Levitsky Secures Underdog Victory Over Pinker at Latke vs. Hamantasch Debate

More than 100 students filtered into Harvard Hillel for their annual latke versus hamantasch debate, expecting to hear speeches on the merits of the classic Jewish holiday foods from professors Steven A. Pinker and Steven Levitsky.

But students left questioning the role of latkes in the erosion of democratic norms, and with a newfound appreciation for hamantaschen as a symbol of women’s empowerment.

Pinker and Levitsky went head-to-head for their Jewish holiday food of choice before a packed crowd at Hillel Saturday night, delivering speeches filled with jabs at the Trump administration, institutional neutrality policies, and quips about diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

The evening began with a video message from former Supreme Court Justice and Harvard Law School professor Stephen G. Breyer, who lamented his exclusion from the debate.

“They wouldn’t let me be on the panel, because, although my name is Steven, I spell it with a P,” he said.

Levitsky, a Government professor and the director of the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, was forced to defend hamantaschen — triangular jam-filled pastry consumed during the Jewish holiday of Purim. He began the night by claiming he had been called into a “rigged debate.”

“There is no debate here — hamantaschen suck,” he said. “They are dry, shit cookies.”

“How exactly did you guys make that decision?” Levitsky added. “I just got the hamantaschen side — total lack of transparency.”

Harvard Government professor Steven Levitsky argues that latkes are a cause of democratic backsliding while defending hamantaschen as the superior Jewish food at Saturday’s Hillel debate. By Mae T. Weir

But over the course of the hourlong debate, Levitsky offered an impassioned defense of the pastry. He defined polarization, populism, and petroleum as the “three major drivers” of democratic backsliding. The fourth, Levitsky said, was potatoes — the key ingredient of latkes, fried potato pancakes typically consumed with applesauce or sour cream during Hanukkah.

“There’s also growing evidence that links authoritarianism to the political economy of potato farming. The world’s three largest potato producers happen to be autocracies,” he said.

“Idaho is America’s potato capital. It’s also home to the Aryan Nation and neo-Nazi groups,” Levitsky added.

Levitsky urged the audience to see hamantaschen as more than just Jewish pastries and instead as “multicultural” delicacies.

“Hamantaschen are all about diversity,” he said, before claiming that Pop Tarts, sushi, and dulce de leche could all be classified as hamantaschen.

Pinker, however, challenged Levitsky’s free-handed interpretation of the pastry, calling the list the result of “gerrymandering.”

“The argument that sushi is a kind of hamantaschen reminds me of the attempt by Republicans to defend their parsimonious school lunch program by classifying ketchup as a vegetable,” he said.

Levitsky was quick to counter, saying that the pastries were so diverse that Americans could enjoy “blue state hamantaschen” and “red state hamantaschen.”

Pinker, a Psychology professor and leader of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, exercised his commitment to free speech by delivering a ten-minute-long monologue in favor of latkes.

He shared that his love of latkes began with a love for his grandmother’s recipe. But just as he insisted that his love for the pancakes had not waned with time, neither have his arguments in their defense.

In 2007, Pinker used identical linguistic and evolutionary arguments to defend latkes during a similar Hillel debate against then Harvard Law School professor Alan M. Dershowitz.

Pinker criticized hamantaschen for their irregular spelling and grammatical complexities, pointing out that “latke” enjoys an established entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, while “hamantasch” and its alternative spellings do not.

Pinker also called latkes “a part of human nature and evolutionary adaptation,” suggesting that latkes’ greater caloric content was more conducive to reproduction.

After a series of opening remarks, the debate was opened up to questions from undecided voters in the audience.

When asked which of the two dishes he enjoyed making more, Levitsky said he was one of “the best latke-makers on my block.” But he was quick to point out that hamantaschen’s mass production “sustains gender equity,” celebrating the pastry’s “feminist” tendencies on International Women’s Day.

“Latke making has never really gotten out of the house,” he said. “The vast bulk of hamantaschen production is outside of the home. That is liberating.”

The University of Chicago Hillel has organized a similar version of the debate since 1946. In his opening address, Levitsky lamented that the hamantaschen side has rarely been crowned as the victor in Chicago, and last year’s debate at Harvard ended in a tie.

But on Saturday in Cambridge, Levitsky bucked the trend, winning 78 percent of the audience vote.

In a post-victory interview with The Crimson, Levitsky dedicated his win to fellow hamantasch supporters, whom he claimed had been silenced for years.

“There are a lot of really powerful people — a lot of moneyed interests — that want to see the latkes win,” he said. “And I think this is a victory for the little people.”

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.