Many Israelis were in a somber mood Monday as they prepared to celebrate Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom, saying they would mark the holiday instead of celebrating it, with more than 130 hostages still in Gaza.
The number of hostages believed to be alive remains unclear, and with negotiations with their Hamas captors deadlocked, there is little prospect of their imminent release.
The holiday will begin after sunset on Monday with the traditional Seder meal. Traditionally, this is a joyous gathering of family and friends who ritually bless symbolic foods as they retell the biblical story of slavery and the suffering of the ancient Israelites in Egypt and their exodus and liberation.
Israelis are still nervous after a firefight with Iran this month, the first time Tehran attacked Israel directly from Iranian territory. And the country continues to mourn some 1,200 people who Israeli authorities say were killed in a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7 that led to six months of deadly fighting in Gaza until now. The Israeli military says more than 250 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its ground offensive in late October. According to Gaza health officials, more than 34,000 Palestinians have died in the war.
Daily tit-for-tat attacks on the northern border with Lebanon have turned part of Israel into an enclave. forbidden area. Tens of thousands of residents in northern and southern Israel remain in temporary housing after being evacuated from their homes.
Irit Feingold, 35, a kindergarten teacher, was attending a rally in support of the hostages in Jerusalem on Saturday night and planned to spend Monday night with about 25 members of her group. , said: “We will mark Seder night for the children.” Big family.
“We will talk about leadership and freedom and being free, and people can share what they feel,” she said.
Many families like Ms. Feingold’s have held emotional conversations about how to celebrate the holiday, with some saying they don’t want to celebrate a Seder at all.
“Every festival is another milestone that shows how incomplete we are,” Ms. Feingold said, adding that it is imperative to resist a return to normalcy and routine. Her husband, a reservist, will return to Gaza after the holidays.
The organization that represents most of the hostage families is calling on families to place an empty chair at their table with a picture 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 Seder will have a meaning,” said Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, holds dual Israeli and U.S. citizenship. much deeper and deeper this year.” , was taken to Gaza after his arm was blown off while an attack on a roadside bomb shelter. He had been hiding there after fleeing the Tribe of Nova music festival.
Referring to the salt water that was part of the Seder ritual that symbolized the tears shed by the Israelites when they were enslaved in Egypt, Ms. Goldberg-Polin told reporters that she would attend a Seder with close friends and family, “and they were very clear that if in 15 minutes we couldn’t do it and we needed to cry, then we would cry.”
Hundreds of people survived on Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the devastated border villages being attacked On October 7, we plan to hold a general Seder in Tel Aviv square there become the focus for the hostage release operation.
A quarter of the residents of another border village, Nir Oz, were killed or kidnapped. Avner Goren, son of the village’s founders, wrote a poem comparing Israelis to fruit salad – some sour, some sweet – to celebrate the country’s multicultural blend for a Haggadah version that Nir Oz produced in the late 1990s.
Mr. Goren was killed on October 7. His wife, Maya Goren, was kidnapped and taken to Gaza and declared dead. Speaking at a rally in Jerusalem on Saturday night, Rabbi Binyamin Lau said he planned to sit at the Seder table with his family, an empty chair bearing a photo of his friend Alex Dancyg, a Holocaust expert from Nir Oz, who is still a hostage, and a Mixed Tree Boy.
“We are the people who tell a story at any time, under any conditions,” said Rabbi Lau, himself the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Myra Noveck Contributing reports from Jerusalem, and Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel.
