Download JCUA’s Freedom and Justice Haggadah

The JCUA Passover Haggadah celebrates freedom and justice.

JCUA celebrates Passover with the popular Freedom and Justice Seder. We remember and celebrate the important work of social justice and that work that remains to done.

As the Haggadah says, “from generation to generation, each of us is obligated to see ourselves as though we personally had just been freed from slavery.”

► DOWNLOAD THE HAGGADAH HERE

We must remember the past to understand today and to protect our tomorrows. Therefore, in each generation and each year, we retell the story of the exodus to our children and to our grandchildren, in order that they, too, will understand the pain of slavery and the value of freedom.

Taking Passover from Remembrance to Action

Right about now you may be preparing for next week’s Passover Seder. Each year we gather with family and friends to share the story of a people with newly found freedom who vowed to teach their children (and their children’s children) the lessons of oppression.

The Israelites were freed from Egypt, but oppression still exists: hundreds of people lose their homes every day, workers are unable to earn a living wage, parents are separated from their children…

Every year, JCUA’s Or Tzedek program teaches Jewish teens these important lessons of oppression. Through a summer intensive program and year-round institute, Or Tzedek gives teens the chance to learn about issues of poverty and inequity by combining unique hands-on service opportunities with reflection on Jewish texts and history.

This year, why not fulfill the promise of Passover by helping teach our children how to create a world free from oppression. Please give today to support this life-changing program. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar.

The Passover story doesn’t change, but each year, the world around us does. Please give to Or Tzedek, a program that moves the Passover story from remembrance to action.

Thanks for your support.

Wishing you, your family and friends a happy Passover,

Making Passover Meaningful

“I feel that freedom is Judaism, that Passover is not 3,000 years old- that it is today, and that we are part of it.”
-Rabbi Robert J. Marx, Founder of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs

Every year, JCUA updates its Haggadah with current social justice issues for our Freedom and Justice Seder. The Haggadah provides materials to enhance Seder discussions and helps Seder participants reflect on what it means when it is written in the Torah:

“You shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).

[Download your free copy of the Haggadah]

Wishing you a happy and meaningful Passover!

Home: A Poem About Displacement

This poem, by Or Tzedek alumnus Benjamin Jacobi, was performed at the 2011 Freedom and Justice Seder organized by JCUA and Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

Home
Is where the heart is.
And the thing I find the hardest
Is to stop the cycle once it’s started,
So let’s start this
Now.
Home
Should not be merely a privilege, but a right.
But beyond where you lay your head at night,
It’s community, it’s relationships, and for this is what we fight. Displacement can cause destruction—the level of which is awesome.
To be uprooted is to suffer, a tree with no roots will never blossom.
It carries with it not merely change of location,
For a look at what it does let’s focus on incarceration:
Every sentence is life despite judge’s intended.
A prison term isn’t like you’re life’s suspended
Put on pause, press play once the term has been served.
No, the world spins while one sits—tell me is that what’s deserved?
A year, is not a unit of time, it’s a
Unit of missed birthdays, weddings, lessons, moments, memories
Or opportunities, promotions, new friends it’s these
Things
That are impossible to take into consideration.
This is my dissertation
I can offer no consolation,
Until one provides an alteration.
The system’s position on this is abdication.
One example not enough? You require further explanation?

Freedom and Justice Seder 2011: Exploring Themes of Displacement

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation invite you, your family and friends to join us in song and celebration at our annual Freedom and Justice Seder.

Our Seder includes Jewish choral music and readings from many ethnic traditions. This year’s theme focuses on displacement in relation to Chicago history, incarceration, immigration and housing.

Tickets sell quickly so RSVP today! We are looking for event sponsors. Purchase extra tickets for our friends who may not be able to afford the cost for the event.