A Passover Message From Rabbi Deborah Waxman

Dear friends,  

We are entering Passover at a fragile time, when fragmentation feels close to the surface.  

Public discourse is ever more brittle. Democratic norms are strained. Antisemitism has become more visible and more volatile. Within the Jewish community, divisions grow increasingly wider about what matters to prioritize. 

Passover does not ignore fragmentation. It reframes it.  

The Exodus story is not preserved so we can rehearse our  victimhood. It is preserved so we can remember our obligations. Jewish memory is not meant to seal us off from the world; it is meant to send us back into it responsible for the freedom we were given.  

Having known oppression, we are obligated to stand for freedom. 
Having experienced perilousness, we are obligated to defend dignity. 
Having witnessed the dangers of unchecked power, we are obligated to fight for the well-being of all people.  

At Reconstructing Judaism, we understand this season as moral formation. We are cultivating leaders and communities capable of articulating and acting on abiding Jewish and secular values. We are strengthening the spiritual muscles required to remain in relationship when polarization tempts us to withdraw. We are insisting that courage is communal, that together we gain strength from each other and can help each other orient toward joy, even in the hardest times.  

Passover reminds us that liberation is unfinished. The open door at the seder is not symbolic nostalgia. It is a declaration that redemption depends on how we show up in our day.  

As you prepare to welcome your guests and search both for hametz and meaning, I invite you to notice where fear is tugging at you. Fear is real, as are many of the threats that inspire it. And Jewish wisdom teaches that so too is mutual responsibility and courage.  

This is the Judaism we are committed to nurturing: grounded, expansive, ethically serious, and brave. May this Passover season bolster you in planting seeds of liberation. 

Hag same’akh, happy Passover,
Rabbi Deborah Waxman 
President & CEO, Reconstructing Judaism