This Year We Are Slaves, Next Year We Are Free: A Virtual Passover Workshop with Rabbi Andy Bachman

Join Rabbi Andy Bachman in pre-Passover virtual workshop examining the basic structure and central message of the Haggadah, and new ways to observe that “In every generation one should regard oneself as though they had come out of Egypt.”

The Jewish people’s redemption from slavery is at the center of the Exodus story. But the Passover Seder allows us to ask questions, to think aloud, even argue, about the meaning of these ancient words. The Seder table is a place to tell an ancient story in our own contemporary context, with so much happening around us — racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, poverty — so many of us and our neighbors are not yet free.

The Haggadah creates the space for a personal and communal journey toward redemption.

This workshop will take place via Zoom on Thursday, March 30th, 2023 from 7:00 – 8:30 PM. Advanced registration is required by Wednesday, March 29th to receive the Zoom link. 

Andy Bachman is founder of Water Over Rocks and the Center for Midwestern Jewish Communities, a unique entity devoted to the preservation of history, memory and civic responsibility.  He is also Senior Consultant  to the Jewish Community Legacy Project.  From 2018-2022 he was executive director of the Jewish Community Project of Lower Manhattan, a growing, open, pluralistic center for Jewish life in Tribeca.  He was Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, New York from 2006-2015, executive director of the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University from 1998-2004.  He is also the founder of Brooklyn Jews, an innovative social organizing engine for young, unaffiliated Jews and their partners in Brownstone Brooklyn. Andy currently lives in Portland, ME, and is father to three daughters, Audrey, Lois and Minna and a dog, Bob Capa.