Empty Seder table set to remember the 133 hostages
▶ AN EMPTY SEDER table has been installed at JW3 for Pesach to represent the hostages still being held by Hamas.
The powerful symbol, which was initially unveiled opposite Downing Street, includes 133 empty chairs and posters bearing the faces of the hostages who remain in captivity six months on from the Hamas atrocities of October 7.
The empty seats include one for the youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, who spent his first birthday in captivity, and the oldest hostage, Shlomo Mantzur, who turned 86 in Gaza.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis attended the opening of the installation on Wednesday, when he discussed Passover as a symbol of personal and national freedom.
Organised by the UK Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the table “seeks to evoke a powerful visual representation of the void that [the hostages’] absence creates in the lives of their loved ones and communities”.
Nivi Feldman, from the UK branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, told the JC: “This year, celebrating the holiday of freedom and coming out of slavery in Egypt feels harder than ever when 113 hostages remain in inhumane conditions in Gaza and their fate is unknown. We originally located it in Westminster so as many MPs as possible could see the sheer number of people who will be missing from their families’ Seder tables this year.”
The Pesach installation comes as the Board of Deputies urged individuals and families to set an extra place at their Seder table for one of the hostages still in captivity.
Board president Marie van der Zyl said: “At the Seder table, the youngest among us will ask the traditional Four Questions. But for many of us, there will be another question this Pesach left unanswered.
“How can we discuss being redeemed from slavery, when Hamas still holds [over] 130 men, women and children in the most vile captivity?”