, you would know they are gathering points for pro-Palestinians from the town and surrounding communities.
“Student” climbing menorah. Possibly a student, no way to discern the individual’s age. If it is a student, no indication of where this person might go to school.
“other student-age persons” – see above.
Those are absolutely not reasonable assumptions. And even if they were – not even a reasonable assumption constitutes a fact.
Jay Sorid – An accusation of “deflection” is most often a tell-tale sign of gaslighting.
Hashem, help us from these inhumane enemies. Please erase them from this planet.
A reminder of the 7 laws of Judaism
“Yale student” ? Is that what Chabad does nowadays, makes stuff up? It’s bad enough that we have to deal with the lies on the Palestinian side
But when you can’t believe the Jewish side either what are you supposed to do? Did you speak to the person who filmed the incident? I am speaking to the “reporter”. No you didn’t. So basically you care nothing for truth.
Maybe its a reminder to remember the 7 laws of Judaism.
Judaism has 613 laws. What are you blathering about?
It was a little mistake that you can correct to yourself. No need to make the person feel bad
Bottom line . Shall not commit murder
The fear in their voices when they say “take it down, it looks bad for us”
You all are ridiculous. No reason why we have to sit trying to think of all the reasons to be “dan lkaf zchus.” We have every right to be outraged and we should be. We are not here to make them look ‘good’ and all this talk is cowardly. If they have something they want to say in defense of themselves let them. It is not our responsibility or our duty and very much detracts from what we have to do- stuck up for ourselves and that which is sacred to us. These comments nauseate me.
Based on where I am now b”H (a productive job and no time to waste on constantly ‘protesting’ or obsessing about others), I came to the conclusion that I got far more value for the tuition I paid at Touro.
The psychopaths and their apologists will likely be surprised when the value of the degree tanks. In their elitist echo chamber people are impressed with avant garde provocation of the common people. But to the rest of the world, these people are freaks you’d expect to see on the Jerry Springer Show. They feel untouchable. What employer is not going to wonder now if Yale applicants might just be terrorism sympathists and bigots? The University’s failure to shut this down or expose the specific students engaged in hate conduct just leaves us all to wonder. On paper nobody is going… Read more »
If there is a war against the Jews on college campuses, sometimes it doesn’t make sense to help the enemy by passionately criticizing and investigating your own army. When you look at the new Hitler student youth on campus, and the college professors who indoctrinated them, you recognize the war. Many comments here would win the evidentiary argument in the courtroom, but they would lose in the battlefield, since the enemy would now use them to their advantage. I do not know of any Yale students getting attacked for wearing a Yale sweatshirt and would let them hire their own… Read more »