Another “Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem”
The photo was taken in Jerusalem, near the end of World War I, when the soldiers of the Jewish Legion – Jews from the United States, England, Canada, and the Land of Israel – gathered to celebrate Seder night in the Holy City.
The Seder took place in a simple hall, yet the atmosphere was deeply uplifting, imbued with a profound sense of purpose and mission.
Next to the charoset sat a stirring sense of Zionist spirit, and in place of karpas—plenty of horseradish, both for the Seder plate and from the bitter realities of life on the front.
The Haggadah opened with the reading of “Avadim Hayinu” (“We were slaves”), and everyone nodded in agreement – not only from Egypt, but also from kitchen duties.
When they sang “Next year in the rebuilt Jerusalem”, for the first time in their lives it wasn’t just a hope — they were truly there, in Jerusalem itself, returning not only geographically but in action, to rebuild it with their own hands.
The Seder was not without challenges – tough matzot, overly sweet wine, and a sleepy British soldier wondering why everyone was loudly singing about ten plagues in the middle of the night.
But above all, there was a feeling of camaraderie, a shared purpose, and the knowledge that they were part of something much bigger – another link in the chain of generations.
Not far from there, in the Rehavia neighborhood, a company from the “Gdud HaAvodah” (Labor Battalion) settled in 1922 near the Ratisbonne Monastery, in huts and tents set up on land owned by the Jewish National Fund and the Israel Land Development Company.
The members of the company worked in quarrying and stone carving for the Hebrew Gymnasium and the Hebrew University, building the amphitheater on Mount Scopus, and paving roads in and around the neighborhood – all in the spirit of Jewish labor.
Although the Jewish Legion was disbanded not long afterward, many of its soldiers remained in the land and became the foundation stones of the emerging Zionist settlement – building infrastructure, culture, security, and spirit – not just in Jerusalem, but in the future state, which at the time seemed like a distant dream and a legend, almost like the Passover Haggadah.
Since then, rivers of grape juice have flowed and endless amounts of maror have been eaten, but today, as we celebrate Passover in a free Jerusalem, we can look back and remember those soldiers who sat around the Seder table over a hundred years ago – and saw, with their own eyes, the beginning of the dream’s fulfillment.
Happy holiday of Freedom and a peaceful Shabbat to those far and near, from Jerusalem ❤
May all our kidnapped brothers return home safely and swiftly.
May we preserve and strive for true unity among us and remember that we are all brothers, another link in endless chain of generations.
Now it’s our watch.
We should deserve it.
Photo – Yaakov Ben Dov
