Pesach in a time of retreating democracy 

The English poet and mythology scholar Robert Graves, wrote: "There is one story and one story only/ That will prove worth your telling/ Whether [you] are learned bard or gifted child." 

Graves wasn’t speaking about Pesach, but for the Jewish people, he could have been. The Exodus saga is the oldest and most compelling story of who we are, and the pivotal festival around which Judaism turns. 

Story is the central feature of our most celebrated Jewish festival. Seder night – where the wise sage and the simple child join in storytelling – is the most profound distillation of Jewish dreams, aspirations and actions.  

This tale of a slave people challenging the most powerful and enduring empire the world has ever known – already some eighteen centuries old at the time of the Exodus – is startlingly relevant for our times.