From WNYC Studios, I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Monday, April 22nd.

It's the Brian Lairor show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone.

Tonight is the first night of Passover when Jews around the world

will gather with loved ones for a ceremonial meal and a retelling of and discussion around

the Exodus story of God freeing people known as the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt

and leading them to the promised land. Canaan, more or less what later came to

be known as Israel and Palestine. Passover this year comes obviously at a fraught time for many

Jewish Americans, Jewish families, just a half year out from October 7th, the deadliest day

for attacks on Jews since the Holocaust, with many hostages

from that day, don't forget, still being held, and also with intergenerational and other family

conflict, or at least disagreement, likely to arise around the Passover table about the war in Gaza,

and even fundamentally, how to think about their relationship to that ancient

promised land in modern times. And as if that's not enough, Passover also comes with anti-Semitism

on the rise, leaving many Jews less secure in their place in society and in their physical

safety, even in this country, just over this past weekend, as you've

heard reported, to take the big example in the news today, Jewish students at Columbia

University disagreed with each other over how much danger and ongoing pro-Palestinian

protests puts them in. The headline on this in the New York Times today reads, as protests continue at Columbia,

some Jewish students feel targeted. The article then starts by saying after reports of harassment

by demonstrators, some Jewish students said they felt unsafe. Others rejected that view.

The article says, while condemning anti-Semitism. And other news

organizations also note that one prominent rabbi affiliated with Columbia advised Jewish students

...