A message from ALLMEP Founder and President, Avi Meyerstein, including a new haggadah supplement for Passover

Dear friends,

As many in our community have just finished celebrating Ramadan, many of us now look ahead to Passover and Easter. For all of us, these holidays come at a difficult moment in history, full of dilemmas even for something as simple as a holiday meal. At such a heavy time, how can we celebrate? With so much polarization, how can we come closer together? 

As Passover approaches, we’d like to share a new resource that can help. 

One of the strongest lessons for me from the Passover story and rituals is to put ourselves in the other’s shoes. During the seder, we say that we imagine as if we, ourselves, escaped from slavery, using salt water to represent the tears of our ancestors. We remember that because we were once strangers in Egypt, we have a biblical command never to oppress others. 

Most powerfully, after recalling our ancestors’ suffering as slaves, we also remember that their liberation came at a human cost to their enemies. We remove a drop of wine — a symbol of joy — from our cups as we recall each plague that hit the Egyptians. The result? In remembering their humanity, we’re also preserving our own. 

This is the second Passover of the worst war in Israeli-Palestinian history. Tens of thousands are dead or injured. Hostages remain in captivity. Millions are displaced. Missiles, rockets, and bombs still rain down. And the dehumanization of each other that makes it all possible continues. This is hardly a vision of freedom, security, or peace — for anyone. 

Importantly, while you may be reclining at the table, this is not a holiday of passivity. Passover calls us not only to celebrate liberation, but also to seek it. For inspiration, we should heed the modern voices of liberation — Israeli and Palestinian changemakers who offer fresh thinking and new ideas to help free us from the tired old ways that have failed us time and again. 

Those voices can now be at your seder table this year. In collaboration with the Shalom Hartman Institute, we’re proud to share this haggadah supplement with words of shared struggle, liberation, renewal, and hope from Israelis and Palestinians who are doing the hardest work together. We hope you’ll print it, share it, and use it to add meaning and a sense of shared purpose and vision for everyone at your seder table.. 

Wishing everyone celebrating a happy, meaningful, and peaceful holiday.

Chag kasher v’sameach. 

Avi Meyerstein