I lived in Berkeley for 53 years. I have attended many events at that theater in Zellerbach Hall. This is personal for me.

Shortly before I left town, Berkeley was the scene of violent street clashes between the neo-Nazis of the right and the neo–Red Guards of the Antifa left. These people are vicious enemies, and yet apparently the one thing they can agree on is targeting Jews.

I’m particularly repulsed at the statement issued by the campus chancellor, ironically named Carol Christ (rhymes with “wrist,” not “heist”):

[The incident] violated not only our rules, but also some of our most fundamental values. We deeply respect the right to protest as intrinsic to the values of a democracy and an institution of higher education. Yet, we cannot ignore protest activity that interferes with the rights of others to hear and/or express perspectives of their choosing.

“Violated some of our most fundamental values”? Not just “violated our most fundamental values”? What value is more fundamental to a university than “the right to hear and/or express perspectives”? And yet she contrasts and subordinates that to the “right to protest as intrinsic to the values of a democracy.”

Chancellor Christ might want to refresh her reading of the First Amendment, which guarantees “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” What happened at Berkeley on Monday was not a peaceable assembly. It had nothing to do with the right to protest or with the university’s “most fundamental values.” It is not a delicate balance of countervailing rights; it is an outrage to the very foundations of a university.