At an event run by Harvard's Program on Negotiation last Thursday, current Zionist Union MK and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was confronted with an unusual, but nonetheless noxious question from a Harvard Law School student in attendance. In a panel section of the event, co-sponsored by the Jewish Law Students Association and Harvard Hillel, the student asked Livni: “How is it that you are so smelly?' When his pungent question only elicited curious looks, he clarified: 'Oh, it's a question about the odor of Ms. Tzipi Livni, very smelly, and I was just wondering.” Harking back to the old anti-Semitic trope of the 'smelly Jew' was roundly condemned in the Harvard Law Record on Tuesday. 'Anti-Semitism is still very real today, and it just showed itself in our community at Harvard Law School,' read the editorial. 'The idea that Jews can be identified by a malodor is patently offensive and stereotypes Jews as an 'other' which incites further acts of discrimination.' The video coverage for the Q&A section of the event has not been released, but the unnamed student is thought to be the president of a student organization on campus.
