A firestorm of criticism has erupted over the 2025 Harvard Yearbook’s depiction of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, which it described simply as “War Breaks Out in Gaza.” The entry, part of a timeline for the 2023-2024 academic year, has been condemned by Harvard Chabad and alumnus Shabbos Kestenbaum as a gross misrepresentation of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. The yearbook page, appearing under the “Special Events” section on page 38, features a photo of a campus statue surrounded by anti-Israel protest paraphernalia alongside the caption: “October 2023: War Breaks Out in Gaza.” The description omits any mention of the Hamas-led assault that killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers and saw over 250 people, including 12 Americans, taken hostage. The attack has been widely recognized as the largest terror attack in Israel’s history and the deadliest attack targeting Jews since the Holocaust. Harvard Chabad slammed the yearbook’s phrasing as “Holocaust-like denial” and “fake history,” comparing it to describing the September 11, 2001, attacks as “War breaks out in Afghanistan.” “It must be fake history that the genocidal attack on the Jewish people took place, leading to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” Chabad said. Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard alumnus and vocal advocate against antisemitism on campus, went further, urging employers to probe Harvard graduates from the classes of 2024 to 2028 before hiring them. “Please ask them what they were doing on campus the last two years,” he advised. “Go through their social media. If they celebrated the abduction of 12 American citizens and the murder of more than 45, perhaps look elsewhere for employees.” He warned that if these graduates represent America’s future leaders, “no wonder America has such a dearth of leadership.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)