Temple Beth El Blog

Every year we retell the story of Passover at our seder tables, saying we were once slaves in Egypt, but now we are free. This year, when we relive the story of our own liberation, we can also think of the millions of people around the world who are still enslaved by poverty, violence, discrimination, and many other afflictions. They are women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people fighting for rights and equality, indigenous people protecting their land and struggling to survive the ravages of climate change, activists speaking out against injustice, and so many more. At this year’s seder, we can challenge ourselves to take a more active and meaningful role in hastening their freedom.

The exodus story and the holiday of Passover are perfect occasions for bringing our social justice values to our celebrations. The Union for Reform Judaism provides many Passover resources.

We also invite you to use the following resources to enrich your celebration of Passover. Most are free a few are available for purchase.

Jump to the section that interests you:

Against Bullying

• BBYO Passover Seder Supplement
  Created by BBYO, a pluralistic teen movement, this one page reinterprets parts of the seder plate as symbols for standing up against bullying and injustice, showing respect, and committing to community.

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Against Sexual Assault

• Hillel International’s “How Do We Free One Another” 
  This seder supplement, focusing on ending sexual assault, was produced in partnership with the It’s On Us campaign.
• Passover, #MeToo, and a Mirror on Your Seder Plate
  Thirty years ago, feminists added Miriam and the midwives to our seders. But now, to address the #metoo movement and our societal need for deep reckoning around gender, sexuality, and power, it is time to take a step further by adding mirrors to our seder plates.

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Antisemitism

• Four Questions About Anti-Semitism To be inserted in the Haggadah and recited in unison after reciting the Ten Plagues.
• Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Haggadah Supplement
  Each year since 1999, this organization has released a seder supplement that tells the story of a non-Jew who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The 2021 supplement and all the past ones can be downloaded here.
• CCAR Passover Haggadah Supplement: Prayers, Poems, Songs, and Meditations in Response to October 7
  Haggadah supplement focused on the war in Israel

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Coronavirus

• The Four Children and COVID-19
  As we grapple with a global pandemic, the struggle to find freedom from illness weighs heavily on our hearts and minds. How do we engage with our children when they ask about this crisis? Jewish facilitator Jordan Namerow shares thoughtful questions to spur timely conversations.
• Hope Amidst the Tears: A reflection on karpas during the time of COVID-19
• Passover Prayer in the Age of Coronavirus
• Haggadah Insert: Four Questions for Making a Difference from a Distance
  In this time of global pandemic, our lives have been disrupted in significant ways, and we find ourselves asking questions we may not otherwise have ever thought to ask.
• A Prayer of Hope During This Pandemic by Rabbi Naomi Levy
• A Special Prayer for Healing at Our Passover Tables
• Honoring this Moment COVID-19 Haggadah Supplement
• Approaching Our Second COVID Seder

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Disability Justice

• Next Year in Freedom Disability Justice Haggadah Supplement

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Environment and Climate Change

• Earth Justice Seder
  A Passover Haggadah for environmental justice.
• The Promise of the Land Passover Haggadah
  An ecologically oriented Haggadah.
• Passover: Dipping Parsley into Water of Tears: The Earth Cries Out to Us
  An environmental reading written by Rabbi Warren Stone for the karpas, dipping a green veggie in salt water.
• Plastover: An Exodus from Plastic Waste
  Every Passover, Jews around the world give up leavened bread—chametz. It’s a sacrifice we make willingly, to recall our ancestors’ journey from slavery to freedom. But what if we could make another kind of sacrifice—one that would have an immediate impact on the world? What if we chose to mindfully free ourselves from the plague of plastic waste?
• Green Your Passover A three-part series from Repair the World. Part 1: Preparing for the Holiday; Part 2: The Seders; Part 3: Cleaning Up
• The Four Children of Climate Change
  Guide for discussions about our Jewish obligation to “till and tend” the earth and varying beliefs on climate change.

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Food Justice

• Food Justice Seder Additions
  Four Questions and Four Children through the lens of food justice.
• Ha Lachma Anya: Food and Justice Haggadah Supplement
  The Uri L’Tzedek Food and Justice Haggadah Supplement features essays, insights, and action to unite food, social justice, and ethical consumption.
• Sustainable Passover Resources from Hazon
  Supplements, recipes, ideas, and more.
• A Haggadah for a Socially Responsible Chocolate Seder
  On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao.
• Vegan Passover Tips and Recipes from Shamayim: Jewish Animal Advocacy
  To recognize the forms of oppression that still exist toward animals, workers in the food system, and the environment today, it fits to eat vegan during this holiday. Read on for tips and recipes that will guide you toward a fulfilling, plant-powered Passover. Also check out their Passover Guide.

