Protesters hold Passover Seder at ICE headquarters, demand release of Mahmoud Khalil

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 than Gaza, this literally narrow strip of land that has been under siege for two decades and that is being bombed and bombed.”

Attendees held banners with phrases such as “Jews say exodus from Zionism” and “Opposing Pharaohs is a Jewish tradition.” The event was inspired by the 1969 Freedom Seder in Washington, D.C., organized by Arthur Waskow, an activist and now-rabbi in the Jewish Renewal movement, connecting the Jewish exodus story to the Civil Rights Movement and protests against the Vietnam War, according to JVP.

The protest also challenged the Trump administration’s claims that it is scrutinizing pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses with the goal of stopping antisemitism. As the protesters reclaimed the Jewish ritual, the release said, they aimed to show the administration had “zero concern for the safety of Jews and is using our people as cover for its fascist agenda.”

Ramzi Kassem, Khalil’s attorney, also spoke to the Seder crowd, as some participants held “Free Mahmoud, Free Palestine” signs.

“You have stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people as they are faced with genocide,” he said. Kassem called the Seder an example of “the grandest Jewish tradition, the truest Passover tradition.”