O

n April 26, while 
anti-Israel protests 
raged on campus-
es across the country, Hillel at 
Kalamazoo College hosted the 
largest Passover seder our small 
liberal arts college had ever seen. 
It was an incredible show of unity 
in the face of an intensifying 
antisemitism crisis on our cam-
pus. 
 While the aftermath of the 
Oct. 7 massacre has only further 
emboldened antisemitism at K 
College, our Jewish community 
has responded with resilience and 
a love for Jewish life. 
 Every year, our Hillel hosts a 
campus-wide seder, but this year 
was different from all others. 
Passover, the ultimate story of 
Jewish survival and peoplehood, 
needed to be read differently in 
the shadow of Oct. 7, the ensuing 
war and a global wave of antisem-
itism. On one hand, the dangers 
facing our people in the Passover 
story feel relevant today. On the 
other, the Israel-Hamas war has 
become a humanitarian catastro-
phe that feels at odds with the 
Passover message of freedom. 

Further, antisemitism on our 
campus has reached new heights 
since Oct. 7. Students at K were 
deeply troubled to see our peers 
disregard if not deny or glorify 
the massacre. I will never forget 
my horror first at the massacre 
itself but then also at how many 
of my peers declared, “Gaza broke 
out of prison” as well as how they 
were “rooting for everyone resist-
ing oppression today.
”
A disturbingly large number 
of our peers rushed to defend 
Hamas’ actions as decolonial 
resistance and denounce anyone 
who dissents from that view. One 
student encapsulated the callous-
ness of activists on campus when 
they said a few days after Oct. 
7 that Jewish students and their 
allies, called “white bitches,
” need 
to shut up about Israel “as if any-
one cares.
”
As the war has unfolded, those 
student activists have mobilized 
to harass Jewish students and 
faculty at K while demanding our 
school remove “Israel-affiliated” 
members of our Board of Trustees 
and end our Israel study abroad 
program. 

 This movement wants to tell 
Jews we are not welcome unless 
we pass an absurd political purity 
test. After all, if even the “Israel-
affiliated” trustees must go, it 
seems only a matter of time until 
our campus Students for Justice 
in Palestine chapter takes cues 
from others and demands that 
the college end our Jewish Studies 
department and sever ties with 
Hillel. 
With this rabidly antisemitic 
movement growing bolder and 
more popular, it is imperative 
that the Jewish community at K 
College stand strong and make 
our presence known.
We felt it was crucial to bring 
together the K College Jewish 
community and our allies for 
our Passover seder to show that 
we are proud to be Jewish. We 
commenced with putting on the 
best, most well-attended Passover 
seder this college has ever seen. 
My friend Ruby Winer and I 
put together a custom Haggadah 
that addressed the tragedies hap-
pening in Israel and Gaza and 
commemorated the memory 
of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 

among other topics, while being 
fun, engaging and full of songs. I 
was proud when, after the event, 
Dr. Jeff Haus, chair of Jewish 
Studies at K, called it the best 
Haggadah he had ever seen from 
our Hillel. 
Every member of our Hillel 
invited their friends, professors 
and student organizations. We 
collaborated with the Refugee 
Outreach Collective Club at K 
to include a section in our pro-
gram about the plight of modern 
refugees who face a similar expe-
rience as the ancient Israelites. 
Finally, we reached out to invite 
leaders in the Kalamazoo com-
munity as well as members of the 
K College administration.
The result was a success we 
could not have possibly imagined; 
131 Jewish students and their 
allies attended our Passover seder 
at a college of only about 1,400 
students. 
We were joined by several 
special guests, including Mayor 
of Kalamazoo David Anderson, 
local Congressional candidate 
Jessica Swartz, Dean of Students 
Malcolm Smith, and the incred-
ibly supportive director of 
the Hillel Campus Alliance of 
Michigan, Robyn Hughey. 
This incredible turnout of stu-
dents, faculty, staff and communi-
ty members was deeply hearten-
ing to our Jewish community. We 
have felt isolated, scared and anx-
ious for the future of Jewish life at 
K, but the support we received at 
our seder showed us that we have 
more friends and allies than we 
realized. 
Jewish life at Kalamazoo 
College is still difficult and full 
of challenges, but we are deeply 
grateful for this support that has 
empowered us to keep fighting to 
build a home for Jewish students 
at K. @ 

Mason Purdy is a senior (class of 2024) 

from Anderson, Indiana.

Kalamazoo College 
Passover Seder 

for college students 
by college students

Mason Purdy } jewish@edu writer

More than 130 people 
came to the Hillel seder 
at Kalamazoo College.

76 | MAY 23 • 2024