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General or Multiple-Topic Justice Related

• Passover Social Action Guide from the Religious Action Center (RAC)
• 8 Modern Additions to the Seder Plate
  Each represents another way to bring social justice issues to your seder experience.
• American Jewish World Service Passover Resources
  Includes seder resources, family activities, text studies, commentaries by well-known people, and more.
• A Fifth Cup for Justice
• Ve’ahavta’s Creating Tables of Justice Seder Supplement
  Incorporates emerging ideas on freedom and a guide to social activism including the four social activists (instead of the four sons), an alternative seder plate, a fifth question, and readings such as "Maror: The Bitter Reality of Human Trafficking."
• The 10 Plagues: Suffering and Affliction
  As we read the 10 plagues, we spill drops of wine from our cups, mourning the suffering the Egyptians endured so that we could be free. This year, as these drops spread across our plates, let us turn our hearts toward the millions of people around the world suffering today’s plagues of hatred, prejudice, baseless violence, and war.
• Ten Plagues of Inequality
  On Passover, we remember the ten plagues that were put upon the Egyptian people. Thousands of years later, modern-day plagues of inequality should ignite contemporary responses to combat these injustices.
• This Passover, Think of the Modern Plagues
• The Seder Plate (RAC)
  Learn about items to add to your seder plate that will help spark discussion on social justice issues.
• Putting Social Justice on the Table 
  PJTC Haggadah supplement in order to amplify and deepen the Jewish connections to social justice and to underscore their application to the world we live in today.
• A Modern Dayenu
  This song, found in the seder, thanks God for the myriad miracles that took place at the time of the Exodus. "Dayenu" can also allow us to express our gratitude for all that has taken place in recent times. When we celebrate the successes of the past, we remember the ongoing need to help those who are oppressed in other communities.
• Four Cups of Wine: Social Justice Readings for Your Seder
• A Haggadah for Justice
  This Haggadah includes pieces from various sources on a variety of social justice issues.
• René Cassin, the Jewish voice for human rights: Women's Seder
  This seder celebrates the women of the exodus, their untold stories, and the individuals who inspire us today.
• Social Justice Haggadah Companion
• Resisting Tyrants Since Pharaoh: A Seder Supplement
  A short text and discussion prompts for your seder, as you retell the story of our slavery in Egypt.
• A justice guide for each night of Passover
• Bring Moving Traditions to Your Passover Seder Table
  Multiple activities and seder supplements around a few issues from the #metoo movement and women's rights to our own well-being.
• Gateways Haggadah
  Designed for children with special needs; with an updated companion guide.
• Passover resources for a more accessible seder
• Areyvut Questions for Seder and Beyond
  300 hundred questions organized by topic to spur discussion at your seder and throughout the year.

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Global Jews

• JDC Entwine‘s ReOrdered
  Dive into the global and interconnected Jewish world through the timeless themes of freedom and storytelling.
• Ukraine Conflict
  Two supplements from JDC
• Bukharian Passover Traditions and Recipes
• A Variety of Passover Resources Celebrating Jewish Diversity from Be’chol Lashon
• Trivia Place Cards
  Welcome your guests to their seats with these trivia place cards, created in partnership with Be’chol Lashon, and celebrate Passover rituals from diverse Jewish communities around the world (can be done as a game virtually).
• Abayudaya Jews of Uganda Passover Resources 

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Human Rights

• The Other Side of the River, the Other Side of the Sea: A Human Rights Haggadah
  This Haggadah by T'ruah the rabbinic call for human rights helps transform the seder into a conversation about immigration, racism, workers’ rights, and forced labor. Filled with insightful comments and thought-provoking questions, reflections from activists in the field, and full-color artwork done by detained immigrant children and forced labor survivors, the haggadah can serve as the full text of a social justice seder, a section-by-section companion for the traditional haggadah, or a source for the occasional insertion. Songs referenced in the haggadah are available here.
• A Tomato on the Seder Plate
  Standing with farmworkers to prevent modern-day slavery and expand human rights in the fields.

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Hunger

• Mazon's Fifth Question
  This Haggadah insert bring a new reflection about hunger to your seder table. "How will we retell the story of this past year, and all it has wrought?"
• Mazon's Hunger Seder Haggadah
  Centers the seder experience around hunger.
• All of Mazon's Passover resources

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LGBTQ

• Keshet’s Passover Resources
• Ma Mishtana – A Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Questioning Ally Haggadah
  Follows the traditional structure of the Passover seder but contains readings and discussion questions pertaining to LGBT identity and life.
• The Four Children of LGBTQ Inclusion
  Rabbi Dara Lithwick offers model for teaching about LGBTQ inclusion in an effort to make our seder tables—and our communities—ever more welcoming and free.
• Keshet’s LGBTQ: Four Questions Four Allies Haggadah Insert
• JQ International GLBT Haggadah
• PRIDE Freedom Seder Haggadah
• Different from All Other Nights: A Queer Passover Haggadah
  This Haggadah comprises songs, blessings, and readings culled from several sources—from the Rabbinic Passover seder to contemporary queer Haggadot produced by LGBTQ organizations and synagogues. It is a seder for all of us.

