The Jewish holiday of Passover begins Wednesday night, April 1, 2026. On Passover night, Jews conduct a communal meal in their homes, called a seder. The word seder means “order,” because the meal and its accompanying rituals are conducted in a special prescribed order.
We learn the order by reading from a special booklet, called the Haggadah, which means “the telling.”
In the Haggadah, we read the story of our biblical Hebrew ancestors who were slaves in Egypt, and about their journey going from slavery to freedom, as told in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. Near the middle of the seder, we read, “In every generation, each person is obligated to see themselves as if they had participated in the Exodus from Egypt.”
This is one of the most important lines in the Haggadah. It calls us to imagine ourselves experiencing oppression and being redeemed. It evokes empathy for all who are suffering in our own time.
When we say these words, the story becomes real for us, because it could have happened to us. Even in our own time.
This year, we can’t help but remember that the story of the Exodus is the first story about antisemitism in human history. The enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt is frequently cited by historians and theologians as the introductory chronicle of antisemitism, establishing a model of conspiracy, dehumanization and state-sanctioned discrimination that persisted throughout the ages and into modern times. We don’t have a Pharaoh who is enslaving us today, but our world has many Pharaoh types.
Every Jew in the world is painfully aware of rising antisemitism, feeling the effects of it. In March alone there was a vicious attack on two Jewish men at an outdoor café on Santana Row, in nearby San Jose, accompanied by the words, “F— Jews”; a car attack at a synagogue’s preschool outside of Detroit; an explosion at a synagogue in Rotterdam, sparking a fire and damaging the building; an explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam, followed by another one only two days later; another at a synagogue in Belgium; and three different synagogues in Toronto were hit with gunfire.
Synagogues around the world now need the protection of armed police officers and guards.
In the midst of these attacks, Jews everywhere will sit around our Passover dinner tables, telling the story of our escape from slavery into freedom.
We’ll recount the miracle of the Red Sea splitting so that we could cross into freedom.
We will remember all of the miracles that needed to happen to bring us to that point so that we could begin the journey to the Holy Land.
We will offer thanksgiving to the Holy One for intervening on our behalf.
Today, in an attempt to justify antisemitism, some people claim that Jews are not the targets. The targets are “just” Zionists, as if that’s OK. But if that’s true, why do these attacks keep happening at synagogues and Jewish schools? At the very places where we pray and teach our children our Jewish rituals and history, and where we celebrate the Sabbath and Jewish holidays? Claiming it is in response to Oct. 7 or the current war in Iran is obviously a falsehood.
Even before Oct. 7, 2023, there were warning signs. A 2017 survey conducted by Langer Research Associates found that about 22 million Americans believed holding neo-Nazi views was okay! Nearly one in 10 Americans find it “acceptable” to hold extremely racist and anti-Semitic views.
The raw hostility toward Jews in American society has been measurable for a long time.
What has changed recently is something far more dangerous: a pandemic of tolerating, justifying and excusing violence against Jews and other minorities.
Near the end of the Passover seder, we metaphorically welcome the Prophet Elijah, who we hope will enter our homes with the message that the time of redemption is here.
This year, more than ever, we hope to greet Elijah, who will tell us that these days of antisemitism are over, that the time has come for prejudice and discrimination to stop, and for all religious groups to live in complete freedom and without fear.
Quoting the words of New York Rabbi Matt Cutler, who had received antisemitic threats against him online, I advise our Jewish community, “While we live with the reality of antisemitism, we must not succumb to it. Instead, we are called to meet it with strength, dignity and conviction—to hold our heads high with pride.”
Rabbi Debbie Israel is a founding member of the Interfaith Clergy Alliance of Morgan Hill and Gilroy, and a member of the Santa Cruz Interfaith Network. She is Rabbi Emerita of Congregation Emeth, the Jewish Community of Morgan Hill and Gilroy, and a community rabbi of Santa Cruz County. She can be reached at ra***************@***il.com.
