WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION

Good morning. Today: More arrests on campus; the U.S. warns the International Criminal Court against warrants for Israeli officials; and Israel scales back its ceasefire demands.

Tonight, as Passover comes to an end, we remember that we can’t take our freedom for granted. We are commanded to tell the Passover story in every generation so that we don’t forget our past.

We’re counting on Forward readers to step up and protect our freedom to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly, and to ensure that everyone has access to it. Become a member this Passover with a gift at any level!

CONFLICT ON CAMPUS

Students in caps and gowns posed for photos on the Columbia campus last week. (Alec Gitelman)

COVID lockdowns spoiled their high school graduations. Will protests disrupt their college commencements? Much of the college class of 2024 graduated high school in 2020; the pandemic meant they missed many senior-year celebrations, including graduation ceremonies. Now, as campus protests threaten to have major repercussions for those same rituals — USC has already canceled its main commencement — some are reckoning with a sense of emotional deja vu. “It’s frustrating to have the end of my senior year — I don’t want to say overshadowed — but just to have such a terrible and emotionally taxing thing happen,” one Jewish student at Indiana University said. Read the story ➤

Which elite university figured out how to handle anti-Israel protests? Hint: It’s in Israel. As college administrations across the United States have reacted to campus protests by calling in police — only sparking more protests — our Rob Eshman wondered if any university leaders have managed to handle this kind of crisis well. He found his answer in a surprising place: Beersheba. In 2022, Daniel Chamovitz, president of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, handled a potential clash between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters by having the two sides sit down together to develop ground rules. “And when it was over,” he said, “they went back to class together.” Read his essay ➤

Students locked arms to guard Columbia’s Hamilton Hall, which some protestors occupied overnight. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)

On campus…

Almost 40 protesters at Columbia took over Hamilton Hall, a building on the main campus that’s repeatedly been occupied by protesters, overnight, barricading the doors and pledging to remain inside until the university meets demands including divestment from Israel. Earlier in the day, administrators announced they would not take such an action, and began suspending students who refused to leave the protest encampment after a 2 p.m. deadline. Separately, a Jewish student filed suit against Columbia, alleging it has failed to protect Jewish students amid the protests.

The number of arrests made at campus protests around the country is nearing 1,000. On Monday, more than 40 protesters were arrested at the University of Texas at Austin; at least 15 at the University of Georgia; and nine at the University of Florida, among others.

The protests have also spread to Europe: Students occupied the main courtyard of the Sorbonne on Monday, and a French regional council suspended funding to Sciences Po, a top university, after students blocked access to the school during a Friday demonstration.

“A small campus in the redwoods has the nation’s most entrenched protest,” notes The New York Times: Students have occupied a major administrative building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, for a week, renaming it “Intifada Hall.” Police arrested at least five students protecting the occupied building on Monday.

Students participate in the occupation of several buildings on Columbia University’s campus in 1968. (Bev Grant/Getty Images)

I was arrested protesting at Columbia in ’68. Today’s student encampments carry on a proud, brave tradition. Tom Hurwitz, a documentary filmmaker, helped occupy Columbia’s Mathematics Building during the legendary student protests of 1968. Then, as now, the university called in police to disperse the protesters; then, as now, fury around issues of race and colonialism drove the unrest. But one key difference is how students understand the role of the university, he writes: “Why should we guarantee an academic culture with no challenges to long-held beliefs, for instance, that the State of Israel and being Jewish are synonymous?” Read his essay ➤

Plus:

An open letter to the Columbia University Gaza war protesters from a pro-Palestinian activist in Israel

Join the conversation ➤ D.C. residents: Join our reporter Arno Rosenfeld tonight as he moderates a panel on antisemitism after Oct. 7, at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum.

Haredi Jews played, on Tuesday, around the remains of one of the ballistic missiles fired into Israel by Iran earlier this month. (Menahem Kahana / AFP/Getty Images)

Latest on the war…

Congress has warned the International Criminal Court of potential U.S. retaliation if it issues arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Joe Biden for help once news of the potential warrants broke. Several other countries are reportedly also working to discourage the court from issuing the warrants.

Reports broke that prosecutors from the ICC have interviewed medical staff at two of Gaza’s largest hospitals in the course of investigating potential war crimes.

Israel indicated it would be open to a new ceasefire deal if 33 hostages are freed in the first phase, a scaled-down demand after insisting on 40 freed hostages for months. The Biden administration sees hope for a deal in the next week, if it isn’t derailed by the looming prospect of a potential Israeli assault on Rafah. But, in a meeting with hostage families today, Netanyahu said, “We will enter Rafah and obliterate all the Hamas battalions there — with or without a deal, to achieve total victory.”

A top European Union official said at least five European countries are poised to recognize Palestinian statehood by the early summer.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly decided to normalize relations with Israel, but has not yet decided when to implement the change. Saudi authorities are expected to demand meaningful progress toward a Palestinian state as a condition of normalization.

A group of American lawyers, at least 20 of whom work in the Biden administration, are calling on the U.S. government to stop selling arms to Israel.

A U.S. investigation found that five IDF units had committed “individual incidents of gross violations of human rights” prior to Oct. 7, but the State Department will not block aid to at least four of them, with a spokesperson saying the units “have effectively remediated these violations.”

ALSO IN THE FORWARD

S.J. Perelman in 1977 (Getty Images)

This legendary Jewish humorist was ‘the most negative writer of his era’ — can he still speak to ours?“With the publication of new editions of books by Sidney Joseph Perelman in the prestigious Library of America (LOA) series, one might be inclined to ask whether Perelman is really a humorist for the ages,” writes Benjamin Ivry. Perelman’s work, often criticized for its density, also invokes a certain era of New York Jewish experience; one play “transmutes New York Jewish experience into romantic dialogue from a lovelorn swain: ‘You’re the moon rising over Mosholu Parkway; you’re a two weeks’ vacation at Camp Nitgedaiget!’”

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Four teenagers in Sydney, Australia, are facing charges after allegedly plotting an attack on Jews. (iStock by Getty Images)

😨 Four Australian teenagers plotted to buy black market guns to attack Jews, police say, with one writing, “I really want to target the yahood” in an encrypted group chat. (NBC)

🔬 European scientific collaborations with Israelis have dropped significantly since the onset of war, a new report found. Some 38% of Israeli scientific research before the war was conducted in partnership with European institutions. (Times of Israel)

😔 Sex workers persecuted under Hitler in Hamburg, Germany, will receive a memorial on a street that, to this day, only sex workers and their clients are allowed to access after the Nazis built a set of gates to cordon off the scandalous thoroughfare. (Guardian)

😢 A handwritten poem Anne Frank gave a friend is now on display at the Anne Frank House. Frank gave the poem, which she signed “in memory of your friend Anne Frank,” to Jacqueline van Maarsen, 95, shortly before going into hiding from the Nazis. (The Times)

What else we’re reading ➤ “For teens in interfaith families, the war in Gaza can be a stress test of their Jewish identities” … “‘We're persona non grata. Almost Satan’: Global boycott of Israeli culture ratchets up” … “History, fable and the perfect Jewish joke make this a story for the ages.”

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(Alex Kent/Getty Images)

A Columbia protester made a unique choice with a disciplinary warning issued by the university, turning it into an accessory.

Thanks to Benyamin Cohen for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at [email protected].

Support the Forward this Passover!

Passover reminds us that we can’t take our freedom for granted. Now is our time to step up and protect our freedom to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly, and to ensure that everyone has access to it.