All posts tagged: Jewish holidays

Israelis prepare for a Passover overshadowed by war and loss

Israelis prepare for a Passover overshadowed by war and loss

Published by Sam

JERUSALEM (RNS) — As the normally joyous communal holiday of Passover approaches this year, many Israelis say the war in Gaza has dampened the prospect of holding a Seder — the communal retelling of the ancient Israelites’ escape from Egypt from enslavement based on the Bible’s Book of Exodus.  “I think that over 50% of the people I know won’t be up to it.” said Naomi Efrat, a Reform rabbi who lives in Israel. “They will either be demonstrating at Hostages Square,” a public plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, so-called because it’s where families of Oct. 7 hostages have gathered, “or simply avoiding the Seder because it’s too difficult emotionally.” The eight-day (seven in Israel) holiday begins Monday night (April 22) at a time when more than 230 Israelis or their remains are in Hamas captivity after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and as Iran and Israel have been trading attacks over recent weeks.  In Israel, some households are limiting the number of Seder guests out of fear that Iran or one …

In time for Passover, the first Ukrainian-language Haggadah goes to print

In time for Passover, the first Ukrainian-language Haggadah goes to print

Published by Sam

(RNS) — For centuries, Ukraine was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, but never before had the Haggadah, the Passover liturgy that millions of Jews will read around their Seder tables next week, been translated into Ukrainian. Just in time for this year’s holiday, however, an initial print run of 1,000 copies of “For Our Freedom,” a haggadah in Ukrainian, has been produced by Project Kesher, an American Jewish nonprofit devoted to empowering Jewish women worldwide. “This has become part of our identity as Ukrainian Jews,” Michal Stamova, the Haggadah’s translator, told Religion News Service. “It’s not only a translation; it’s our life. It’s our culture for the last many years and all of our memories: how we celebrated our first Seders when we were students, all the memories that we remember from our parents who were Jews during the Soviet Union, when baking matzo was forbidden.” Why a Haggadah in Ukraine’s national language is only now going into print after hundreds of years of Jewish life and three decades …

How many Holocaust memorial days do we need?

How many Holocaust memorial days do we need?

Published by Sam

(RNS) — “So, did I hear that today is some kind of Holocaust memorial day?” A friend asked me that question this past Friday. “Yes,” I replied. “It’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day.” “Got it,” he said. “But, isn’t there also that day in the spring … ?” “Yes,” I replied. “That would be Yom HaShoah.” A respectful pause. “And then, isn’t there also one in November?” He was referring to the commemoration of Kristallnacht. His implicit question hung in the air: Why do we need three Holocaust memorial days? Why, indeed? Let’s look at the calendar of Jewish Holocaust memory — in the order of the cycle of the Jewish year. First: Nov. 8-9, 1938. Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, the true beginning of mass violence against the Jews of Germany and Austria. When Jews remember Kristallnacht, what are they remembering? We remember that we were passive, because this is what the Nazis did to us.  It is not only what the Nazis did to the Jews. It is also what the Nazis attempted …

This War Isn’t Like Israel’s Earlier Wars

This War Isn’t Like Israel’s Earlier Wars

Published by skeptic

On Saturday night, I was seated on the first El Al plane to fly from the United States to Israel since Hamas had attacked my country. Many airlines had canceled flights to and from Israel, but El Al had refused to grant the terrorists that victory. Though we took off after midnight, sleep was impossible. My mind writhed thinking of the reports of unbearable Israeli casualties, the images of the captured and the dead, and the prospect of wider war. Alongside those waking nightmares was an agonizing irony. I’d just come from participating in events in New York marking the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Just as in 1973, when Israeli reservists living or vacationing abroad rushed to rejoin their units already in combat, my plane was filled with young men ready to trade the thrills of New York for the horrors of a war under way. Their presence was another reason to reflect on the eerie similarities and stark differences between these two wars, both of which broke out on Jewish holidays—the …