Dear friends,

As we prepare to celebrate Pesach this year, I am haunted by these words from the musical Les Misérables:

“There's a grief that can't be spoken There's a pain goes on and on Empty chairs at empty tables Now my friends are dead and gone.”

Along with our Israeli brothers and sisters, we are in visceral pain this year. We mourn those brutally murdered by Hamas on October 7th. We grieve those who fell in battle defending our Jewish homeland. We no longer feel safe because of the vile antisemitism surrounding us. And of course, we ache for the hostages and their family and friends, suffering every minute of every day.

Yet our tradition compels us to not merely observe Passover, but to celebrate it. As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Z”L wrote “The Jewish festival of freedom is the oldest continuously observed religious ritual in the world. Across the centuries, Passover has never lost its power to inspire the imagination of successive generations of Jews with its annually re-enacted drama of slavery and liberation.”

This year, many of us will celebrate Passover with a symbolic empty chair at our seder table for the hostages. At my family’s table, the chair will be for Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) student Noa Argamani, a Hamas captive for over 6-months.

October 7th has forever changed us, and I take enormous pride in the resilience of Israelis and the Jewish people. This year, as we recite the story of the Exodus, let us dream of the role and responsibility we all have in rebuilding the Negev. As BGU President, Professor Daniel Chamovitz wrote, “We are both strong and broken” and our tradition teaches us that we will prevail.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom and a Chag Pesach Kasher V’sameach,

Andrea Freedman
CEO BGU Canada