(RNS) — Those of us Jews who attended Seders this past weekend were obeying the commandment to tell the story of the liberation of our people from Egypt as if it were personal. “This is what God did for me,” we say, and woe betide the child who asks what the exercise means “to you people.”
To be sure, it’s an odd, truncated version of the story the Haggadah tells, one that all but leaves out Moses, who played a pretty important role in what transpired and who to this day counts as the greatest Jew of all time. Yet we Jewish Americans remember him all the same, most often by including the spiritual “Go Down, Moses” among the songs we sing at the end of the meal.
There’s a particular moment in Exodus’ account that struck me this time around. Recall that the first thing he’s reported as doing is to kill an Egyptian he comes upon beating an Israelite. Moses imagines that no one’s seen him do it until he encounters a couple of Israelites fighting with each other. When he upbraids the aggressor, the man says to him, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Getting wind of this, Pharaoh tries to kill Moses, who flees across the Red Sea to Midian. There he is welcomed by a local priest and marries the priest’s daughter, who gives birth to a son who’s named Gershom (Hebrew for “stranger there”) because, Moses says, “I have been a stranger in a strange land.”
The strange land Moses has in mind is clearly Midian, but of course the Israelites are themselves strangers in a strange land, and the phrase has resonated through the ages for immigrants and refugees and exiles. And also for none of the above, who find that their native land, the land that’s been at least as good to them as Midian was to Moses, is becoming strange. Like America today.
Take the Jewish governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, whose home (the governor’s mansion) was broken into and firebombed early Sunday morning (April 13), a few hours after he presided over the first Seder. “This kind of violence is becoming far too common in our society and I don’t give a damn if it’s coming from one particular side or the other,” he said at a news conference.
Charred tables and dishes are visible inside the Pennsylvania governor’s official residence after a man was arrested in an alleged arson that forced Gov. Josh Shapiro, his family and guests to flee in the middle of the night on the Jewish holiday of Passover, April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
Or consider the Jewish governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker. After President Donald Trump refused on Monday to arrange for the return of the Salvadoran native wrongly arrested in Maryland and flown without due process to a prison in his native land, Pritzker posted on Bluesky: “Ignoring a Supreme Court ruling to facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return isn’t just cruel; it’s unconstitutional. They’re saying the quiet part aloud — if they get away with it now, they’ll do it to anyone.”
Or JB’s sister Penny, the senior fellow of the Harvard Corp. (the university’s board of trustees), and Harvard President Alan Garber, also Jewish, who jointly received the Trump administration’s letter demanding that the university prostrate itself as no American institution of higher learning has ever done before the federal government.
“The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government,” wrote Garber in his own letter, declaring Harvard’s refusal to bow to the demands. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”
To be sure, Harvard has had its ups and downs when it comes to Jews — including, among the downs, some tolerated behavior during last year’s pro-Palestinian protests on campus. But as is clear from its letter, the government’s concern about antisemitism is a pretext for establishing ideological control.
So, here’s to my alma mater for resisting the government’s efforts to turn it, and the country at large, into a strange land. And not just for Jews.