Passover amid pain
Families of hostages mark 200 days since abductions
Passover this year is about honoring freedom and remembering those held hostage. Before the holiday, hostages’ family members, a rabbi, and an author spoke about how to navigate the holiday this year during wartime.
This year, the holiday, which commemorates Jews’ freedom from slavery, will take on a deeper, more emotional significance for Jews in Israel and worldwide. The third day of the holiday, April 24, marked 200 days since the hostages were abducted .
Family members of some of the hostages shared their emotions regarding how difficult the holiday will be because of the prolonged absence of their loved ones.
Aviram Meir, the uncle of Almog Meir Jan, 21, who was taken captive from the Supernova desert party and is now believed to be a hostage of Hamas, said: “Our feelings are [difficult] before the holiday. We are facing the 200th day since Almog’s kidnapping. We do not see the end; the feeling is that there is no air to breathe. Passover will be different this year.”
Yotam Cohen, the brother of Nimrod Cohen, 19, who was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, said that “celebrating a holiday about freedom is the last thing on our minds. We will continue fighting every day. We hope we’ll be able to celebrate Passover with my brother at home, but we know it is unlikely it will happen.”
Cohen added: “If my brother isn’t back home, we’ll just continue fighting.”
Ayala Harel, the niece of Michel Nisenbaum, 59, who was kidnapped near Sderot and still is being held captive in Gaza, said she “didn’t want to celebrate Passover because Michel is not free, but I will do it because of my kids. I must celebrate Passover for them, but it is with a heavy heart.”
Udi Goren, cousin of Tal Haimi, who was murdered in Hamas captivity at age 41, shared that “we have a big family, and it is a chance for everyone to see each other. We’re always looking forward to it. Passover is more than just the holiday of freedom. It has always been a huge, joyful evening for us, but this year, it will not be this type of occasion. This year, we’ll miss my cousin, so it won’t feel like a holiday or a festivity, and there is no freedom in the air. It’s a sad Passover,” he said.
Given the difficult times that Israelis – and Jews worldwide – are currently living through, it can be challenging to navigate the holidays, said Rabbi Rafi
Ostroff.
“Passover this year has a feeling of just having left Egypt and the Jewish people’s hope for redemption, a miracle, something positive to hold on to during one of the hardest periods of our lives,” he said.
“Another name for Passover is ‘Hag Haherut,’ meaning the Festival of Freedom. This year, when talking about freedom, we must acknowledge we’re talking about real people. These individuals with names and families had their freedom interrupted, and we need to rescue them from captivity, so it is a year that the message of Passover is very literal and not just something spiritual,” Ostroff added.
“In every single generation, when the Jews in the Diaspora were threatened, they thought of returning to the Land of Israel to prevent these threats from ever happening again. One of the reasons why Israel was created was to prevent pogroms like October 7, like the uncountable other traumas throughout Jewish history worldwide,” Ostroff continued.
“That commitment of Israel and Diaspora Jews to prevent such violence was put on an endurance test since that terrible day and eroded our sense of security – in the South, with the war in Gaza, in the North with the threats from Lebanon and Syria, and everywhere antisemitism can reach,” he said.
“For me, this year, Passover’s central question is what it means to be a free Jew in a world with a free State of Israel amidst such hard times. Also, if you are a Jew in the Diaspora, to reflect that, despite the war in Gaza and the threats in northern Israel, many Jewish communities around the world are at greater risk in their current countries than the vast majority of Jews in Israel. This is happening in front of our eyes in America and most of Europe with this recent hike in antisemitism,” said Ostroff.
According to the rabbi, many Jews worldwide plan to acknowledge the hostages and the war in Gaza with special holiday activities this year.
His plans include going to Hostages Square,with his children. In addition, during the Seder, many additions were made to memorialize the political situation.
For example, adding an empty chair to the dinner table to represent the hostages being held in Gaza. This is something many people did in the ’80s to honor the Jews trying to escape the Soviet Union. “This year, I also suggest adding this extra chair, putting a picture of a hostage of their choice, and
trying to learn and share that person’s story. Where did they come from, what was their life like, and what had happened to them? All this can be done by adding a fifth cup of wine to the seder,” Ostroff suggested.
Given the despair many Israelis and Jews feel, especially the families of the hostages, the question has arisen whether to celebrate Passover at all this year.
According to Jamie Geller, a bestselling cookbook author and the CMO of Aish, an international Jewish organization that promotes education and Jewish identity, “Many families of hostages might not celebrate Passover this year because their hearts feel so heavy, but many will celebrate because Passover is so special. People look forward to this holiday, and not having a Seder would make them even sadder. Think about it: Passover is more celebrated and observed than any other holiday,” she said.
Given that there are so many children, siblings, mothers, fathers, spouses, and grandparents of the 130 captives still in Gaza, naturally, there are mixed feelings about celebrating freedom right now, asserts Geller.
“In these hard times, we need to use it to speak about what it means to be free as individuals, as communities, as a nation around the world, and as a Jewish family. Because we have members who are not free right
now,” she added.
“Adding an extra empty seat at the Seder table is part of my plans to memorialize the hostages. I also plan to make a table as big as I can, invite those in need closer to me, and fill the table with food that symbolizes our togetherness as a Jewish
family. Many people in Israel are struggling economically, with so many people serving in the army right now and the war impacting many sectors of the economy. We already have indicators that Israel added a significant amount of ‘new poor’ to the already existing
fraction of its population that is impoverished,” Geller continued.
When cooking for the Seder, many foods can also help represent the sense of Jewish family and unity, said Geller, who suggested cooking something from a Jewish background different
than your own.
“I plan to include a chicken tagine, a staple from Northern Africa, and a tabbouleh, symbolizing Syrian and Lebanese Jews,” she said, explaining that her family origins are of Ashkenazi descent from Transylvania.