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Mental Health

• Passover and Mental Health Resources from The Blue Dove Foundation
  Readings, Haggadot, and activities to add meaning or a different perspective to your Passover.
• The Anonymous Haggadah
  A synthesis of the Passover ritual and liturgy with the twelve steps of recovery.
• At The Well’s Holistic Passover Detox

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Racial Justice

• Haggadah Insert: The Four People
  This insert reimagines the text of the four sons as the four people on different parts of their racial justice journey and is a conversation starter to contextualize what it means to pursue equity in today's world.
• The Four Children of Racial Justice
  Spark conversation about the importance of racial justice and the Reform Jewish commitment to equality.
• Religious Action Center’s “The Story of Modern Day Slavery: A Social Justice Haggadah”and Seder Supplement
  These resources infuse the entire seder with a global focus on freedom and justice.
• Tzedek Seder: Black Lives Matter
• The African American Seder Plate for Passover by Michael Twitty
• Living Our Commitment: Jewish Voices for Liberation by Jews for Racial Economic Justice
  Seder supplement with a Black Lives Matter focus. It's from a few years ago, so we recommend updating some of the references when using this.
• Mixed Multitudes: Nobody’s Free ’til Everybody’s Free (A Racial Justice Haggadah)
  Created for the 2016 Racial Justice Seder at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Manhattan, this Haggadah offers a vision for collective liberation blended with Jewish tradition and grounding.
• Jewish Resistance at the Seder Table
• Crying Out Against Mass Incarceration Haggadah Supplement
  This five-page supplement, created by the Jewish Working Group to End Mass Incarceration, offers readings, rituals, and songs for your seder. Our ancient story of liberation is bound up in the liberation of all people today from the chains of mass incarceration.
• Passover Pyramid Cutout
  Four Jewish racial justice leaders answer "What makes this night different from all other nights?"

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Refugees, Immigrants, Freedom, and Liberation

• Sharing the Bread of Libration - Reading from HIAS
  Explores the way matzah, called “the bread of our oppression” in the Haggadah, also becomes the “bread of liberation” — and how that transformation can apply to the challenges that forcibly displaced people face today.​​​​​
• Come and Learn: A Modern Immigration Midrash
  An immigration-related resource from T’ruah. An alternative to the midrash on “My Father Was A Wandering Aramean” during Magid.
• HIAS Passover Resources
  The HIAS Haggadah connects our story as displaced people, the Passover story, to today's refugees and the global refugee crisis in an interactive way. They also have other seder supplements to highlight the refugee crisis and action to take.
• Immigration Seder Companion
  Created by the social justice group Rabbis Organizing Rabbis, this brief insert on immigration reform helps relate the themes of Passover to this crucial and pertinent social justice issue.
• Enter the Water
  A special resource for recognizing and supporting our immigrant communities in your seder. “Enter the Water” adapts the ritual of hand-washing to encourage ourselves to each do our part to advocate for the dignity and safety of immigrants here in our neighborhoods, across the US, and around the world.
• “The Zookeeper’s Wife”–Inspired Haggadah by the International Rescue Committee
  A refugee-inspired seder supplement with a twist: The International Rescue Committee’s seder supplement (created with the help of HIAS) is inspired by the movie “The Zookeeper’s Wife.” The film (and the Haggadah) is based on a real-life Holocaust heroine, Antonina Zabinska (played by Jessica Chastain), who together with her husband saved 300 Jews by hiding them at the Warsaw Zoo, which the couple ran.
• Jewish World Watch‘s A Second Seder Plate
  An interactive Passover companion that brings focus to the issues that affect victims and survivors of genocide. With over 65 million people having fled their homes due to human atrocities, this aims to keep the plight of today's refugees at the forefront of our minds as we retell the biblical Exodus story.
• We Were Strangers Too: A Seder Supplement on Immigration
• Seder Supplement on Avadim Hayinu “We Were Slaves” by Repair the World in Partnership with Be’Chol Lashon
  Focusing on questions of modern-day liberation.
• Four Cups of Wine
  These four cups are derived from four expressions of redemption found in Exodus 6:6–7: "I will bring you out;" "I will deliver you;" "I will redeem you;" and "I will take you." Due to the positive, redemptive focus on each phrase, each cup could come to represent current groups that need to be "brought out, delivered, redeemed, or taken out." A short teaching can take place before each cup is blessed.
• American Jewish World Service Haggadah
  Extends the journey of Passover further into the 21st century and around the globe; leaving us inspired to act in the year ahead. Use the AJWS Global Justice Haggadah to spark meaningful conversations at your seder and connect our shared story of liberation with people fighting for freedom around the world today.
• Original Freedom Seder
  This Haggadah from 1969 inspired many other social justice Haggadot.
• Refugee Seder Supplement
  Readings and ritual to bring the voices of African asylum seekers to your seder table.
• Jewish World Watch Seder Plate additions
  For refugees and victims of mass genocide.

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Reproductive Justice

• From Oppression to Liberation: For the Pursuit of Reproductive Justice in this Generation Haggadah Insert
  The readings in this resource packet, designed to inspire your commitment to reproductive justice, are designed to be read before you drink each of the four cups of wine.

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