Passover

“The liberation from Egypt defines us as a people. As a touchstone for Jewish identity, it was our essential passage as we prepared for revelation. We do not reenact the Exodus story only once a year during Pesach...Redeeming those who remain captive and preventing future enslavement must be our moral imperative every day” (Pesach Slavery Then and Now by Rabbi Gilah Langner)

Passover

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2013 Passover Materials:

Ten Ways to Bring Human Rights to Your Seder

Make your seder relevant to today's pressing issues, with these ten suggestions for using drama, visuals, and discussion to bring human rights to your seder.

A Tomato on the Seder Plate

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a widely-acclaimed organization of farmworkers who are working to end abusive conditions in Florida’s tomato fields, which have long created fertile ground for modern-day slavery to flourish. We mobilize the Jewish community to participate in the Campaign For Fair Food as part of its larger commitment to fight modern slavery and human trafficking. Place a tomato on your seder plate to symbolize the workers of the CIW. Download the Tomato on the Seder plate resource: A Tomato on the Seder Plate

Making the Leap for Freedom: A D'var Torah for Parashat Shmini 2013/5773 by Rabbi Andrea Goldstein.

2012 Passover Materials:

Did a slave produce the wheat for my matzah? What about the wine or the egg? Guess how many slaves worked to produced your seder, and learn what steps you can take to root out slavery in our supply chain. Download "A Passover Taste of Slavery Footprint."

Slaves are found in the supply chains of products we buy every day. We are proud to offer a Passover taste of the website SlaveryFootprint.org, which allows you to figure out how many slaves work to produce your lifestyle. Download "A Passover Taste of Slavery Footprint."

Other Resources

10 Revolutionary Ideas to Explore at Your Seder by Rahel Musleah, Jewish Woman Magazine, featuring Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of T'ruah and Rabbi Ayelet Cohen, T'ruah Board Member.

Passover Resources from Fair Trade Judaica. This includes a free Hagaddah supplement, photos of cocoa beans to place on your seder plate, a "virtual" bar of Kosher for Passover Fair Trade Chocolate, and a petition for Kosher for Passover Fair Trade chocolate, signed by hundreds of Jews nationwide. Take action to ensure that our holiday is both delicious and slavery-free.

2011 Passover Materials:

Each year, as we tell the story of our ancestors' enslavement and redemption, we move through time from the past to the present to the future. We look to the past to help us understand the commitment to the stranger in our midst, because we were strangers in Mitzrayim. In the present, we see ourselves as though we were slaves. And we pray for the future when we say "Next year in Jerusalem." But while our own slavery is in the past, it is very much the present reality for millions of people around the world. More than 27 million people live as slaves today. Slave-made goods are present in many of the products we buy. And human trafficking is not just a problem overseas. The United States is both a destination for slavery and a source, as American citizens are trafficked for sex and labor. As we tell our story of slavery, we must tell the story of modern enslavement as well. T'ruah has created table cards for your seder with four stories of modern slavery (part 1)(part 2).

2010 Passover Materials:

Rabbis for Human Rights – North America is please to present a variety of resources for your Passover celebration. This collection of materials focuses on the sad reality that for millions, slavery is not yet history. We invite and encourage you to use this “Feast of Our Freedom” to both learn and teach about modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Please print and use them at your Seders, in your synagogues, classrooms and beyond. We would like to thank everyone who contributed materials for this packet.

Bound Together: Contemporary Slavery and Global Poverty by Rabbi Steve Gutow
A Passover Sermon by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater
Pesach and Slavery Then and Now by Rabbi Gilah Langer
A Slavery Fact Sheet by Abby Cohen
The Ten Plagues by Abby Cohen
The Four Children by Rabbi Gilah Langer and David Arnow
Four Questions by Abby Cohen

Additional Haggadah Supplements:

Passover and Human Rights: Interfaith Perspectives: December 10, 2008, marked 60 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This remarkable document, which was a direct response to the barbarism of the Holocaust and the Second World War, affirms the inherent rights of each human being. Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars were asked to reflect on how our faiths relate to the values of Passover and its imperative for tikkun olam, the repair of the world. Each of their statements is followed by a series of questions. We invite you to read one or more of the statements, and then discuss the questions.

Passover, Gaza and Human Rights: Rituals for your seder about the IDF's Chief Rabbi's booklet "Go Fight My War."

Next Year May We Be Free: Discussion Questions for Your Seder by Rabbi Ed Feld and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster.

Haggadah l'Yom Zechuyot Shel Adam: A Human Rights Haggadah: By Rabbi Margaret Holub and Rabbi Sheila Weinberg and edited by Gilah Langner. You can think of using the Hagadah in a variety of settings: a special service in synagogue, kiddush following Shabbat services or at a family gathering at home.

Passover Economic Justice Hagaddah: This Hagaddah on economic human rights for use in the Pesach Seder was brought together and edited as a Shalom Center project by Lee Moore, on behalf of, and for distribution by, Rabbis for Human Rights North America and Rabbis for Human Rights Israel in 2003.