20 | MAY 2 • 2024 
J
N

O

n Passover, Jews 
throughout the world 
gather to tell the story 
of their ancestors who were slaves 
in Egypt. The Haggadah enables 
seder participants to relive the 
Hebrew slaves’ misery in Egypt 
and gratitude for God’s interven-
tion to free them from bondage. 
 Like many other Jewish hol-
idays, remembering the past 
is considered central to Jewish 
observance and identity. But this 
year, the Oct. 7 Hamas attack 
resulted in a starkly different 
framework for the holiday.
About 250 individuals — 
Israeli, American and many other 
nationalities — were taken hos-
tage by Hamas and other terrorist 
groups and held captive in Gaza.
While 105 were returned alive 
to Israel through a prisoner 
exchange, approximately 133 are 
still missing. For them, freedom 
is an elusive hope.
The annual Passover messag-
es of the Jewish Federation of 
Detroit and Hadassah suggested 
that 2024 seders include an empty 
chair to symbolize the hostages or 
that a special blessing be recited 
for them. Even before Federation’s 
message, some local individuals, 
temples and synagogues were 
planning recognition of these 
hostages at family and communal 
seders.
At Temple Beth El’s second 
night communal seder, Rabbi 
Mark Miller included a “special 
conversation about ‘Captivity 
Then and Now.
’” 
Rabbi Steven Rubenstein of 
Congregation Beth Ahm, said, 
“It was impossible for most Jews 
to sit at the seder table and not 

think about the war in Israel — 
those who died on Oct. 7 and 
those who remain in captivity. I 
concluded seder with the singing 
of ‘Hatikvah;’ that alone felt dif-
ferent this year from past years.
” 
Don Cohen of West 
Bloomfield, who recently 
returned from a two-week trip 
to Israel, brought back a small 
hand-carved chair from a set 
of doll house furniture from a 
home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where 
many residents were killed, 
injured or taken hostage. 
While the kibbutz is closed 
due to massive destruction by 
Hamas, he was able to visit the 
now-abandoned community 
with a friend’s relative, a kibbutz 
resident who gave him the small 
chair from his own home. 
Cohen put the chair on his 
seder plate “to remind us of the 
hostages and our struggle for 
freedom.
” Years ago, he added an 
artifact to his plate from a pre-
vious tragedy — a piece of glass 
from a chandelier in the Park 
Hotel in Netanya, Israel, where 
30 people were killed and 140 
injured by a suicide bombing in 
2002 as they took part in a seder.
Rubinstein also included in the 
congregation’s seder part of the 
Acheinu prayer from the morn-
ing Torah service, which he said 
has been sung throughout the 
Jewish world since Oct. 7. 
“It says ‘May the Holy One be 
merciful to our fellow Jews who 
wander over sea and land, who 
suffer oppression and imprison-
ment. May God soon bring them 
relief from distress and deliver 
them from darkness to light, from 
subjugation to redemption …
’” 

Local seders focus on hostages. 

Seders Unlike 
All Others

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

A hand-carved 
dollhouse chair 
from Kibbut Nir Oz 
was placed on Don 
Cohen’s seder plate.

Dollhouse furniture 
and other items 
were left behind 
after the attack on 
Kibbutz Nir Oz.

PHOTOS BY DON COHEN

WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US FOR OUR ANNUAL SEND A KID TO TAMARACK EVENT

HONORING ELAINE AND MICHAEL SERLING AND NAOMI MILLER, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 6:30 PM AT TEMPLE ISRAEL.

VISIT TAMARACKCAMPS.COM/SK2T-EVENT TO MAKE YOUR GIFT AND REGISTER ONLINE.

