Passover
Title
Passover
Creator
Innovations in Jewish Life Collections
Date
2023
Contributor
Gregg Drinkwater, Hilary Kalisman, Samira Mehta, Maggie Rosenau
Rights
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Format
Portable Document Format
Language
English
Text
Passover is an 8-day festival in which Jews refrain from eating bread or other leavened foods. It kicks off with a festive meal called a seder, guided by a ritual script called the Passover Haggadah. Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus from Egypt by the ancient Israelites, when according to the Bible, Moses led the Israelites from enslavement in Egypt to the “promised land.”
The seder’s core theme is liberation, and since
the late 1960s, seders centering social and racial justice, environmentalism, feminism, peace, and other political concerns have become increasingly common in the United States. These social justice seders grew out of multiple earlier precedents, especially the famous Freedom Seder created by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in Washington DC in April 1969.
That historic event, attended by 800 interfaith participants and held in a Black church, was created to mark the first anniversary of the April 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to build links of solidarity between Jewish and African American civil rights activists. For Waskow and the other participants in the 1969 ritual, and those inspired to follow in their wake, the Freedom Seder demonstrated that Jewish ritual and tradition had much to offer those committed to struggles against oppression.
Today, one can attend seders focused on the global climate crisis, queer and LGBTQ+ seders, feminist seders, seders dedicated to Middle East Peace, and myriad other causes. For example, Denver’s annual Queer Seder, which began in 2008, draws 100-200 LGBTQ+ people and allies from throughout Denver, Boulder, and surrounding regions.
The seder’s core theme is liberation, and since
the late 1960s, seders centering social and racial justice, environmentalism, feminism, peace, and other political concerns have become increasingly common in the United States. These social justice seders grew out of multiple earlier precedents, especially the famous Freedom Seder created by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in Washington DC in April 1969.
That historic event, attended by 800 interfaith participants and held in a Black church, was created to mark the first anniversary of the April 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to build links of solidarity between Jewish and African American civil rights activists. For Waskow and the other participants in the 1969 ritual, and those inspired to follow in their wake, the Freedom Seder demonstrated that Jewish ritual and tradition had much to offer those committed to struggles against oppression.
Today, one can attend seders focused on the global climate crisis, queer and LGBTQ+ seders, feminist seders, seders dedicated to Middle East Peace, and myriad other causes. For example, Denver’s annual Queer Seder, which began in 2008, draws 100-200 LGBTQ+ people and allies from throughout Denver, Boulder, and surrounding regions.
Files
Citation
Innovations in Jewish Life Collections, “Passover,” IJL Digital Exhibits, accessed April 30, 2024, https://embodiedjudaism.omeka.net/items/show/137.