Tomorrow evening, Jews worldwide will gather at the seder table to celebrate Passover, the festival of our freedom.
In 2026, the very idea of freedom is under assault.
Israeli children are growing up in a country that is under attack, hour by hour, from an Iranian regime and its proxies dedicated to Israel's destruction.
Here in Canada, our own children are growing up in a country that is being torn apart by those who would shoot synagogues, glorify terrorism, and harass Jews.
But this isn’t a time for despair. It’s a time to be emboldened, because that is how Jews have always succeeded in the face of adversity.
After the Jewish people left Egypt, the Torah reveals a moment of sheer terror when the Egyptian army appears on the horizon. Trapped between Pharoah’s chariots and the sea, our destruction seemed imminent.
Rabbinic tradition teaches us that, when the order came to move forward into the sea, the Israelites froze. One person, Nachshon, saw what was happening and immediately jumped into the water. It was then that God directed Moses to raise his staff, parting the sea and allowing the entire people to move toward freedom.
What made Nachshon special was that he acted decisively despite the fear and uncertainty around him. That sense of personal agency changed everything.
The ability to step forward with courage is a trait that Jews have exemplified in every generation.
This is what I see throughout our strong and diverse Canadian Jewish community today, home to countless families who carry their own stories of exodus.
Jews who survived the Nazi death camps and the Soviet purges. Jews who boarded boats to a Canada they had never seen but were told was a land without pogroms. Jews who walked the desert from Yemen or Ethiopia to reach freedom.
In every case, survival and renewal happened because someone chose to move forward, without letting fear or the challenges ahead deter them.
While our struggles today pale in comparison with those of our past, this new chapter in our people’s story calls on us to fight for the freedom to live in dignity and safety.
This is not our fight alone. A growing number of Canadians are pushing back against those who threaten our fundamental Canadian way of life.
We see this when the Edmonton Police Chief, facing character attacks for having visited Israel, stands strong against radical voices and is backed by people across his city.
We see this when the Premier of Ontario calls out the Iranian regime’s threat to Canada and denounces the “crazy protestors” that Ontarians are “done with.”
And we see it when the federal Public Safety Minister declares that those who shoot synagogues “attack all Canadians” and delivers immediate, emergency funds directly to Jewish security agencies.
To be sure, leaders at all levels of government need to stand up and do much more to confront the extremists targeting our community and threatening all Canadians.
We all must be clear-eyed about the monumental work ahead to safeguard our country. There’s much that CIJA is doing and much more that we must do, together with other organizations and tens of thousands of community members and allies.
But on Passover, we pause to reconnect to the enduring strength of our people through our traditions. The seder is a vehicle to not only remember the past, but to experience the Exodus as though we ourselves were liberated from slavery in Egypt. As we do so, we should also remember Nachshon and see ourselves as no less capable of stepping forward with boldness.
Because when we do, we inspire many good people across Canada to step forward as well, knowing that our fight is in fact theirs.
Chag Pesach Kasher V'Sameach,
Noah Shack
CEO
