Passover

This evening we mark the beginning of Passover, commemorating the liberation of the Jews from slavery under Pharaoh. Twice during the seder we read the phrase B’chol Dor Va’Dor – in every generation - in our haggadot.

Parting of the Red Sea, Vincent Malo (1631)

The first time we are commanded to recall the Exodus as if it happened to us, to appreciate that freedom is not “one and done.” And the Second time we are to remember that Pharaoh is not only a historical figure, but that in every generation the Jews have faced enemies who sought to destroy them.

The Hamas terrorists who killed 767 civilians, 20 hostages and 376 soldiers on October 7th are just the latest enemies. The 129 hostages they are holding in Gaza will not be joining a seder tonight.

It is in this context that I am saddened by Columbia University student protesters who seem to support Hamas’ actions. Reporter Lydia Polgreen teaches there. After speaking to students encamped on the schools’ quad last week, she wrote that the protesters feel the plight of the Palestinians, “is the defining moral challenge of their lives.” Not the nearly 38 million Americans living in poverty, nor the millions of economic refugees from Central and South America fleeing to America, nor the 11 million Haitians being terrorized by gangs, to pick just three moral challenges one could describe as ‘defining.’ (Earlier this month US Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols said “There is no greater humanitarian crisis in the world today than what’s going on in Haiti.”)

Nope, the moral challenge of our lives is the Palestinians, who have, since 1947, found fault with every solution that’s been offered to their plight.

Further strengthening their claim to moral leadership, these students had to remain anonymous, Polgreen said, because they “were afraid that being associated with the protest movement could harm their career prospects.” A sentiment she seemed endorse with a parenthetical acknowledgement that these are “Ivy League students, after all.”

I’ve long known that comparative studies of literature, arts and history help students gain perspective. Columbia is a rare elite college that requires all undergraduates to take a common series of humanities classes that, ideally, broaden their views. A wider perspective is how I’ve come to agree that the Palestinians in Gaza, ruled by homophobic, misogynistic, fundamentalists who prize ideological purity over human life, deserve far better. This perspective also allows me to hope for an Israeli government, supported by its neighbors in Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, that can offer, yet again, despite the history, a two-state solution that permits the Palestinians to live in peace. Studying the humanities is critical, even if these students didn’t gain much perspective from it.

Meanwhile, at tonight’s seder, I’ll be again reminded that freedom is something we must fight for in every generation. And that, as comfortable as we might feel, in every generation there are those who seek to destroy us.