‘Let My People Go’ has a new meaning this year
As we get closer to Passover this year, this “holiday of freedom” feels much different than in years past. In observance of the holiday, which commemorates the Israelites’ emancipation from slavery in ancient Egypt and is regarded as the “birth of the Jewish nation,” Jewish people around the world will begin Passover with a seder on the evening of April 22.
During this seder, we’ll recount the story of the Exodus, read from a Haggadah, eat symbolic foods, sing traditional songs and recite prayers.
The Haggadah concludes with the proclamation: “Next year in Jerusalem,” which was only a dream during some generations, when it wasn’t possible to actually go there.
This tradition of remembering the Exodus each year is mentioned In the Torah, (Exodus 12:21-51), where it indicates when the holiday should be celebrated and for how long. Exodus 12:24 reads: “You shall observe this as an institution for all time, for you and for your descendants.”
From the time the original Israelites made this journey to when they were exiled from the biblical land of Israel (after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the king of Babylon, Nebucahadnezzar) and dispersed throughout the world to today - the Jewish people recount the Exodus every year during Passover.
At some points in history, these observances had to be done secretly - such as during the times of the Spanish Inquisition, in the former Soviet Union and the Holocaust, when Jews were not allowed to freely practice their religion.
This celebration of freedom is a way to commemorate our past, but this year, with 134 hostages held in captivity for more than six months after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the phrase “Let My People Go” hits differently.
This celebration of freedom is a way to commemorate our past, but this year, with 134 hostages held in captivity for more than six months after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the phrase “Let My People Go” hits differently.
The world shifted after Oct. 7 and somehow what used to be considered evil (terrorism, murder, rape) is now being celebrated and lauded by many in the western world. An Associated Press photographer who accompanied Hamas terrorists to document their Oct. 7 massacre in Israel recently received a prestigious award in the Photo of the Year competition by the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
The first place for “Team Picture Story of the Year” includes a photo of the terrorists in the back of a white pick-up truck with a half-naked woman lying face down in the back of the truck with armed men.
Before the photo was taken, German-Israeli Shani Louk, 22, was dancing at a nature peace rave in Israel. After Hamas infiltrated the Israeli-Gaza border and attacked the Nova Festival, they kidnapped and killed her and drove around Gaza City in celebration as onlookers cheered. (A video of this was one of the first viral videos posted by Hamas on Oct. 7, which included Gazans shouting “Allahu Akbar” with some in the crowd spitting at her body.)
Shani Louk was one of thousands of attendees at the music festival, where more than 360 attendees were murdered and over 40 were taken hostage. Her boyfriend, Orion Hernandez Radoux, a tourist with French and Mexican citizenship, was abducted to Gaza and has not yet returned.
Around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed on Oct. 7 and more than 240 people were taken hostage. Yet instead of these barbaric acts being condemned by the western world, many are celebrating these acts, and saying they were justified. For more than six months, 134 hostages of different religions and nationalities, ages 14 months to 86 years, have been held captive and there doesn’t seem to be any world outrage about that. Instead Jewish people, businesses and organizations around the world are being verbally and physically attacked by anti-Zionists because of Israel’s response to the war.
These protestors claim to protest due to humanitarian purposes because of the deaths and displacement of innocent Gazans, yet they spew hatred and call for the destruction of the state of Israel - and those around the world who support the idea of a Jewish homeland. They express vitriol against Israel’s response to being invaded and attacked - without any sympathy for any of the Israeli civilians affected by this war. These “humanitarians” aren’t not protesting to raise awareness about the million people fleeing their homes due to violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the 12 million Syrians that have been displaced over the past 13 years of the Syrian conflict or China’s persecution of the Uyghur population, but only are speaking up for Gazans through condemnation of the only Jewish state in the world.
Billions of dollars are being sent to Gaza for humanitarian aid and many countries (including Israel) are sending in tons of food - why aren’t the Gazans getting the supplies? What are their leaders doing to help them?
The air strike on World Central Kitchen workers was horrible and tragic - and Israel owned up to it, calling it a “grave mistake” that is being investigated. Sadly, that kind of thing can happen in a war zone - just like the three hostages that were killed by IDF troops. That’s a big difference than the murders of Israeli civilians that are celebrated by Palestinians - with the murderers’ families being heavily compensated by the Palestinian authority (often called a “pay for slay” program.)
What I don’t often see in the mainstream media is how Israelis are affected by this war.
Around 200,000 Israelis were displaced from their homes since Oct. 7, due to rocket attacks by Hamas in the south and missiles from Hezbollah in the north.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of April 4, about 600 IDF soldiers have been killed and more than 3,000 injured since Oct. 7. Many weren’t on active duty on Oct. 6 - they were in the reserves and stopped their regular lives to defend their country, some even returning from their homes outside of Israel to help.
Thousands of Israelis have protested in Tel Aviv, with Israelis calling for a cease-fire in exchange for the hostages and calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. The same week, at a pro-Palestine rally in Teaneck, New Jersey, (outside a synagogue hosting a ceremony remembering victims of the Oct. 7 attack), a Harvard grad student called for the annihilation of the Jewish state and advocated to bomb Tel Aviv. In other words, the pro-Palestinian protesters are not the only ones that want the war to end, but they get so caught up in their hatred, that they don’t even notice.
The discrepancies between all the different narratives is so frustrating. For instance, on Instagram, there’s a nonprofit that raises money for children in Gaza and their posts never - not even the one on Oct. 7 - mention the Hamas attack on Israel, the hostages or those killed in Israel. Their language only includes phrases such as “Israeli apartheid,” and “decades of Israeli settler colonial violence” and insinuate that Israel just keeps on attacking Gaza because they want the land (which Israel voluntarily left in 2005). The anti-Israel organizations use the same language over and over again; “apartheid” “settler colonial” “genocide” - it’s like they’re using the same style guide. They accuse Israel of “genocide,” with no acknowledgement that their leaders are the ones who started the war.
Ironically, many of those Israelis who lived near the border in southern Israel actively sought to help Gazans.
What’s also ironic is that many of those Israelis who lived in the Kibbutzim in southern Israel actively sought to help Gazans. One organization, Road to Recovery, is made up of about 1,000 volunteers who would drive sick Palestinians, mostly children, from checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza to hospital appointments in Israel. One of the hostages, Naama Levy, who was 19 when she was kidnapped on Oct. 7, was a participant in the Hands of Peace project, an organization working toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
You have so many in the world trying to depict Israel - and anyone who supports its existence - as evil and genocidal - and call the Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters.” These “freedom fighters” literally call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews around the world and people see them as the heroes. Meanwhile, the Jewish community, from what I have witnessed, continues to pray for peace, expresses grief for the innocent lives lost on both sides and wants all the hostages - regardless of religion or nationality - to be released.
Throughout history - ever since the Israelites first left Egypt - they have been persecuted, so it should be no surprise that it’s happening again.
However, when leaders of a people are blatantly calling for the death of Jews around the world and college students across the U.S. and Europe - our worlds’ future leaders - are among those cheering them on, what does that mean for the future of the world?
All of humanity should be chanting “Let Our People Go” and praying for peace.
#bringthemhome