Rabbi Jason Rubenstein, executive director of Harvard Hillel, said he was “shocked” by the publication of a recent op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, a student paper, that stated it is “justifiable” to end friendships with Zionists.
“This is exactly the kind of shunning, ostracization, demonization” of “Zionist Jews and Israelis that we’ve been speaking out against, working against for the last two years,” Rubenstein said.
The op-ed, published on Nov. 6, was part of the paper’s “Amateur Ethicist” column, in which Andrés Muedano, a Crimson Editorial editor, responds to ethics questions submitted by members of the Harvard University community. The piece was written in response to an anonymous submission from someone claiming to be an anti-Zionist Jew, asking if he or she should end their friendships with supporters of Israel.
“If what you are asking is whether you are justified in letting go of your Zionist friends, then the matter is simple. The answer is yes,” Muedano wrote. “Because friendship is volitional by definition, we are never obligated to be friends with someone.”
“We are always entitled to dissolve our friendships. But even when we find the morals of our friends to be misguided, condemnable and maybe even despicable, we remain entitled to have faith in their decency,” he added.
Rubsenstein stated in a video posted on Nov. 7 that “this is exactly the kind of shunning, ostracization, demonization” of “Zionist Jews and Israelis that we’ve been speaking out against, working against for the last two years.” He added that there are “echoes” of Austria in the 1930s in the op-ed in terms of “a moral crusade that will take Jews as some of its victims.” (JNS sought comment from the paper.)
Rubenstein said the op-ed reflects a broader trend nationwide. A 2024 report funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation found that one in five non-Jewish respondents did not want to be friends with a Zionist.
“We need to speak more directly to the issues and make the case on substance for the dignity and the integrity of Zionism as the Jewish people’s national liberation movement,” Rubenstein said. “We deserve a place among the nations of the world and among the political fabric of America, the social fabric of our communities, no less than anyone else.”
“Any call to the contrary is a form of bigotry and discrimination,” he said.
Zachary Sardi-Santos, a senior at Harvard who serves on the board of The Camel, a student club that highlights Jewish innovation, told JNS that it’s “disturbing that another Harvard student––let alone an ethicist––received this message, pondered this response and wrote it and sent it, given the climate of antisemitism we have faced across the college campus, other college campuses and this country in general.”
“Would you condone abandoning a friendship with a Muslim because one extremist commits terrorism or with an LGBTQ friend because one disagrees with a certain activist?” he said. “You would call that bigotry, and that’s what this is, this is bigotry.”
Sardi-Santos added that “ending friendships over ideology and belief eliminates the very moral discourse that this author claims to value.”
