In just over a week, we will be opening up our wine-stained Haggadot and retelling the story of our exodus from Egypt. Our story is both transcendent and deeply personal, especially in this second Pesach in the midst of a global pandemic. We are all living through a modern-day plague, and our most vulnerable continue to suffer.
It is beginning to feel different since so many have already received their vaccinations, but please understand our community remains in deep crisis.
Food insecurity, unemployment, increasing mental health challenges, and a still shaken Jewish communal infrastructure are just a few of the dramatic continuing symptoms of this pandemic.
As a child restlessly sitting at our Seder table, I remember being preoccupied with the fifth glass of wine and the slightly opened front door of my grandparents’ house. I asked my grandfather all about Elijah and when and if he would ever walk through that door.
This year, we are going to open our front door wider. We are going to not just pour a glass of wine for Elijah, but we are going to make a meaningful gift to our Jewish community through our Jewish Federation to honor Elijah and our scared work. We have a responsibility to do our part to get our community out from Covid’s enslavement, enabling us to cross this metaphorical Red Sea to the Promised Land of an inspiring and flourishing Jewish future.
This is the great power of a gift to The Jewish Federation. We got through the past year together. Please join me and my family in making a gift that continues our work in the year ahead.
I sincerely hope that you and your family have a meaningful Pesach and that you have continued good health.
Chag Sameach,
Jay Sanderson
President & CEO
