From the Chair…
Pesach is here. According to the Book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors so that the Angel of Death would pass over them: they would not be touched by the tenth Plague of Egypt, the death of the firstborn. After this Plague, Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they wanted, and asked Moses to bless him in the name of God. The passage goes on to state that the Passover sacrifice recalls the time when God "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt".
This story is recounted at the Passover Seder by reading the Haggadah. The Haggadah is a standardized ritual account of the Exodus story, in fulfillment of the command "And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: It is because of that which the LORD did for me when I came forth out of Egypt."
Our world is plagued. Not Biblical plagues, but those of racism, misogyny, homophobia, nationalism, ageism, and for us, the worst of all anti-Semitism. Oh, we wish we could mark our door posts and be “passed over.” That’s not happening anytime soon! The question now becomes, how do we fight these plagues without people turning on us as the youth at colleges who are having rallies in support of a terrorists organization like Hamas and Hezbollah? How do these youth see the massacre on the 7th of October of Jews as justification to alleged mistreatment of Gaza?
We have work to do, just as we retell the Passover each year, we must do the same about how the wannabe powers of terrorists want Israel and Jews eradicated. But, it just cannot be within our families. We must do outreach. For so many years we have hidden our identities for survival. Didn’t the Spanish Jews do the same during the Spanish Inquisition only to still be murdered? We are the NEA, we are educators. We are teacher terrorists! We are armed with weapons of mass instruction. We can do something.
We have such short memories. I often think about the 1968 Democratic Convention and how people turned on their message. We cannot follow in those shoes, but reach in subtle ways. We have allies and we must use them to help tell our story. Many Christians support us because the Bible reminds them that G-d looks after Israel. We must remind free speech isn’t about lying and false narratives. Sometimes we fight fire with fire, but in this case, it would do us more harm just as it did the protesters at the 1968 convention.
We are commanded if the family is too small to finish eating the entire offering in one sitting, an offering was made for a group of families. This is one way to start, invite non-Jews to our Seder table or a Shabbat dinner. This is one way we can educate. Many are curious and answering their questions makes us human, just with different beliefs. We show our humanity, something many country’s leaders do not do. It unites us and does not divide us.
I saw this quote from a Rabbi. “The ultimate redemption for our people and the world over is ultimate peace. The actual peace of the Messiah, where the world will recognize putting aside all wars, all conflict and focus on unity, G-d and peace.”
So, on this Passover, I offer to you something someone told me, “love your neighbor as yourself and walk peaceable with G-d.”
Patrick