A Jewish Democrat who is suing Harvard over antisemitism criticizes his party for inaction and endorses Trump.

The Jewish Democrat who sued Harvard over antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel endorsed former President Donald Trump, explaining his decision to Planet Chronicle Digital.

Shabbos Kestenbaum, who has testified before Congress and addressed the Republican National Convention about antisemitic threats on American college campuses, announced on Sept. 5 that he was endorsing Trump during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit. In an interview with Planet Chronicle Digital this week, Kestenbaum, who registered as a Democrat when he turned 18 and has voted for Democratic candidates, including President Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and former Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said he could not support Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

"Kestenbaum stated that he does not feel like he has left the Democratic Party, but rather believes that the party has abandoned him. He still supports progressive policies such as a $15 minimum wage, reproductive choices for women, and progressive taxation. However, when American Jews are facing an existential crisis, they are faced with a binary choice. In the electoral zero-sum game, Kestenbaum believes that President Trump would be better for the core issues affecting him and the American Jewish community."

Kestenbaum, after months of trying to work with the Harris campaign and Democratic leadership in the House and Senate, concluded that he would support Trump in 2024 because he is the "only realistic and viable option for American Jewry."

Kestenbaum contended that Trump has presented concrete, "pragmatic policy proposals," such as withholding federal funds from universities that infringe on the civil rights of Jewish students and "providing Israel with the resources it needs to dismantle Hamas and free the hostages," while the Biden-Harris administration and Harris' presidential campaign have been inactive.

"The Harris campaign has not earned our vote, as they have ignored our questions or given us contradictory answers. They are taking our votes for granted, according to him. Therefore, American Jews must pay attention, as we have the power to sway the election in Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada."

In the 2020 election, Biden won states like Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania by small margins of between 13,000 to 30,000 votes. Jewish Americans make up anywhere from 1 to 3% of the population in those states. According to Kestenbaum, Jewish voters will be the crucial deciding factor in 2024. Kestenbaum predicts that Trump is on track to receive the most Jewish votes for any Republican presidential nominee since President Dwight Eisenhower. Kestenbaum attributes this to the Trump campaign's efforts to court the Jewish vote, which he believes the Harris campaign failed to do.

Jewish college students at Harvard are often taught what to think, rather than how to think.

"If you care about policy prescriptions, hostage release, U.S.-Israel relationship, combating antisemitism on college campuses, look at the facts. Harris hasn't outlined specifics, while Trump has. Despite not liking his persona or policies, we face an existential issue, and Trump is the only viable choice."

In July, Kestenbaum spoke to the RNC and ad-libbed significant portions of his speech from the teleprompter to omit the parts explicitly endorsing Trump, as he wanted to show his "bipartisan" stance and keep an open mind before attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the next month. After his speech, it took him two hours to get back to his seat because so many people came up to him with messages of support and prayers for the hostages who remained held in Gaza.

Kestenbaum stated that he informed the DNC leadership that if they did not want to amplify him at the convention, they should at least consider amplifying other Jewish students who were fighting for their civil rights on college campuses and were experiencing unprecedented antisemitism. However, he did not receive a response.

Kestenbaum stated that it was surprising that the majority of the Democratic leadership did not attend his testimony before the House Education and the Workforce Committee about his experiences of antisemitism on Harvard's campus after Oct. 7. Additionally, he criticized the ranking Democratic member, Bobby Scott, for using his opening remarks to criticize Republicans for focusing on antisemitism, instead of addressing issues such as Islamophobia and sexism. While these issues are important, Kestenbaum argued that they were not relevant to the reality on the ground and the experiences of those testifying.

"Kestenbaum stated that he did not want to speak out, but he wanted a bipartisan or nonpartisan approach. However, the incidents continued to occur, including the House Judiciary Committee ranking member, Democrat Jerry Nadler, falling asleep during his testimony. Kestenbaum found it deeply hurtful and offensive. Despite being a Democrat and attending the Democratic convention with an open mind and a mission to change his party, Kestenbaum realized that the party was unable or unwilling to make serious inroads with the American Jewish community in the 2024 election. This was a direct result of the party taking the Jewish community for granted for decades."

He stated that he remains a registered Democrat and is not prepared to surrender, but he is unable to determine why the Democratic Party is progressively adopting more anti-Israel discourse.

"Israel is a progressive country where LGBTQ individuals can be full members of society and even serve in parliament. It is a hotbed of democracy in a volatile and regressive region. Israel is a vital ally that provides intelligence gathering to the United States. So why are we de-legitimizing and demoting a staunchly progressive ally? My Democratic Party insists that this is proper politics, but I cannot understand why."

He also criticized Harris for not attending Netanyahu's speech to Congress and for her inadequate policy proposals on the Israel-Hamas war, which she added to her campaign website 50 days after entering the race.

"If Kamala Harris is not working around the clock to secure a cease-fire deal and the return of the hostages, then I would shudder to think what four more years would do because she is not working around the clock. And if she is, she's doing a pretty crappy job at that. Kestenbaum told Planet Chronicle Digital. "She does not deserve our support. She does not deserve our votes. It's also telling that after 50 days of having zero policies, she doesn't outline policy. She outlines aspirations and goals. Nothing. Nothing that she said on her website, in the one interview she has given, talks about the dismantling of Hamas as a terrorist organization.""

"If a cease fire was agreed to, Hamas would still be in power," he continued. "It is laughable to say that she is working around the clock when we know that President Biden has been eating ice cream on the beaches of Delaware for almost the entirety of the summer. And if she is working around the clock, then as I said, she's doing a bad job. And why would we want her to continue to work around the clock for four years when she can't even get the job done now? So we don't need what I like to call the Beatle-Juicing of a cease fire, simply stating it three times and hoping that it'll appear. We need bold action. Under her leadership, under her watch, 45 Americans were killed in the Middle East, eight American hostages are still being held, and she talks nothing about dismantling this terrorist organization to prevent this from ever happening again."

Harris' website outlines her campaign's stance on Israel under a subsection titled "Stand With Our Allies, Stand Up to Dictators, and Lead on the World Stage." The campaign promises that Harris will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to protect U.S. forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. Additionally, Harris will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and ensure that Israel has the ability to do so. The campaign also states that Harris and Biden are working to end the war in Gaza, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. The campaign vows that Harris and Biden are working around the clock to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done.