New York — College campuses across the United States were filled with tension on Tuesday morning as Jewish students observed the Passover holiday amidst troubling allegations of antisemitism at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The protests have intensified in recent days due to Israel's ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where the Hamas-run Health Ministry reports a death toll of over 34,000, with a majority being women and children.

At Columbia University in New York, the president made the decision to cancel in-person classes on Monday in light of the protests and announced that classes would be held in a hybrid format for the remainder of the semester.

As the Passover holiday commenced, the university revealed that it had increased its security presence significantly to ensure the safety of Jewish students.

Meanwhile, chaos erupted overnight at Cal Poly Humboldt in northern California as police in riot gear clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters who had barricaded themselves inside a campus building. The group, through online messages, put forward a list of demands calling for their university to sever all connections with Israel, reveal any existing ties, and for Israel to put an end to its occupation of Palestinian territories and agree to a cease-fire in Gaza.

At one point, a live video streaming online showed police pushing and shoving against students as they tried to enter the building.

Several protesters were arrested Monday as NYPD officers broke up another pro-Palestinian protest outside New York University. at least two dozen demonstrators were taken by police onto four waiting buses, as officers dismantled and removed tents.

Rice said at one point some protesters started throwing objects in the direction of police

The demonstrations have spread to campuses from coast to coast, and while most of the protesters voice support for Palestinians and anger at Israel's handling of the war — not Jews — many Jewish students have said they fear for their personal safety after incidents of antisemitism.

At Columbia University, antisemitic slogans including "go back to Poland" were heard among the protesters' chants. In one video, a demonstrator can be seen holding a sign near Jewish students that reads: "Al-Qassam's next targets."

Al-Qassam is the military wing of Hamas, which carried out the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and sparking the war in Gaza.

Some Jewish students say threatening messages like that have them petrified to even set foot on campus.

Despite the ongoing protests at Columbia and other universities, many demonstrators are adamant that they do not condone antisemitism and are instead focusing their frustrations on Israel and its policies.

"Many of the individuals you see here today are Jewish," shared a protester at Columbia with CBS News. "Many of the individuals detained on Thursday were Jewish... anti-Zionism and antisemitism are distinct concepts."

Nevertheless, the distinction between the two has become muddled by the actions of certain protesters. Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel, the largest Jewish student organization globally, expressed concern over the antisemitic remarks aimed at students in recent days, noting the painful memories they can evoke for those whose families fled persecution in Europe just a few generations ago.

"The challenges we are addressing for Jewish students and others are not solely about words, but about actions. They involve targeted harassment," Lehman explained to CBS News.

"Even though these Jewish students are young, their family members, the individuals they will gather with at the Seder table, have in some cases directly experienced... elements of the Holocaust," Lehman continued. "Therefore, when they hear these chants framed as pro-Hamas slogans, or as witnessed at Columbia... someone suggesting that Jews on campus could be the next targets of Hamas, it deeply affects them, often in a post-traumatic manner."