As We Enter This Sacred Time

As we enter this special stretch of days — beginning with Shabbat and moving into Passover — I find myself feeling the weight of both history and the present moment. There is so much going on in the world, especially for the Jewish people. We make up only 0.2% of the global population, and yet, we have been the target of outsized hate and blame for thousands of years.

Since October 7th, I’ve immersed myself in books, podcasts, documentaries — seeking to understand more deeply. I come from a family of proud labor Zionists on my grandfather’s side, and it’s like something awakened in me. The generational trauma, the need to stand up for my people — it’s seething out of me now.

People often ask: Why is there so much hate directed at Jews? Dara Horn, in her book People Love Dead Jews, explores this question. She suggests that Jewish people historically represented the radical idea that human life is inherently valuable — long before that became a universal norm. Jewish presence in a society has often signaled freedom, precisely because we’ve never been the majority. So when a society shifts toward conformity or control, Jews become the scapegoat. We are the “canary in the coal mine.” And now, the cycle has returned with a vengeance.

Most people in the world will never meet a Jew. It’s easy to demonize what you don’t know. I remember reading a book called The Jewish Mystique years ago. It explained how negative narratives developed: when Christians were forbidden from lending money, Jews — who were barred from most professions — ended up in finance. That necessity became a twisted accusation: “Jews control the banks.” In Jewish culture, education has always been a core value. The smartest boys in the shtetl became rabbis and had large families. In other faiths, those same minds might have become celibate priests. Over generations, you see the result: Jews are vastly overrepresented in things like Nobel Prizes. But there’s always someone ready to turn our successes into conspiracies.

So what does any of this have to do with food? Maybe nothing. But in another way, everything.

As Jews around the world gather for Passover seders, we are commanded to remember — to tell the story of hardship, perseverance, and the fight for freedom. This year, that feels especially urgent. We still have hostages. Innocent people who were taken from their beds, festivals, and kibbutzim — just because they were Jewish. That was their only “crime.”

The hate and misinformation we see today is heartbreaking and frightening. But I am not hiding. My family came to this country over 100 years ago, fleeing persecution in Belarus and Russia. They were running from the same hate we now see returning in different forms.

As Douglas Murray says:

• We were hated by the Romans for not worshipping enough gods.
• Then by the Christians for worshipping the wrong god.
• Then for being poor and stateless.
• Then for being rich and powerful.
• And now… for having a state.

Anti-Zionism is the newest face of antisemitism.
Zionism is not extremism. It is simply the national movement for Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland.

This Passover, may we all hold our heads high. May we remember our story. May we cherish our freedom — and never stop fighting for it.