Seder should be the Jewish and Zionist identity-building Super Bowl. Yet rather than planning spiritually, ideologically, substantively, most people make Passover prep the Spring-Cleaning Marathon. Too many reach the Seder table exhausted and amateurishly ill-equipped.
It’s trendy to anticipate having “difficult conversations” about Israel at Seder. Those worries are reactive – having failed to be proactive decades earlier. Anti-Zionist rebels are made, not born, as are nice, uninvolved kids who simply fear being canceled if they’re Israel-positive. Most young people can be raised to become proud literate Jews and Zionists, steeped in Zionist Seder memories.
Every Jewish home needs a Zionist Environmental Scan. The younger the kids or grandkids, the better. Is Israel celebrated at home? Do you serve ice cream for breakfast on Israel’s Independence Day? I was weaned on blue-and-white, from my weirdo Hebrew name to our house crammed with Zionist books and Israeli tchotchkes.
The Seder was an integrated highlight, educationally, emotionally, and – without my realizing it – ideologically. I remember my Uncle Irv’s excitement, describing visiting Israel with his boss, a generous philanthropist; Grandpa pouring out his wrath against the “antisemitten,” reciting “Shfoch hamatcha”; the adults worrying about the latest anti-Israel assaults; and us all delighting in Israel’s modern miracles while singing “Dayeinu.”
Adding Zionist messages to the Seder
The Haggadah celebrates Jewish peoplehood, Israel, and the redemptive power of returning home. Still, to further Zionize the Seder, I prepared, with the Jewish People Policy Institute, “JPPI’s Zionist Texts for the Seder.” Based on my 2018 book The Zionist Ideas, this updated anthology and conversation guide is available – free – on JPPI’s website: https://jppi.org.il/en/zionist-texts-for-the-seder-2026/.
While timeless, illuminating Jews’ 3,500-year-old love affair with Israel, these texts also capture this historic moment.
I’ve updated my 2003 meditation, memorializing 13 martyrs, whom we honor by leaving one empty seat at our Seder table. The list begins with Koby Mandell, 13, whom Palestinian terrorists murdered in 2001, includes the Supernova music festival martyrs Awad Darawashe, Ben Mizrachi, and Itai Bausi, then ends with Yaron and Ilan Moshe, the elderly couple recently murdered by Iranian missiles.
Balancing sorrow with joy, I propose a Fifth Cup, after kiddish, or toward the redemptive conclusion. Everyone should stand, say “Sheheheyanu,” thanking God for sustaining us, to hail Israel’s extraordinary victories since October 7: surviving, then crushing Hamas, Hezbollah, Assad’s Syria, and Iran’s evil regime.
Three texts follow. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s 1956 sermon “Listen, My Beloved Knocks” recognizes Jews as “a camp people” – defined by shared fate and shared enemies – and an “Edah,” a “Holy Congregation-nation” of mission, message, and destiny. David Ben-Gurion’s January 1948 address reluctantly vows to fight the upcoming war “and show a greater will to win.” But he champions Israel’s winning secret ingredient then – and now – “a vision of life, of national rebirth, of independence, equality, and peace.”
Many hostages affirmed life and lived Ben-Gurion’s vision. Agam Berger was an IDF lookout Hamas held brutally for 482 days. She describes how Liri Albag surprised her with “a sort of Haggadah with illustrations,” as the hostages observed Passover in Hamas Hell.
While breaking the matzah, acknowledge our broken hearts. Ben Zussman, a 22-year-old soldier, reassured his parents before being killed in Gaza: “I’m happy and grateful for the honor I have to defend our people, country, and Am Yisrael, the Jewish people.”
Framing sections of the Haggadah
Maggid starts with three framings.
Natan Sharansky, who will enjoy his 40th Seder since being freed from the Soviet Gulag, recalls how in discovering his identity as a Jew – and Zionist – he discovered freedom.
Former Sephardi chief rabbi, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, explaining that the Holy Land’s holiness inspires us to “show affection” even to the Western Wall’s “dust,” models how Judaism leverages simple rituals to express soaring ideals.
The American-born Israeli, Hillel Halkin, celebrates “the great adventure” of our return to Zion, saying “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” then marveling, “Had it not happened, could it have been imagined?”
One “Four Sons” supplement particularly resonates now. Tabby Refael salutes her connection as an Iranian Jew to Purim, while recognizing that “When you’re Jewish, it’s all in the family.” Let’s then challenge one another to embrace Iranians, Jewish and non-Jewish, supporting their hope – and ours – for a liberated Iran.
Another Maggid commentary offers the playwright David Mamet’s profoundly Zionist one-liner: “Real life consists in belonging.”
I added a modern “Dayeinu” toasting Zionism’s seven great achievements, from reestablishing Jewish sovereignty to creating Israel’s dynamic old-new Jewish culture.
Before eating, we read my cousin Adele Raemer’s description of “the sense of displacement and loss,” haunting her and her fellow Gaza corridor survivors last Passover. Still, they vowed “We will build again.” Today, Tel Avivis visit her neighborhood, seeking quiet. Her kibbutz, Nirim, will host its annual Seder back home.
For those who don’t add texts during Seder, dessert offers 20 Zionist one-liners. Everyone can pick one and agree, disagree, or, more analytically, appreciate how it explains Zionism. Reflecting the range of Zionist thought, the quotations confirm: While all Zionists are committed to peoplehood, homeland, and statehood, that leaves much room for robust debate. Such awareness might help us disagree more agreeably.
Creating I-Thou relationships
The philosopher Martin Buber urged individuals to cultivate profound, expansive, I-Thou relationships with others – and with broader phenomena like God. Alas, too many people have “I-It” relationships with Israel. For critics it’s a fashionable target – or fun tool for unnerving elders. But making Israel a sacred cow also objectifies and distances.
Seders should become launching pads toward new, meaningful, relationships with Israel; that’s Identity Zionism. Modeling the ideological, spiritual, and emotional dividends reaped from investing in Zionism, the movement of Jewish empowerment, will be good for your soul – while inspiring the young’uns, too.
The writer is an American presidential historian and Zionist activist born in Queens, living in Jerusalem. “JPPI’s Zionist Texts for the Seder” and his latest e-book, The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred, can be downloaded on the website of the Jewish People Policy Institute, https://jppi.org.il/en/