JERUSALEM (AP) – A year ago, Giordana Grego’s parents spent the Passover at home in Israel, grateful only to escape the worst pandemic in Italy. This year the whole family is gathering to celebrate the Jewish feast of deliverance and deliverance from the pandemic.
Israel has vaccinated more than half of its 9.3 million inhabitants, and as coronavirus infections have fallen, authorities have allowed the reopening of restaurants, hotels, museums and theaters. Up to 20 people can now gather inside.
It’s a stark turnaround from last year, when Israel found itself in the first of three nationwide lockdowns, with corporate shutters, empty road checkpoints and people tied to their homes. Many could only see their elderly relatives during video calls.
“For us in Israel, celebrating the Feast of Freedom this year definitely has a very different meaning from what we witnessed,” said Grego, who immigrated to Israel from Italy. “It is amazing that we can celebrate together this year, also considering that in Italy everyone is still detained.”
Passover is the Jewish holiday celebrating the deliverance of the Biblical Israelites from slavery in Egypt after a series of divine plagues. The week-long spring festival kicks off Saturday night with the highly ritualized Seder meal, when the Exodus story is retold. It’s a Thanksgiving atmosphere with family, friends, parties and four cups of wine.
The observant Jews abstain from consuming bread and other leavened foods throughout the week to commemorate the hardships of the flight from Egypt. Instead, they eat unleavened matzo.
Prep for the holidays include extreme spring cleaning to remove even the tiniest crumbs of leavened bread from homes and offices. Kettles of boiling water are set up on street corners to cook utensils, and many burn their discarded bread, known as chametz. Supermarkets lined aisles with leavened goods and wrapped shelves in black plastic.
Most Israeli Jews – both religious and secular – spend the Seder with extended family. Last year’s Passover was a major break in tradition.
Government-imposed restrictions forced the closure of synagogues and restricted movement and assembly to slow the spread of the virus. Some held the ritual meal with their nuclear family, others via video conference, while a few unfortunate kept the Seder in solitude.
Another lockdown was imposed during the Jewish High Holidays in September, once again preventing family gatherings, and a third came earlier this year with the emergence of more contagious variants of the virus.
By the third lockdown, Israel had launched one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world after the government received millions of doses from Pfizer and Moderna. Israel has now vaccinated more than 80% of its adult population.
It is too early to say that the coronavirus crisis in Israel is over, as new variants may emerge that are resistant to the vaccines.
The vaccination campaign in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza was slow to get off the ground, with Israel being criticized for not sharing more of its suppliesIsrael has vaccinated more than 100,000 Palestinian workers working in Israel and the West Bank settlements and has sent several thousand doses to the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinians themselves have imported more than 130,000 doses, but it may take several months for the vast majority of the nearly 5 million Palestinians to be injected into the areas. Experts say this could pose a risk to Israel’s own public health efforts
For now, however, Israelis are enjoying what feels like a post-pandemic reality that gives special meaning to the Passover.
“It is not only symbolic that it is the holiday of freedom, but it is also the holiday of the family,” said Rabbi David Stav, chief rabbi of the city of Shoham and head of the liberal Orthodox organization Tzohar.
“This year, families are uniting. People who were so lonely, especially older people, who were not involved with their families, suddenly discover the freedom and joy of being with them. “