Amid Antisemitic Anarchy at Columbia, Seders to Go On with Joy, Confidence and Extra Security

by Jacob Scheer – chabad.org

For Jewish students at Columbia University, there is fear in the air. A cloud of blatant anti-Jewish hate has cast its ugly pall over the campus.

In the face of fears, Rabbi Yuda Drizin, who co-directs Chabad-Lubavitch at Columbia with his wife Naomi, this means holding a larger Passover Seder than he’d originally planned.

Columbia University has seen its fair share of scrutiny in the wake of Oct. 7, with the school administration accused of doing little to protect Jewish students who faced a barrage of antisemitic incidents, both on campus and online in the months following the attacks. While this specter of antisemitism has loomed over the lives of Jewish students on campus for the past six months, it came to a head on Saturday, April 20.

Following a week of hate-filled protests that saw more than 100 students arrested by the New York City Police Department after setting up tents on the campus’s South Lawn, hundreds of anti-Israel demonstrators amassed outside Columbia University’s campus gate.

The group that gathered for the Saturday evening protest included both Columbia students, as well as a large number of people from outside the university. “The protests included chants of ‘Bomb, Bomb Tel Aviv’ and ‘Long Live the Intifada’ said David F., a sophomore from Woodmere, N.Y., who witnessed the protests.

As the tensions escalated on Saturday evening, David and his brother decided they wanted to have their voices heard, and they quickly organized a pro-Israel rally at the Sundial in the center of campus.

“We set up a speaker and were dancing and playing songs of peace, like ‘Heveinu Shalom Aleichem,’ ‘Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu’ and ‘One Day,’ by Matisyahu,” David said.

It did not take long for anti-Jewish protesters to take aim at them. Videos showing the Jewish students’ harrowing experience quickly went viral, clearly showing pro-Palestinian demonstrators harassing, berating and insulting Jewish students as well as stealing their Israeli flags and attempting to burn them.

When Rabbi Drizin heard about the situation, he immediately left home and walked over to the campus, standing with the students to ensure their safety. He stayed with the students until they all returned safely to their dorms.

In the viral videos, one can hear shouts and taunts telling the Jewish students to “go back to Europe” and “you have no culture.” The shouting got more violent, and fueled and emboldened by the antisemitism, chants could be heard saying “all you do is colonize.”

The Jewish students rushed away from the campus. On their way home, they could not escape the vitriol, where rioters continued to scream at them, more explicitly this time: “Yahoodim [Jews], f**k you” and “stop killing children.”

Not deterred by the previous evening’s protest, the rabbi went out on campus on Sunday morning to hand out shmurah matzah to students and faculty and to put tefillin on passersby, as he does weekly.

“Jewish students walking through campus shouldn’t feel like they need to scurry. They see a rabbi handing out matzah proudly with a smile, and they feel like they are not alone; that someone is standing up for them,” Drizin said.

Despite the climate and with many students now choosing to spend the Passover holiday at home, Chabad at Columbia has planned seders, holiday prayer services, and festive kosher-for-Passover barbecue lunches throughout the next week.

To ensure that Jewish students attending the events feel safe and secure, Chabad has hired additional security guards to chaperone students from the Chabad house to their dorm rooms.

“We refuse to yield to the forces of hate. Instead, we’ll raise our voices in song and dance throughout the nights of Passover 2024,” the rabbi said of the resolve to continue celebrating as Jews and not letting evil win. “They want us to back down, to cower and hide. Instead, we will continue as proud Jews.”

David F. told Chabad.org that “the words of ‘Vehi Sheamda’ [the prayer recited on Passover saying that in each generation a nation rises up against the Jewish people, but each time the Jews are victorious] are so potent right now. Amidst all the uncertainty and hate, there’s one thing that I know, that ‘G‑d will save us.’”

While David. is choosing to go to his parents home in Woodmere for the Seders, many students are remaining on campus despite the turmoil.

“We expect over 100 students to come to the campus Seders,” said Naomi Drizin.

“Matzah, as described in the Zohar, is the ‘bread of faith and healing,’” the Drizins wrote in a statement issued today by Chabad at Columbia. “Let us hold fast to our faith, knowing that with G‑d Almighty at our side, we will emerge stronger from these challenges, and bring healing to this world.”