JVP Rabbinical Council co-founder Rabbi Brant Rosen, in his latest piece for Truthout, reminds us that the Passover Hagaddah instructs Jews to examine the relevance of the Exodus story in every generation.
Rabbi Rosen writes, “As the Jewish community prepares to observe Passover this year, I’m thinking a great deal about the centrality of children to the Exodus story we tell around the seder table. In particular, I’m struck that this narrative from the Torah begins with a terrifying description of atrocities committed against children. Among other things, the Exodus story drives home the tragically familiar truth that children are not mere casualties of wartime atrocities, but are actually targeted by state violence.
“Just like the violence inflicted by the pharaoh in the Exodus story, Israel’s violence toward children stems from the view of an entire people as a ‘demographic threat.’ This view itself stems from Zionism: an ideology and movement that seeks to create and maintain a majority Jewish nation-state in historic Palestine. As such, the targeting of children is part of a larger effort to ethnically cleanse Gaza through a variety of means, including demolition of homes, population transfer and, as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights report puts it, ‘erasing Palestinian identity and annihilating future generations.’
BREAKING: Days after a Louisiana judge ruled that the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil can proceed, thousands are holding an emergency Passover Seder at the ICE headquarters in New York City, saying: If you come for one, you face us all.
We are outside Federal Plaza to say: Stop arming Israel. End Israel's genocide in Gaza. Free political prisoners held by ICE. Stop the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and students.
This year, we are in a more narrow place than ever. The Israeli military is raining bombs on Gaza, in the deadliest phase of the genocide since October 2023, while enforcing a total blockade that leaves Palestinians in Gaza without access to food, water, fuel, and any other aid.
The Israeli military is attacking the last fully functioning hospital in Gaza again.
On October 17 2023, @GhassanAbuSitt1 delivered a press conference following a massacre by the Israeli military in the courtyard of Al-Ahli hospital that killed over 471 Palestinians.
As he described the atrocities the Israeli military inflicted on hospital patients and medical staff alike, Dr. Abu Sitta also gave a grave warning, “What happened today was a war crime, and if the Israelis get away with it again, then more war crimes will be committed and more hospitals will be targeted.”
Before October 2023, Gaza was the most densely populated place on Earth. Now, over 2 million Palestinians are trapped in just 40% of Gaza and facing an ongoing blockade.
No food, water, fuel, or aid has entered in over a month, and conditions worsen each day, as Palestinians are pushed into smaller and smaller areas within Gaza.
This is forced displacement with the ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing.
Nationalism is chametz, during Passover and always!
This Passover, we cannot celebrate as usual while Palestinians in Gaza face famine and the Israeli military continues its genocidal campaign, using starvation as a weapon and murdering Palestinians with impunity. The questions of liberation are not theoretical—this year’s Jewish holiday of liberation calls us to strengthen our commitment to the liberation of the Palestinian people.
This year is unlike any other. We cannot feast while there is famine. This Passover, we gather not to celebrate, but to demand and dream of liberation for all.
During Passover, Jews abstain from eating “chametz,” or foods that are forbidden to consume during the holiday. For many, part of the ritual of beginning the Passover fast from chametz can include donating or burning these foods. This passover, and every day, we strive to build a world free from the US-Israel alliance that is funding and enabling Palestinian genocide. We collectively work towards a future free from Zionism — the colonial ideology built on the premise of “maximum land with minimum Palestinians,” which requires the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land — as well as all forms of nationalism.
Holding the lessons of Passover close — that all deserve to be free from bondage, and that we must struggle together against oppressive Pharaohs towards a place of collective liberation — JVP has compiled a series of Passover offerings so we may continue the sacred work of mobilizing to end genocide and apartheid. Join us in building an expansive practice of our collective Exodus from Zionism.
This Passover, we cannot hold seder as usual. The meal cannot be festive while Palestinians in Gaza face famine; the questions of liberation are not theoretical. This year’s Jewish holiday of liberation urges every one of us to step up our commitment to the liberation of the Palestinian people.
Right now, the Israeli military is carpet-bombing Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war as it continues to kill Palestinians with impunity. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is attacking our movements, detaining and abducting those who have spoken out for Palestinian rights.
Both of these governments purport to carry out their violent policies in the name of Jews. The Israeli government uses Jewish traditions as weapons against Palestinians, and the Trump regime claims that its authoritarian restrictions on free speech and deportations are being done to fight antisemitism.