NEW YORK (RNS) — Hundreds of protesters held a Passover Seder at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Lower Manhattan on Monday evening (April 14) to demand the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
The Seder, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist Jewish organization, was held in response to a Louisiana judge’s ruling that said Khalil’s presence in the United States posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” and that he could be deported. The former Columbia University student, who is a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested by ICE in early March over his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
The “emergency Seder” repurposed the Passover ritual to denounce the Trump administration for its strict immigration policies, for constraining pro-Palestinian activism, and for its attacks on transgender people, said Beth Miller, the group’s political director in a news release.
Rabbi Abby Stein, who officiates part-time at Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive Jewish congregation in Brooklyn, presided over the ceremony. She told RNS that the Passover story is an invitation to reflect on modern forms of oppression, pointing to the war in Gaza that Kahlil was protesting.
“In every generation, every person is obligated to see themselves as though they had personally left Egypt,” said Stein, who is also a trans-rights activist. “In this context, Egypt becomes a metaphor; in the biblical Hebrew, it means a narrow place. Think of a narrow place — it doesn’t get more literal …