Where There is Resistance there is Hope: our fourth liberation Seder

JVL Introduction

British Shalom Salaam Trust, Jewish Voice for Labour and Jews for Justice for Palestinians joined together, once again, to run a liberation Seder in aid of the Trust.

It took place on 8th April 2023

You can download the Liberation Seder Haggadah 2023 produced for the occasion.

Please donate to support the work of BSST. You can view two brief videos showing projects supported by BSST:

• Sam Stein and the Massafer Yatta Wrestling Club
• The Palestine Trauma Centre

We repost below the words of welcome spoken by Rabbi Lev Taylor, who guided us through the event.

Welcome by Rabbi Lev Taylor

Why do we come together to tell this same story every year? Because it is a quintessential tale of hope. It reminds us of a people, our people, who took on the world’s mightiest empire, and won.

What courage it must have taken, all those centuries ago, for our ancestors to get up and leave their homes.

The tradition teaches that, when the Israelites reached the Red Sea, they wailed that they were doomed. One man, Nachshon, waded into the waters until they might drown him. Then the seas burst open.

This story reminds us that even the strongest powers can fall. Even the seas can part. We think back on the story of our people, remembering other times of resistance: the Warsaw Uprising; the struggle against South African apartheid; the fight for a weekend in Britain… All these things seemed impossible. And then they were unstoppable.

Right now, the power of the Israeli military and its propaganda machine seems insurmountable. We are seeing a new government lurch ever closer towards fascism. We are battling against efforts to curtail criticism of Israel in the UK. Yet we are also seeing greater resistance than ever. Palestinians and Israelis; Jewish diaspora Chagall – The Parting of the Red Sea and solidarity activists; all are making ourselves heard. These rebellions mean there is hope.

A day will come, someday soon, when the seas of Israeli apartheid will part, and the occupation will be swept away. In our days, Pharaoh will fall.

The festival of Pesach is older even than Judaism. Since ancient times, North African and Near Eastern peoples have sacrificed lambs to welcome the spring. The Pesach we celebrate, as Jews, reflects on and celebrates the Biblical Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt and the survival of Jews and Judaism. It is the first story in recorded history to celebrate the idea that slaves can become free.

The Seder we have – our order of eating foods and reciting stories – comes from rabbis in Roman Palestine. Around the 1st Century CE, a group of rabbis stayed up all night, celebrating Pesach.

At that time, they had to answer a major question: should they take up arms in resistance against Rome? One religious leader, Rabbi Akiva, argued for revolution and military resistance. This is his Seder. We follow his words.

Over the centuries, we have continually repurposed the original story of resistance against Egypt to contemporary oppressions experienced by nations and other communities. We remember the story of liberation that we may be inspired by hope for our ongoing campaigns.

As a festival of escape and liberation, it has long provided a focus among radical Jews, both practising and secular, for reminding ourselves of the many continuing oppressions experienced by nations and other communities, and for adopting Pesach’s universal hope: for the liberation of all who are unfree.

Through this Seder, we make connections with many contemporary struggles for freedom from oppression: Indian small farmers who engaged in a huge year-long strike to protect their livelihoods; black Americans demanding racial justice; women seeking the freedom to live safely without the threat of violence inside or outside their homes. For all we are daring to dream.

Though we range widely in our solidarity, we never forget the Palestinians who, with their progressive Jewish allies inside Israel and around the world, continue to struggle for justice, human rights, an end to violence against people and property and for political recognition and equality. We speak out in support of their struggle and dare to dream with them. We will hear more about this particular struggle as the evening progresses.

This year (again) we note the over-lapping of Easter, Ramadan and Pesach and hope that such a timely coincidence can be deployed by all of us for a peaceful and cooperative future. So, tonight, we welcome to our Seder celebration everybody; Jewish, of another faith or of none. We set no test of religiosity, observance, denomination or politics. We try to include a range of voices and different ways of identification, while recognising that there can always be others. But our key message is: whether this is your first Seder or your ninety-first Seder, you are equally welcome.

The organisers trust you will be inspired by its content, by our participant readers, and by our continuing solidarity with those who are persecuted and oppressed.

Tonight, join us in resistance.

Tonight, join us in hope.