The ARDC Seder

The ARDC (African Refugee Development Centre) is an organization that helps the refugee community in Israel. It offers shelter to the most vulnerable, provides food and other basic resources, assists asylum seekers in their applications for visas and refugee status and runs English and Hebrew classes.

The ARDC, along with other refugee and Israeli organizations, is running a communal Pesach Seder on 25th March for 200 refugees and 200 Israelis. There will be creative performances, opportunities for shared learning and an alternative seder meal where the themes of freedom and journeys are given a more modern and universal meaning. This event has been very successful in past years, unifying two very different communities and highlighting the plight of a people that needs more recognition and attention in Israel.

Raising awareness is very important as this is an issue that is far too often overlooked. The ARDC and its partner organisations in this project are offering a resource to aid in this- an alternative haggadah that will be available to download free from the internet here.

Pesach is a time when we remember our journey as Jews, through the desert and into Israel, escaping slavery and oppression in Egypt. 20,000 asylum seekers from Eritrea, Sudan and other northern African countries have had the same experience making their own journeys to Israel, fleeing from violent conflict, persecution and civil war. In Israel there is no clear asylum seekers legislation. When people arrive they are typically sent to a detention centre and then left without further help in the centres of Tel Aviv or Be’er Sheva, even unaccompanied minors and pregnant women.

As a Jews we are required to retell the story of our journey. Part of this rememberance is to learn from our experiences to create a better world. We need to help those who are going through the same thing at this time and make it fair for them when they arrive in Israel by giving them the opportunity to have the freedom we were granted. Please make this a message that you will pass down with our history.