Tag Archives: "Passover"

Passover, a Time to Remember Refugees

Passover is a good occasion to read this Adam Zagajewski poem about refugees.

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Drawn Forth to Eat the History Feast

Saturday – Passover I asked my poet friend Norman Finkelstein for a good Passover poem and he alerted me to this one by Harvey Shapiro, found in Mountain, Fire, Thornbush (Swallow, 1961). The Passover seder, of course, revolves around remembering, and Shapiro’s poem points out that remembering was already part of the initial Exodus events. […]

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The Bloody Flesh Our Only Food

I share a Good Friday poem by T. S. Eliot and a Passover poem by Norman Finkelstein.

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Must I Dwell in Slavery’s Night?

In anticipation of Passover, I share a poem composed by the African American slave George Moses Horton.

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Death & Miracles & Stars without Number

In Norman Finkelstein’s account of the Passover, death and miracles are bound up together. It is an uneasy combination, calling upon us to look at our own complicity in the world’s evils.

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Passover: Blood on the Door Posts

Norman Finkelstein’s powerful poem reflects on the mixed history commemorated by the Passover seder. The event that marked the beginning of the Israelites journey home was also a night of death.

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Replacing the Temple with the Torah

Nicole Krauss’s marvelous novel “Great House” finds hope in the Torah, which takes many forms.

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The Journeys of the Night Survive

“Akiba” is a powerful Passover poem by Muriel Rukeyser that links the flight from Egypt to other liberation struggles.

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A Night Different from All Other Nights

In celebration of the Jewish Passover, which begins Tuesday, I post this beloved poem by Primo Levi, written in 1982, which many people now incorporate into their seder rituals. Knowing that Levi was an Auschwitz survivor gives the poem a special poignancy.

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