The Seder of Solidarity

Pesach before Israel

I came across the following extraordinary account by Golda Meir of Pesach in 1946; it exists in slightly different versions in various places:

On April 8, 1946 I received a telegram from Italy in which it was written:

“We are 1100 Jewish refugees. We boarded the Dov Hoz boat at La Spezia Port in order to depart for Palestine which is our last hope. [British] Police arrested us on board. We are declaring that we shall not leave the boat. We demand permission to continue to Eretz Yisrael. We declare: we will sink with the boat in the sea if we shall not be able to continue to Palestine, as we have already reached the last stage of despair.”

The next day the refugees started a hunger strike. The National Committee in Israel asked them to stop fasting due to the harsh conditions on the boat but we decided that we, the representatives of the National Committee, would fast for them, and we started a hunger strike in Israel until the boat would receive permission to sail to Palestine.

On the second day of the hunger strike there was a general fast of all the Jews in Palestine from the age of 13 and upwards. We suddenly felt that we were a single, united people.

On the third day of the fast it was the eve of Passover, and thousands of people came up to Jerusalem to express their empathy and carrying flowers. The Chief Rabbis [Herzog and Uziel], who fasted together with us and who conducted the special Seder, decided that everyone would eat a small piece of matza the size of an olive…. We read from the Haggadah: “In each and every generation one must consider himself as if he has left Egypt... the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not only redeem our forefathers but rather we were also redeemed together with them.” Every year on Seder night we say those words, but this time we understood them in a new way.

I will never forget my children joining me at the Jewish Agency for the Seder, which may have been their most important lesson in the suffering of the Jews, the love of Judaism, and the resilience of the Jewish people.

The day after the Seder, we were notified that the refugees had been allowed to enter Palestine. So, on the first day of Passover, the 101-hour fast ended.

Check out this page for a video of the arrival of the Dov Hoz

How blessed we are to have a country which never closes its doors to Jews who need refuge. And may this Pesach be the harbinger of change, in which the Jewish People again unites as one on behalf of each other. Chag Sameach!