Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Jewish holiday of Passover, also called Pesach.
Passover
The Latest
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Opinion Entering Passover under the plague of vaccine guilt
As I unpack my Passover dishes and prepare to host a Seder that includes my aging parents — an enormous luxury compared to last year’s Zoom-only reality at the start of the pandemic — I find myself facing waves of an unfamiliar feeling. Vaccine guilt: That’s the guilt you get when you’re vaccinated and other…
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News Former Soviet Union Jews eat pounds of matzah per person — the most in the world — every year. Here’s why.
(JTA) — When it comes to consuming matzah, the Jews of the former Soviet Union are in a league of their own. At the top of the chart are Azerbaijan’s 8,000 Jews, who this year are expected to consume 10 tons of the unleavened bread cracker that Jews eat on the week of Passover to…
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Fast Forward Biden, Harris, Doug Emhoff speak at White House Passover celebration
President Joe Biden made an appearance at the White House Passover celebration on Thursday, telling the nearly 10,000 virtual attendees one way in which this year’s seder is different from all others: “Not only ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ but ‘next year in person!’” “As we seek to rebuild from a time of struggle and loss,…
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Community What I hope we learn from two Passovers in social distancing exile
Last year, as we prepared for our first physically distanced Seder, I wrote a poem, my first ever, about the ritualistic importance of U’rchatz: handwashing, in times of a pandemic. It ends with: To remember all those who have lost or have been lost. Tonight, we wash our hands for ourselves, and for others, We…
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Culture This Passover, honor 5 women who made the Exodus possible
This Passover we can honor the tenacity of Miriam, the agency and pain of Yocheved and the commitment of Batya — women whose efforts helped lead us out of Egypt. After all, we owe them. Though they were pivotal to Moses in his efforts to shepherd our people out of bondage, these figures are given…
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Food You know what your seder plate needs this year? Uyghur salad.
What makes Passover different from all other holidays? On other holidays, we pray, then eat a festive meal. On Passover, the festive meal is the celebration, food itself is the prayer. We eat matzah to recall our enslavement and liberation, bitter herbs to recount our sorrow and haroset our hardship. We taste slavery and freedom,…
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News Why do the Jews of India call Passover ‘The holiday of the covered clay pot with the sour liquid’?
The Bene Israel, India’s largest Jewish community, doesn’t call Passover Passover. The word in their language, Marathi, is “Anashi Dhakaicha San,” which means “The Holiday of the Closing of the Anas.” San is the word for holiday, and anas refers to a sour liquid in a pot. It makes sense that the Marathi word for…
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News How is this White House Seder different from all others?
The Biden administration is hosting a virtual Passover Seder open to the general public on Thursday in a move to expand its outreach to the broader American Jewish community, the White House told the Forward on Wednesday. Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and a Member of the Tribe, is expected to…
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