As violence against Jews skyrockets across the globe, we’ve launched a new weekly newsletter to track and make sense of the speed and severity of this virus. You can sign up here to receive it. This week, we begin with a reflection on the Jewish holiday of Passover. As Jews the world over gather to celebrate, Free Press digital editor Josh Kaplan shares the strange disquietude he felt attending seder this year—and the holiday’s enduring demand to keep showing up anyway.
This year, for the first time, I invited my (non-Jewish) fiancée to celebrate Passover at our local Chabad in London. I wanted her to experience the joy and the warmth that a proper seder could bring. To explain to her the traditions that, one day, I hope our children will come to embrace.
But I hesitated, in a way that I’m not sure I would have a year ago. Was I putting her at risk? The invitation felt more of a burden to place on her shoulders than a gift. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised: In recent years, life for Jews has felt more under threat than at any point in my lifetime.
But even by post–October 7 standards, it feels different this year. Why?
