Holidays Help Tell the Story
Jews for Freedom has chosen to focus on Jewish holidays as hooks for messaging and action. We don’t do this lightly; but we are following in the footsteps of the sages. There’s a section of the Passover Haggadah in which five rabbis in B’nei Brak discuss the Exodus from Egypt all night until their students inform them that it was time for morning prayers. Many of the Haggadot used today make the claim that this was an allusion to preparations for the Bar Kochva revolt against the Romans. Historically accurate or not, connecting today’s urgent actions with major events in the past is not an antiquated practice; it’s a living tradition.
Jewish holidays celebrated in a largely secular, non-Jewish country push us inward, to face each other as families and in community. They are a time for joy, reflection, and sometimes even sadness. It is on us to pull those threads and connect them to our present reality. And so that is what we’ve done and will continue to do.
During the High Holidays, we encouraged Rabbis to drash democracy. What we meant is that democracy itself requires interrogation and explication, something we practice all the time on the bima.
This past Hanukkah, we put out a guide for hosting Light and Unite! parties that celebrated the anti-authoritarian meaning of that holiday while building community and deepening our political understanding. We even added a touch of fun and whimsy with a new game: Latke Logic, a mash up of a dreidel game and Jeopardy.
Right now we’re getting ready to participate in the Spring of Sacred Action. We’re not going to share those details just yet, but rest assured that those actions will help all of us cross the Red Sea to freedom. If that appeals to you sight unseen - sign up here to get a first look as soon as it’s ready.
February 11, 2026
It might be a tad hyperbolic to look at what is happening in Minneapolis these days and immediately hear echoes of the Holocaust, or the genocide of Native American tribes. But that is indeed what comes up for Beth Gendler, of Jewish Community Action in Minnesota.
Holidays Help Tell the Story
Jews for Freedom has chosen to focus on Jewish holidays as hooks for messaging and action. We don’t do this lightly; but we are following in the footsteps of the sages. There’s a section of the Passover Haggadah in which five rabbis in B’nei Brak discuss the Exodus from Egypt all night until their students inform them that it was time for morning prayers. Many of the Haggadot used today make the claim that this was an allusion to preparations for the Bar Kochva revolt against the Romans. Historically accurate or not, connecting today’s urgent actions with major events in the past is not an antiquated practice; it’s a living tradition.
Jewish holidays celebrated in a largely secular, non-Jewish country push us inward, to face each other as families and in community. They are a time for joy, reflection, and sometimes even sadness. It is on us to pull those threads and connect them to our present reality. And so that is what we’ve done and will continue to do.
During the High Holidays, we encouraged Rabbis to drash democracy. What we meant is that democracy itself requires interrogation and explication, something we practice all the time on the bima.
This past Hanukkah, we put out a guide for hosting Light and Unite! parties that celebrated the anti-authoritarian meaning of that holiday while building community and deepening our political understanding. We even added a touch of fun and whimsy with a new game: Latke Logic, a mash up of a dreidel game and Jeopardy.
Right now we’re getting ready to participate in the Spring of Sacred Action. We’re not going to share those details just yet, but rest assured that those actions will help all of us cross the Red Sea to freedom. If that appeals to you sight unseen - sign up here to get a first look as soon as it’s ready.