For 40 years, Marc Slutsky has led Passover Seders, tackling Soviet Jewry, US racism, and war after war.
When tens of thousands protested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial makeover, this year’s slavery-to-freedom narrative at his table in Highland Park, Illinois, will focus on Israel today.
After enormous protests, the proposal sparked Israel’s worst social turmoil in decades ahead of Passover.
Slutsky, president of Glencoe’s independent synagogue Aitz Hayim Center for Jewish Life, plans to change the Seder for his 18 guests.
He claimed “Next year in Jerusalem” would change.
The 76-year-old Slutsky added, “We’re going to read from the Israeli Declaration of Independence,” including a paragraph promising “full equality of social and political rights to all its people.”
Netanyahu’s plan would give him and his allies, the most right-wing government in Israeli history, more control over the judiciary. Critics say it would concentrate power in his hands and destroy a system of checks and balances. They also say he has a conflict of interest since he is facing corruption charges.
“My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew” author Abigail Pogrebin will entertain 30 guests at her New York Seder.
“This terrible and demoralizing turning point in Israel right now feels impossible to ignore,” she remarked.
Pogrebin said Seder symbols will gain significance.
“The bitter herb, which reminds us of slavery, will remind us also of the bitterness of this government’s bigotry—against non-Orthodox Jews, LGBTQ Jews, Arabs, women in the army, tyranny and intolerance, the abrogation of values we hold dear,” she stated.
“The brokenness of Israel’s democracy right now — or how near it has come to a breaking point” will be symbolized by breaking matzo, Pogrebin added.
“Will require that each of us at our table reflect about how we will fight to bring justice about” when Jews open a door for Elijah, symbolizing a messianic period of justice and righteousness.
Most U.S. Jews celebrate Passover, which celebrates the Hebrew slaves’ historical departure from Egypt and emphasizes telling the freedom tale to youngsters at the Seder meal.
North America has the most Jews outside Israel.
“The Seder is for me a perfect moment for us to engage in conversation around a myriad of topics that are about unfinished projects or places where there’s strife or turmoil,” said Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver in Canada, a service, fundraising, and relief organization.
He’ll host 30 people for a Seder, including non-Jews.
Shanken will throw down a second Seder plate with a cube of ice to melt as a reminder to take climate action. Yet the Passover tale and Israel’s establishment 75 years ago will frame the discussion about Israeli politics.
“Our tale was never without difficulty, friction, or disagreement,” Shanken remarked.
T’ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs expects extensive conversation concerning the demonstrations and Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
“It’s necessary for Jews to talk about what does it mean to struggle for democracy in the Jewish state, both for Jews and non-Jews who reside there?” she asked.
Rabbi Michael Uram, chief Jewish learning officer for the Jewish Federations of North America, expects Seder tables to address slavery, democracy, and freedom, including Netanyahu’s administration.
“Consumption and the hazards of global warming,” “the lack of fairness in American society, and the ways in which Black persons have to be terrified of systemic racism and brutality from a police force, as a type of slavery that people need to be freed from,” he stated.
Jonathan D. Sarna, director of Brandeis University’s Schusterman Institute for Israel Studies, finds opportunities for free conversation on Israel in the Haggadah.
“There are lots of instances when one may truly jump from the conventional liturgy and ask crucial issues,” he added. “Passover isn’t about disputing. It’s about asking and phrasing the questions. I think good dialogues can actually take place.”
Productive matters.
Some families were split apart by the red-blue division during Donald Trump’s administration, and that persists around holidays when family members assemble and over pandemic matters like vaccines and masks.
Some American Jews find this similar and distinct.
“There are obviously a mix of perspectives in my family concerning politics, and especially Israel politics,” said Brooklyn resident Talia Benamy, 36. “But I think there is a wide consensus: Everybody in my family feels that this legislative drive is terrible news.”
Benamy protested in New York with her 64-year-old mother, her brother, and his three children, the eldest of whom was 7. It was an excellent pre-Passover lesson for the kids.
She continued, “One of the major lines in the Haggadah is the concept that in each generation it’s incumbent upon us to recognize ourselves in the Passover story.” One way to accomplish so now is to have talks about what freedom actually means, how it manifests, and for whom.