2020 Liberation Seders - Cancelled due to Corona Virus

Our Liberation Seder is back. This year the Seder will take place in Hamilton and London. This year the Seder will be in Solidarity with the Palestinian Political Prisoners.

We are also please to announce that, once again, our own Rabbi Lucia Pizarro will co-lead the Seders in Hamilton and London with SandraLaya.

Photo: Rabbi David Mivasair with Palestinian Flag

About Rabbi Lucia Pizarro

Lucia was born in Mexico City, where she became qualified to practice law. She completed an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Essex in the UK. She followed her academic passion for Jewish thought with four years working for social justice in Palestine. She recently became a mother and a Rabbi.

Photo of Rabbi Lucia Pizarro

About SandraLaya

SandraLaya is a mother and grandmother, a choir member, after school teacher and lay leader in her Temple community. Today she is working toward her ordination as a Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess). 

Sandra lives in Toronto area and works as a Holistic Health Care practitioner, human rights activist, and Teacher/Facilitator. She has traveled extensively for both work and pleasure. She brings a sincere openness to people and their personal beliefs and values.

 

Definitions of "Passover" and "Liberation Seder"

We offer the following definitions of "Passover" and "liberation seder": At Passover ("Pesach" in Hebrew), Jewish families celebrate with a ritual family dinner at which the story of the liberation of the ancient Hebrews from oppression in the land of Egypt ("Mitzrayim"), is recited. Seder means "order"—the order of the meal and ritual of Pesach that Jews all over the world have participated in for centuries. It is customary among Jews to invite guests, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to join their Passover celebration.

Our Liberation Seder draws on the legacy of Rabbi Akiva who used the Pesach Seder to plan a revolutionary struggle against the Romans, and of the many Jews in every generation who have used the Seder for political purposes, including the Partisans of the Warsaw Ghetto who began their revolt on the first night of Pesach, not only because the tactical need of the moment, but also because their understanding of the meaning of the Passover story.

As Jews committed to current liberation struggles, we enact this ritual to honour our history of resilience and participation in diverse movements for human emancipation across time. The ritual of the Seder gives us an opportunity to contend not only with legacies of oppression but also with current suffering that we survive, that we perpetrate and in which we are complicit.

Our Seders are dedicated to a free Palestine and the liberation of all peoples.