This year, expand the diversity of your Passover seder with our new Haggadah supplement, “Adding JOC Voices to Your Haggadah,” developed by the Tikkun Olam Commission of the Reconstructionist Movement. This free supplement brings you a collection of contemporary commentary on our Passover narrative written by Jews of Color.
"As a Jew and an African American, I carry the memory of two groups of people who were once enslaved," said Rabbi Sandra Lawson, RRC’ 18, Reconstructing Judaism’s inaugural director of racial diversity, Justice and inclusion.
As Passover approaches, I’ve been thinking about the reasons why I’m a religious Jew, sparked significantly by a recent Reconstructionist pilgrimage to civil rights sites in the south. I’m wrestling with how to incorporate this powerful, painful and staggering experience into our celebration of freedom, in a way that respects the experiences of Black people—and Black Jews.
Usually, on Passover, we ask “How is this night different from all other nights?”. This year, many of us are asking, “How does this Passover resemble any we’ve ever experienced?” While social distancing has seemingly changed everything, Passover is still about telling the story of going from oppression to freedom.
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