Many Israelis were in a somber mood Monday as they prepared to kick off Passover, the Jewish holiday of freedom, saying they would celebrate the holiday instead of celebrating it, with more than 130 hostages remaining in Gaza.
The number of hostages believed to be alive is unclear and, with negotiations with their Hamas captors stalled, there is little prospect of their imminent release.
The festival will begin on Monday after sunset with the traditional Seder meal. By tradition, this is a joyful gathering of family and friends who follow a ritual order of blessings over symbolic foods while telling the biblical story of the slavery and suffering of the ancient Israelites in Egypt and their exodus and liberation.
Israelis are still on edge after an exchange of fire with Iran this month, the first time Tehran directly attacked Israel from Iranian territory. And the country continues to mourn the approximately 1,200 people Israeli authorities say were killed in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, which sparked six months of deadly fighting in Gaza so far. More than 250 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s ground invasion in late October, the military says. More than 34,000 Palestinians have died in the war, according to Gaza health officials.
Daily retaliatory attacks on the northern border with Lebanon have turned part of Israel into a no-go zone. Tens of thousands of residents in northern and southern Israel remain in temporary accommodation, having been evacuated from their homes.
“We will mark the Seder night for the children,” said Irit Feingold, 35, a preschool teacher who was attending a pro-hostage rally in Jerusalem on Saturday night and planned to spend the night Monday. with about 25 members of his group. Extended family.
“We will talk about leadership, freedom and staying free, and everyone will be able to share what they feel,” he said.
Many families like Ms. Feingold’s have been having emotionally charged conversations about how to commemorate the holiday, and some said they preferred not to have a Seder at all.
“Every festival is another milestone that shows we are not complete,” Feingold said, adding that it was imperative to resist returning to normality and routine. Her husband, a reserve soldier, will return to Gaza after the holidays.
The organization that represents most of the hostages’ families urges families to place an empty chair at their table with a portrait of a hostage or a yellow ribbon. Traditionally, Jews leave an empty chair at the Seder for Elijah, the biblical prophet revered as a harbinger of hope and redemption.
“All the symbolic things we do at the Seder will take on a much deeper meaning this year,” said Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, is a dual citizen of Israel and the United States. , he was taken captive to Gaza after his arm was blown off during an assault on a roadside bomb shelter. He had taken refuge there after fleeing the Tribe of Nova music festival.
Mentioning the salt water that is part of the Seder ritual to represent the tears of the Israelites while they were held captive in Egypt, Ms. Goldberg-Polin told reporters that she would participate in a Seder with close friends and family, “and they have “It’s been very clear that if in 15 minutes we just can’t do it and we need to cry, then we will cry.”
Hundreds of survivors from Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the border villages that was attacked on October 7, planned to hold a community Seder in a Tel Aviv square that has become a focal point of the campaign to free the hostages.
A quarter of the residents of another border village, Nir Oz, were killed or kidnapped. Avner Goren, son of the founders of the communal village, wrote a poem comparing the Israeli people to a fruit salad (some sour, some sweet) to celebrate the country’s multicultural mix in a version of the Haggadah that Nir Oz produced late from the 1990s.
Goren was killed on October 7. His wife, Maya Goren, was kidnapped and taken to Gaza and declared dead. Addressing the rally in Jerusalem on Saturday night, Rabbi Binyamin Lau said he intended to sit at the Seder table with his family, an empty chair with a photo of his friend Alex Dancyg, a Holocaust expert. by Nir Oz that is still hostage, and a fruit salad.
Rabbi Lau, son of a Holocaust survivor, said: “We are a people who tell a story at any time and under any conditions.”
Myra Noveck contributed reports from Jerusalem, and Gabby Sobelman of Rehovot, Israel.