Did you know that HIAS, the international refugee agency with deep Jewish roots, makes available a free Haggadah with an emphasis on refugees.
HIAS was founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. Today, it assists refugees of all faiths, everywhere.
“The Passover story is the Jewish people’s original story of becoming strangers in a strange land,” reads HIAS Haggadah’s introduction. “It is the story that reminds us that we, too, have stood in the shoes of refugees and asylum seekers in search of safety and liberty.”
The HIAS Haggadah is not a traditional one, so perhaps not for everybody. But for those who are open to adjusting the Seder experience, it offers, for example, the dipping of karpas for “the Rohingya father,” “the Syrian mother” and “Somali and Ethiopian refugees.” Feel free to insert Ukraine refugees, too.
The HIAS Haggadah also reads: “As a refugee people – an immigrant people – we know that anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant hatred are deeply entwined. Tonight, we retell the story of the moment when first these hatreds met thousands of years ago, as Pharaoh declared that the Israelites had become too numerous in Egypt. Sadly, this narrative has repeated itself throughout Jewish history and continues to be weaponized, often with lethal consequences.”
You can download the HIAS Haggadah for free at Hias.org/passover.
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