During Passover, we reflect on our history of suffering and bondage — of Pharaoh and the plagues, of our ancestors' escape out of Egypt, and of the long journey through the wilderness that followed. In Hebrew, Egypt is called Mitzrayim — a narrow place, a place of constriction and oppression. The Egypt that enslaved the Jews was a Mitzrayim, but it isn't not the only one. The Mitzrayims of today include white supremacy, transphobia, sexism, xenophobia, and brutal, racist policing.

CJJ is committed to confronting and resisting the narrow places of our time, and we also remember that for every Mitzrayim, there is a wide expanse of freedom, and that the Promised Land — the world as it should be — is our destiny. We are meant to be free. All people are meant to be free. And we get there by marching together.

Below you'll find a collection of invitations and resources for Passover 5782. Please contact us at [email protected] to contribute additional recommendations.

Elsewhere's 11th Annual Radical Seder

Tuesday, April 19, from 5:30-7:30pm: CJJ is cosponsoring the Elsewhere Museum's 11th Annual Radical Seder! Stay tuned for more info soon!

Never Again Action Community Seder

Tuesday, April 19, at 8:00pm: Out friends at Never Again Action are gathering together as a movement to celebrate Passover with ritual, song, storytelling, and at least 4 beverages. We'll hear from partners in the fight for immigration justice and connect our stories of collective liberation across time. Friends, family, and community of all kinds are welcome! RSVP here.

Other Resources
We invite you to check out these awesome social justice haggadot/supplements/other resources by our partners for use in your own seders.

• Download Bend the Arc's new Passover resource, Four Cups of Liberation, which features beautiful illustrations, readings, and discussion questions that form a glimpse into what liberation can and does look like — and into the transformation we are called to do together. 

• Check out Jewish Community Action's Freedom Seder Haggadah, and their second annual social justice haggadah supplement!

• Connect the Passover story and today's refugees with the HIAS haggadah.

• Transform your seder into a conversation about immigration, racism, workers’ rights, and forced labor with T'ruah's human rights haggadah, "The Other Side of the River, The Other Side of the Sea."

• Check out the collection of Next Year in Freedom Haggadah Supplements developed by Narrow Bridge Candles, to center Disability Justice in this year's Passover Seder.

• Download AJWS’s Global Justice Haggadah to bring our ancient story of freedom into the 21st century, inspiring action to build a better world.

• National Council of Jewish Women created The Five Women of the Exodus: A Feminist Supplement about the five women integral to the Passover story who aren't named in the Haggadah.

• Our friends at the Shalom Center have brought together a new multireligious amalgam called ExodusAlliance.org to organize Passover actions challenging Chase Bank, one of the most entrenched investors in the companies that burn Earth, our common home, and other bank-like pools of great wealth that comes from us. Take a look at the website, read its resources, let its graphics seep into your soul, and then take action with your friends, your clergy, your students.

• Highlight the role Jews must play in confronting racism and abusive policing with JFREJ's #BlackLivesMatter haggadah supplement.

• Strengthen your connection to Latin-Jewish identity this festival season by incorporating elements of Jewtina y Co.'s Passover Supplement: Latinx Edition (and numerous Passover recipes) into your Seder experience.

• Learn how to make critical change on a number of issues with JUFJ's Labor Seder and Social Justice Seder resources.

• Add poetry and art to your seder with the modern classic "Love and Justice Haggadah" by Dara Silverman & Micah Bazant.

• Practice your Yiddish with The Workers Circle's "Haggadah for Peysakh."

• Engage in sacred play with "The Liberate Your Seder Haggadeck" from Ritualwell and Taya Mâ Shere.

• Find new seder rituals—including naming new plagues and a new prayer before the second cup of wine—from Ritualwell and Rabbi Jason Klein.

• Entertain your guests with "Escape the Plagues," a social justice Passover puzzle game. Part of the proceeds will go to Jews of Color Initiative.

• Choose from a wide variety of creative and justice-oriented haggadot from Haggadahs-R-Us, available for purchase and download.

• Order slavery-free, kosher for Passover chocolate from T'ruah and Equal Exchange. (Buy by March 15 to ensure delivery for seders!)