Welcome Zionist Talk to Your Seder — It Belongs There

Passover proves how intertwined Judaism and Zionism are, while celebrating Israel’s centrality to Jewish identity, yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Haggadah recounts how the Jewish people left the Holy Land, then returned, finding freedom and redemption there. Do antizionists skip the Seder’s peoplehood parts, the references to the Land of Israel, “Dayenu’s” celebration of deliverance to our Promised Land? Do they conclude singing “Next Year in Bel Air – or Brooklyn?”

A specter is haunting many Diaspora-based Seders, that most hosts dare not ignore. That menace, sadly, is a growing, irrational allergy to “Israel,” and the Z-word, Zionism.

Israel and America may still be fighting Iran during Passover.  Most Democrats abhor what they consider Trump’s reckless war. Nevertheless, while 70% of American Jews vote Democratic, a JPPI poll finds 68% of “connected Jews” support this war – although 52% fear it’s fueling antisemitism.

The war has triggered anti-Jewish rants, from the Grumbling Groyper Right to the Socialist Sanders Left, with despicable defenses of the mass-murdering Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Protesters call the IRGC the “vanguard of liberation,” chanting, “IRGC make us proud, bomb these genocidal clowns,” or “U.S. drones in the sky, Iran’s missiles will reply.”

Perhaps American immigration entry rules should require IQ tests.

In Israel, most Bibi-bashers justifiably fear Iran and Hezbollah more than Benjamin Netanyahu. But supporting the war hasn’t softened their opposition to him. Americans, living 6,000 miles away from Iran’s missiles, endured years of Obamesque spin, pushing weak-kneed diplomacy while minimizing the Iranian threat. Add anti-Trump obsessiveness and POOF!: Trump-hatred trumps Ayatollah-phobia. Too many consider the war another referendum about Trump rather than an overdue attempt to neutralize a world menace, no matter who’s President.

At Seder, welcome healthy debate about strategy, endgames and presidential use of war powers.  But emphasize three fundamental points:

• The Islamic Republic spent 47 years turning Iran into a land-based Death Star, threatening Israelis and Americans with genocide. The Ayatollahs’ nuclear cravings and lethal rockets make Iran a ticking time-bomb – with long-range missiles targeting American assets.

• Second, asking whether the threat was “imminent” is a dodge; the threat was constant. A window of opportunity — now! — opened following the 12-Day War, the regime’s rapid return to missile production, and Iranians’ January revolt.

• Third, Trump-bashers says he’s impulsive and bull-headed; Trump-worshipers call him self-reliant and laser-focused. How could this single-minded one-man-show suddenly become putty in Benjamin Netanyahu’s hands?

Still, despite the high stakes, the Iran war’s an easy issue. Every year, some hot, polarizing, current events topic shadows most Seders, from favored candidates to preferred pronouns. Families or friendship groups allergic to any disagreements are too fragile by half.

Ultimately, differences about the Iran war are mostly political. By contrast, conversations about Israel and Zionism are existential – and personal.

In 1969, Lewis Feuer published “The Conflict of Generations: The Character and Significance of Student Movements.” This prominent sociologist explained that youth movements often lash out against the masses’ supposed apathy, while rejecting a powerful, suffocating, increasingly “de-authorized … gerontocracy,” flailing amid change.

Furious, frustrated students often go extreme, choosing the highest “measure of violence and humiliation directed against the older generation.” Feuer warned that such irrational zealousness undermines most movements. A recovering Marxist who quipped “For Hegel, I wouldn’t give a bagel,” Feuer suggested that a more tempered, less Oedipal rebellion would cultivate a more idealistic, effective politics of change.

Today’s youth act out against Zionism in a toxic environment wherein the New York Times ran 6,656 articles about Gaza, most knocking Israel, in the first nine months after October 7, 2023 – despite only running 80 articles about the nine-month American-led battle of Mosul in 2017 – which unintentionally killed between 10,000 and 40,000 pro-Western civilians.

Amid such pressure, it’s miraculous that 80% of American Jews, young and old, support the Jewish people’s right to have a Jewish-democratic state in their homeland. That makes them “Zionist,” whether or not they use the label.

The marginal activists repudiating Zionism and Israel, commanding far too much attention, along with the growing coolness toward Israel among Jews and non-Jews alike, reflect a perfect storm. Generational angst stoked by media bias and a massive antizionist antisemitic campaign meets the difficult choices Israel made to defend itself – as too many Westerners disdain military power.

Given that, Seder leaders should lean in, acknowledging the pressures many Jews feel to join the anti-Israel bandwagon … without keeling over. Hosts have every right to Zionize their Seders – as I encourage them to do with my annual Haggadah supplement of Zionist texts. Transcending politics, hosts should ritualize our deep, nonnegotiable, family-like connection to Israel, leaving an empty chair for murdered Israelis, drinking a Fifth Cup to celebrate the hostages’ return and Israel’s many victories, and singing a modern Dayenu (mine or anyone else’s) to celebrate the return to Zion’s many miracles.

At Seder, elders should tell their “Yitziat Mitzraim” story, recalling their family’s deliverance from oppression – wherever their ancestors lived – reaching the happy situation wherein today most Jews live in freedom. Then add your “Zionist awakening” moment, when you first visited Israel or realized its meaning to you. Make it personal … help us all transcend politics.

Identify Zionism’s three pillars:  that Jews are a people – freed during Passover! – tied to one homeland – Israel – with rights to establish a state and live in freedom on that homeland. Our enemies don’t get to define our movement – we do.  That expansive non-partisan peoplehood platform welcomes much room for political disagreement, ideological diversity and healthy confusion, given the complexity of this world and today’s Middle East.

While setting the right tone artfully, be ready to take a stand courageously. It’s legitimate to say, “This conversation is over,” if debates become too volatile. Even more boldly, be ready to say, “These are our red lines” or, more positively, “These are our core principles.” Family, like patriotism – and Judaism – doesn’t demand unanimity or uniformity. It does require, however, certain boundaries, defining values, and dollops of love and tolerance. Chag Sameach.

To see “Zionist Texts for the Seder,” visit https://giltroy.com/passover/zionist-texts-for-the-seder-2026/

Gil Troy is an American presidential historian and Zionist activist born in Queens, living in Jerusalem. Last year he published, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” and “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath.” His latest E-book, “The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred” was just published and can be downloaded on the website of JPPI – the Jewish People Policy Institute.