Celebrating Passover, freedom and peace in Israel

Tonight marks the start of Passover, a holiday which derives its meaning from the remembrance of the Israelites' exodus from slavery in Egypt. This holiday is significant, on a basic level, because we value freedom and celebrate liberation. As the Torah instructs, "Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how the Lord freed you from it with a mighty hand."

In the United States, there is a commonly drawn parallel between Moses's entreating Pharaoh to "Let my people go" and the African-American community's call to end legal racial discrimination during the civil rights movement. Indeed, such analogies are frequently made between the enslaved Jewish people and other minority groups suffering oppression. "In every generation, a Jew must think of himself as if he himself were redeemed from Egypt," exhorts the Talmud. This unity of consciousness often leads to solidarity with people currently struggling for freedom.

But "freedom" is a complex concept and begs a number of questions. What conditions must exist before a people can be free? Does a right to be free imply a right to a territory or to political control? For an individual to enjoy personal freedom, must she be able to be free in her people's "own" land?

This Passover comes at a moment in history when the long-standing conflict between the Pale-stinian people and the state of Israel has become particularly intense and destructive. Often, our attention is focused on debates about "rights" to land and political control. Does this perspective lead us to lose sight of the real issue: to ensure the freedom of all people regardless of where they live or the name of their state?

We — as Jews, as Prince-tonians and as responsible Americans — have an obligation to ensure that our actions do not deprive others of the freedom we hold so dear. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Jewish community took this responsibility to heart, taking risks and making sacrifices to support the African-American movement for freedom. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Jewish community again affirmed its commitment to the liberation of oppressed people through its support of anti-Apartheid actions. Should we not now assert the preeminence of freedom over nationalism? Should we not now expect, as citizens of the United States, that our country's allies respect the basic human rights and freedoms of all living within their borders?

Today, on this first day of Passover, we must again show our courage as individuals and as a community in the struggle for freedom from oppression and for human rights. Three million Palestinians are living under conditions analogous to those that prompted us to act on behalf of black South Africans. Three million human beings face, on a daily basis, unemployment, poverty, humiliation, torture and death at the hands of a government that claims to represent our interests and embody the ideal of freedom. This week, as we commemorate God's redemption of the Israelites and strive to create a shared consciousness with our ancestors who suffered in Egypt, let us reaffirm our historical commitment to build a future where all people enjoy freedom.

We should again show our courage by taking the lead in calling on Princeton to divest itself from companies doing business in Israel or making loans to the Israeli government, just as we called on Princeton to divest from South Africa. If we continue to ignore the suffering of the Palestinians, we will not be able to fully enjoy the sweetness of freedom during Passover — we will have failed to remember our history and to recognize the importance of liberation. Princeton's Jewish community must join together with other Princetonians to support freedom and lend its voice to the call "Princeton: Divest Now!" Laura Kaplan is a sociology major from Ridgefield, Conn. She can be reached at lmkaplan@princeton.edu. Julia Salzman is a math major from Los Angeles, Calif. She can be reached at jsalzman@princeton.edu.