many Jewish communities gathering for Passover this year are leaving empty seats at their table to symbolize the Israeli hostages who remain in captivity with Hamas the holiday is playing out against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel Hamas war in Gaza it's a time of heightened emotions and for some fear but as Ted Goldberg reports despite differences and heavy hearts the more than Thousand-Year tradition goes on on Passover Jewish people ask why is this night different from all other nights amid 6 months of war in Israel and widespread protests on college campuses I asked Rabbi Mark Katz why is this Passover different from all other Passover it's a scary time but at the end of the day Jewish history is scary and part of the Passover seder is reminding ourselves that every generation people are seeking our destruction Rabbi Catz has led Temple near to me in Bloomfield for about six years concs from his congregation include how to break bread or matah while avoiding arguments people for example who might be in a different political places than their kids who might be in different places with this war the war in Israel is a difficult subject and avoiding discussion around Israel during a Seder is next to Impossible not only the fact that we end with the words next year in Jerusalem but that we're constantly hearkening back to ancient times to the temple that we ask God to for example defend the Jews against those who seek our destruction The Liberation from Egypt is really the epitome of who we are because we're constantly being liberated Stanley Keel says going to seders and hearing the familiar story of Passover is a connection to his roots this year seder had a major twist the change to the story is that Jews uh have joined with the Palestinians as also being held captive so my wish and hope with Passover is praying that we can our prayers will help free these people the fact that there are still hostages with no sign of them coming home anytime soon um you know the messages that we read in our hagata and at our Passover saders around our table feel so poignant this year in a different way Lucy fishbine is the senior caner at Temple Benet Jerin in Short Hills as hard as it feels this year to come together in a celebratory way um it is actually an act of sacred Defiance to do so and it is our Jewish obligation to do so she's also concerned about reports of anti-Semitic language used at protests on some college campuses while groups have called for divestment from Israel at Ruckers without criticizing Jewish people as a whole fishbine has heard reports from other schools with protesters using disturbing language we're seeing on college campus is that they're saying October 7th is going to happen 10,000 times to you that would mean 12,000 Jews would die I do find that when something happens in Israel there are people who become emboldened to to say things that they wouldn't normally say Rabbi cat says the problem is when groups conflate Jewish people with Israel's government criticizing Israel which is right people are allowed to they have to draw a distinction between the Israeli government the Israeli people and Jews and if you start lumping those three things in you start getting dangerously close to anti-Semitism yesterday the Chancellor's office at Ruckers put out a letter saying they were quote troubled and concerned about the unsettling rise in the number of bias reports particularly incidents of anti-Semitism on our campuses they also said Ruckers would create an advisory Council for Jewish Life coming as Jewish people continue celebrating Passover over eight days and nights for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg [Music]