“This year, all over the U.S., Jews are holding emergency Passover Seders calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil and an end to the criminalization of all those calling for an end to the Israeli government’s genocide of the Palestinian people,” JVP said as it announced the action. This seder is part of a long tradition of using Jewish rituals as a protest tactic, uniting the prophetic spiritual tradition of Judaism with the practical strategies of physical resistance and blockade. This action, offered with relatively short notice and promising to mobilize huge numbers of Jews and allies, is the result of the relationships that have been built across Jewish organizations as they try to confront the repression coming in Trump’s second term.

“We’re building a new coalition right now. Because not all of us have been in the same space together,” Lily Greenberg Call, a member of the New York City chapter of the Jewish anti-Occupation group IfNotNow, called into a megaphone on March 20. “But it is more important than ever now to reach for each other and unite for our communities and our neighbors who are under attack,” she told the thousand people who had flooded the streets of lower Manhattan, the historic home of the U.S. Jewish left. “People in this city have been abducted, separated from their families, thrown in detention camps, and threatened with deportation.”

[…]

Khalil’s arrest happened on Saturday, March 8, and by Monday, March 10, a coalition of Jewish groups worked with AAUP to pull together a massive press conference at Columbia where faculty spoke out about the conditions of repression, highlighting the connection between the attacks on education, the rights of workers and students and the safety of immigrants.

“The attack on Mahmoud Khalil is intended to make […] all of us quake in our boots,” said celebrated mathematician and Columbia Professor Michael Thaddeus. “Our message to Washington is that we are not silenced, we are not afraid, and we stand together, determined to defeat this ongoing assault on our fundamental rights.”

Next came a March 13 demonstration led by JVP’s New York City chapter at Trump Tower, where hundreds of Jews flooded the lobby of the famous Fifth Avenue building chanting “Bring Mahmoud home now!” The action led to nearly 100 arrests, and included members from across several different Jewish organizations, with JVP taking the lead due to their established track record of turning out supporters for mass direct actions.

“It’s been a moment when so many groups are recognizing the threat that the Trump administration poses and the need to resist fascism,” said Jonah Rubin, a New York City-based campus organizer with JVP. “I think groups are really willing to throw down and support each other and recognized the need to push back on the fascism that starts with targeting vulnerable people like Mahmoud Khalil but doesn’t end there.”