Two prominent Jewish leaders told Newsmax in a joint interview on Friday that Passover, which this year takes place from April 12 to April 20, provides “reassurance about the future” in a turbulent time.
Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of the Jewish outreach organization Aish, and Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman emeritus of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told “Newsline” that Passover remains crucial in the modern era.
Burg said Passover “is an incredibly important holiday because it commemorates [that] we were slaves, the Jews were slaves in Egypt, and really they saw no way out. And Moses came along and showed them hope and showed them that freedom was every person’s right.”
He added: “That really started … the last thousands of years of people fighting for their rights. And so it’s important for us as Jews, we’re still fighting for our rights.”
Burg said the hostages being held by Hamas “are in our hearts, and we’re praying for them. We’re fighting for them every day. But the world, really, this is what it’s all about. It’s about freedom, and it’s about God really loving every single person and us coming together to live great lives.”
Hoenlein said that “the actual prototype for antisemitism was Pharaoh in the story of the Exodus, which took place 3,500 years ago.”
He added: “The Pharaoh did not accuse the Jews of doing anything wrong. He just said a hypothetical what if enemies attack us and they would join us? And his only … complaint was that they were successful in contributing to Egyptian society. And we see that echoed down till today.”
Hoenlein noted: “We say in the Passover Seder that in every generation, enemies arise that seek to destroy us. It doesn’t use the past tense.”
He continued that the message of Passover is “not just about Jews. It’s the enemies that arise within and without that, all of us have to be cautious about and aware of and fight. … So we come together as families on the Seder with friends and others.
“It’s a time of unity. It’s a time of conciliation, but also of reassurance about the future that we face many challenges in the past, we overcame them, and together with our friends we will overcome the challenges that we see today.”
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