Nearly 300 members of the local Jewish community came to Pikesville’s Chizuk Amuno Congregation on Thursday morning, May 8, for the annual “Breakfast for Israel in Maryland” event presented by Jewish National Fund-USA.
The keynote speaker at this year’s gathering was Shabbos Kestenbaum, the Harvard Divinity School graduate and critic of campus antisemitism. Kestenbaum recently settled his lawsuit against Harvard in which he alleged the university failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment.
In his talk, Kestenbaum, 26, a native of Teaneck, New Jersey, spoke about his efforts to fight antisemitism at Harvard and other college campuses.
“People can believe whatever politics they want as it pertains to the war in Gaza, but at the end of the day no student — Jew, Christian, Muslim, Black or white — should be affected, intimidated or bullied for simply seeking an education,” Kestenbaum told WBAL-TV.
He also praised JNF’s efforts to educate Jewish students through its Alexander Muss High School in Israel semester abroad experience.
Since the terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, JNF has been at the forefront of rebuilding Israel’s north and south through its “Build Together” and “Reimagine” initiatives. By investing in new housing sites, employment initiatives, medical centers, mental health services, schools, playgrounds, resilience centers and more, the organization is creating “circles of impact” that support its vision of attracting 800,000 new residents to Israel’s frontier regions.
The breakfast event was chaired by Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, head of school at Pikesville’s Krieger Schechter Day School, and Lisa Lederman.
For information about JNF programming in Maryland, contact Alisa Murstein, director of the JNF Maryland & Delaware, at amurstein@jnf.org or 410-486-3317, ext. 844. To learn more about JNF rebuilding initiatives, visit jnf.org/SupportIsrael.
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