Spring is a season of holidays in many cultures worldwide. In Israel, as in Jewish communities elsewhere, the festival of Passover is celebrated each year in the middle of the month of Nissan, which this year occurs in mid-April. Easter, thematically related to Passover, will occur this year on April 20th, the concluding day of Passover.
Passover will commence with the Seder, a traditional meal with ancient roots, wherein Jewish families and their loved ones gather to recount their shared past by reading from the Seder guide text (the Haggadah) the story of freedom from slavery, the Israelites' exodus from Egypt and the search for inspiration for their shared future.
The Seder is a distinct Crossroads of Generations moment and opportunity —a time where past, present, and future converge, underscoring our shared commitment to bequeath our memories, our values and our hopes to future generations.
Even in the darkest times, this commitment has endured. During the Holocaust, Jews in different ghettos and camps found ways to observe Passover, at great personal risk. They often crafted their own Seder Haggadahs from memory, even illustrating them with the makeshift materials they could secretly obtain. The horribly brutal conditions faced by Jews under Nazi rule stood in stark contrast to the very notion of freedom, yet against all odds—perhaps precisely because of them— they demonstrated an unwavering determination to uphold the holiday’s traditions and thus ensured their transmission onwards.
This determination was expressed in an underground newspaper of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto, on the eve of Passover, April 1st, 1942:
“We are still having the festival of freedom at a time of inhuman slavery. And even though freedom is being trampled underfoot every day by the boots of the most terrible monster in all generations, it continues to flourish in our souls and we believe and hope. Passover, the most beautiful festival in our history, returns and revives the eternal idea of freedom in our memory. For [our] tortured [people] these days, it is a recollection of redemption.
These powerful words, written in the shadow of unimaginable suffering, remind us that even when freedom is violently denied, the human spirit can still assert its dignity and hope.
As we stand today at our own Crossroads of Generations, let us take a moment to reflect on the Holocaust and embrace our responsibility to remember it and face the profound questions that it raises: How can we ensure that the Shoah is never forgotten? What actions can we take to uphold values of freedom and justice in our everyday lives? How should we help shape a world free of antisemitism, hatred, and bigotry? What measures can we take to ensure that the legacy of the Holocaust continues to inspire and guide future generations?
I raised these fundamental questions with my hosts during my recent visit to my native Argentina, where I met with that country’s President Javier Milei, Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein and the leader of Argentina's delegation to IHRA, Ambassador María Fabiana Loguzzo. I also traveled to nearby Montevideo to meet with the Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Mario Lubetkin. I was impressed by the strong interest that they and key members of their staffs and of Jewish communities in each county, expressed in IHRA, its global mission and its potential impact there and throughout Latin America. I returned to Israel and Yad Vashem encouraged that even in today's distressing polarized and politicized climate, there is hope for the constructive dialogue and cooperation needed to energize our quest for truth, freedom and tolerance.
Wishing you all happy holidays.
Passover Haggadahs that were created during the Holocaust— From the Yad Vashem Collections
