British Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to the Jewish community’s “significant historic and continued contribution to life in the UK” in his official greetings to mark the Jewish festival of Passover Monday, as he said the input of its 300,000-strong Jewish community had “helped make Britain the richly diverse and inclusive place it is today”.
Invoking the festival’s marking of the exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, from where they travelled to Canaan (modern-day Israel), he reflected on the international community’s continued concerns over the stalemate in the Middle East Peace Process, as he said shared in global Jewry’s “hope and determination that a lasting peace can be found for Israel and the wider region”.
Adding his own message of goodwill, Foreign Secretary William Hague heralded British Jews’ celebration of their release from slavery, as he paid tribute to their ability to celebrate the eight-day festival in “liberty and freedom”.
Elsewhere, ahead of his fifth annual White House Seder night Monday, US President Barack Obama recalled the “powerful” story of Passover, as he reaffirmed his message of “unbreakable” friendship with the Jewish State – a recurring theme of his official visit to Israel last week – as he too equated the Middle East peace process with the Jews’ own history of slavery in their own land. Invoking Israel’s responsibilities to all races and religions residing there, he said: “Passover is a celebration of the freedom our ancestors dreamed of, fought for, and ultimately won. But even as we give thanks, we are called to look to the future. We are reminded that responsibility does not end when we reach the promised land, it only begins.”
Expressing his hopes for the resuscitation of direct peace talks, following his well-received meetings with both Israeli and Palestinian administrations, he concluded: “I am hopeful that we can draw upon the best in ourselves to find the promise in the days that lie ahead, meet the challenges that will come, and continuing the hard work of repairing the world.”
Previewing the Seder night in Washington, introduced by Obama when he first entered office in 2008, speaking at a state dinner hosted by his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, the American leader said the traditional breaking and hiding of the matzah (unleavened bread) which forms a key part of the proceedings, “speaks to the scope of our human experience - how parts of our lives can be broken while other parts can be elusive; how we can never give up searching for the things that make us whole,” as he conceded that “few know this better than the Jewish people”.
Invoking the “centuries of persecution and pogroms” which faced global Jewry culminating in the Holocaust, he said that the survival of the Jewish people served as “the ultimate rebuke to hate and to ignorance - survivors would live and love again”.
The message of survival was replicated in the story of Israel’s own comparatively short existence, he added, in spite of opposition to its right to exist from many of its neighbours. “This story - from slavery to salvation, of overcoming even the most overwhelming odds - is a message that’s inspired the world,” he concluded.