At-Home with Gila Svirsky

Jerusalem
22 March 2002
Subject: Holiday thoughts as I leave

Friends,

Common sense notwithstanding, it’s hard to leave Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, at a time like this. Those of you who have spent any time at all in this country, and in this painfully beautiful and intense city, will understand what I mean.

I leave for two weeks to spend the holiday with family in the U.S. It will be an opportunity to ponder the meaning of Passover – a celebration of freedom of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Have we learned anything from a story that we have repeated once a year every year for 3,000 years?

May we use the holidays of all faiths now upon us to recall and teach others that we are not free until we are all free.

Hag Samayakh. Happy Holiday.

Gila Svirsky