Sergey Kadinsky

In the aftermath of disruptive protests on college campuses across this country in which activists sought to sever all connections between American universities and Israel, the less visible but much more consequential battle is underway.

On May 5, Avromi and Susan Gorokhov took their daughter to a food fair where vendors offered doughnuts, cookies, and other pastries. The Wicked Gluten Free Expo offered the food that their first-grader, who has celiac disease, could eat.

Lisa Baer, 98, never gave up her German passport, issued when she was a child living in Frankfurt. “The passport had a big J in it. Every Jewish female had to accept Sarah as her middle name,” she said.

A white picket fence that exemplifies suburban streetscapes was found vandalized with spray paint on Monday morning with “Zionism is Nazism,” “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine.” Facing the busy Merrick Avenue, its writer intended to share the anti-Semitic messages with a large audience.

The sand and dust on which Hamas terrorists ran as they massacred attendees of the Nova music festival in Israel, touching off the war in Gaza, settled on the burned wreckage of cars and bullet-riddled portable restrooms. First exhibited in Tel Aviv with the defiant message “We will dance again,” these artifacts of a crime were brought to Wall Street for an American audience.

This year’s Pesach recognizes that more than 130 captive Jews remain unaccounted, in our prayers, along with thousands of men and women in uniform, defending and volunteering in the Jewish homeland. Many of us will have the Seder at home or close to home, and this Chol HaMoed Guide offers perennial favorites with updated exhibit information, along with lesser-known places in the city and nearby.