The Bocharim neighborhood, the first Passover Seder in Jerusalem of a family that immigrated from Persia, 1952.

Once upon a time in Jerusalem,
And this time – the Bocharim neighborhood, the first Passover Seder in Jerusalem of a family that immigrated from Persia, 1952.
First Seder night in the Holy Land after the Ascension to the Land, and the actual realization of the verse “Next year in the built Jerusalem”.
After the establishment of the state and the great wave of immigration of Jews from all over the world to the Holy City, there was a special excitement to celebrate the first Seder night in the Jewish state after the long exile.
A kind of contemporary exodus from Egypt, because in every generation a person must see himself as if he came out of Egypt.
Each community celebrated the Seder night according to its customs that were rooted for hundreds of years and passed from father to son.
A visible miracle and a unique global wonder unmatched by any nation in the world , that preserved its past for 3,300 years without change, while scattered and isolated all over the world, year after year.
Over the years, in the melting pot of the Land of Israel, the customs of the following generations who had already married members of other ethnic groups were mixed, and a new Seder in the Land of Israel took shape, with new characteristics and signs.
The Passover atmosphere in Jerusalem could be felt well many days before the Seder night.
The children joined in the holiday cleaning alongside mirrors of mothers hanging from the outside of the windows like the stars of a Hollywood action movie, alongside the carpets which were vigorously beaten with a plastic racket on the balconies and raised clouds of dust as the smell of bleach wafted through the air.
Two days before the holiday, the residents of the house were evicted in order to protect themselves from bringing chametz, and only after pleas and threats they allowed to return in the dark of the night so as not to sleep on the street.
The containers covered the chametz products with rolls of brown paper for a week, the coconut cookies and the peanuts, which on normal days were used as stones, became a sought-after commodity, along with packages of matzoh wrapped in brown paper of Yehuda matzoh.
In all the hustle and bustle of the holiday and the cleaning frenzy, we may have forgotten the heart of the matter a little.
3,300 years ago we set out for freedom.
From a people of slaves with a limited consciousness of a slave who is completely dependent on his master or owner, we became in one night of the exodus from Egypt to a free people whose choice is in his hands, without reduction or restriction, true freemen.
76 years ago we established a Jewish state here after 2,000 years of exile.
An independent country – without fear of the ruler, the Paritz or the gang of thugs who could rampage through the people scattered around the world, without protection, without a home and without the power or possibility to defend themselves.
To our generation, it seems that this has always been the case, but only 80 years ago, a relatively short time in terms of the Jewish nation, 6 million people from our nation was murdered.
Because in each and every generation omdim aleynu lechalotenu, but in recent generations we are no longer a weak and scattered people.
The miracle called the State of Israel is alive and well and is the home of all Jews in the world.
May we appreciate the right we have to live in real freedom, may we all leave the straits together with the abductees who will soon return home safe and healthy, with the Israelite soldiers who will return to peace and with all the rest of Israel.
For next year in the built and quiet Jerusalem.
לשנה הבאה בירושלים הבנויה
Shabbat of peace and happy Pesach to the far and near from Yerushalyim.
Photo- Verner Brown.