As Jews around the world gather for the Passover seder, they’ll have plenty of bitter topics to discuss. Around my table, we’ll hope for peace in Middle East and a future when Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side, we’ll remember the innocent victims on both sides of the conflict, including those often forgotten in today’s heated discourse—the hostages still held in Gaza, and we’ll argue about the protesters on many college campuses, who are lucky enough to live in a society where you’re allowed to protest. (As is the case in Israel, where many are protesting some of the same policies.) You’re not, however, allowed to intimidate, threaten, or attack others based on their ethnicity, religion, or political beliefs, and some of these protests have morphed into antisemitism. For example, “at Yale, a Jewish student reporting on protests was jabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag on Saturday night. The incident occurred after a group of Pro-Palestinian demonstrators allegedly formed a human chain around two visibly Jewish students trying to enter campus.” Antisemitism shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s been around since before Moses led the Israelites through the desert. But it should be controlled on campuses, while allowing students to continue the longstanding college tradition of peaceful protest. So far, that needle is not being thread, as acts that go beyond peaceful have been committed and colleges have arrested hundreds of their own students. And now, Columbia has canceled in-person classes for the week. In this political climate (with even Congress involved), it’s apparently impossible to simultaneously protect speech and students. So this Passover we ask, how is the protest different from all other protests? For an answer, let’s head to my alma mater and the birthplace of campus protesting. Here’s UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ with an interesting explanation of what’s gone wrong. “‘This is very different because this is student against a student,’ Christ said in an interview in February. ‘It’s faculty against faculty. It’s internally the most divisive protest issue that I’ve seen.’ Christ’s career at UC Berkeley spans nearly four decades.” On Passover, we tell the story of four children: The wise one, the wicked one, the simple one, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask. They’re all well-represented on college campuses these days.

+ Columbia President Nemat Shafik: “The decibel of our disagreements has only increased in recent days. These tensions have been exploited and amplified by individuals who are not affiliated with Columbia who have come to campus to pursue their own agendas. We need a reset.”

+ MIT, Emerson College, Tufts students start pro-Palestinian camps inspired by Columbia University protests.