Pesach is a timely reminder to the Jewish people that we are no strangers to suffering. Our story of achieving freedom through divine help and human struggle has been celebrated for over three thousand years and is central to our identity, traditions, and communal legacy. As a Jewish community, we understand from experience why people seeking safety in the UK deserve dignity and compassion, not suspicion, punishment, and dehumanisation. Yet this is what people who seek sanctuary on our shores are faced with in the new immigration legislation and the increase in immigration detention that it necessitates.
This Pesach, we urge you to consider the plight of refugees in the UK today alongside our own story of enslavement and repression by utilising this Haggadah accompaniment at your Seder table. We hope it will spark conversation around your dinner table and empower you to take action.
Today, 10th December, is International Human Rights Day – the 76th anniversary of the signing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The Declaration was a reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust. So, for Jews, today has a particuar significance.
Although rooted in response to atrocity, the Declaration was forward-looking and optimistic. It spoke for the majority of people who knew a better world was possible. The fact that it’s co-author , the French-Jewish lawyer Monsieur Rene Cassin, could draft such a hopeful document so soon after 26 members of his family were murdered by the Nazis is a testament to his humanity and the power of human rights in general.
Today, as the organisation that works in Cassin’s name, we are determined to ensure his Declaration’s vision of human rights for all is fully realised. Central to that work is a focus on so called ‘socio-economic rights’ – rights to everyday essentials like food, housing and health. This vision was best articulated in Article 25 of the Declaration:
‘Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’.
Bolstering these rights would ensure everybody has access to the foundations on which to build a dignified, prosperous and meaningful life. They have been neglected for too long.
We are constantly developing our campaigns, planning events, and cultivating discussions on Human Rights issues, sign up for our email updates and we’ll keep you informed on all we are working on and how YOU can get involved.
