Let My People Go: The Legacy of Passover and its Ties to Freedom Movements

As many readers will probably know due to its yearly recounting of the at the Passover table, Passover (פסח) commemorates the biblical story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and freedom from slavery, described in the Book of Exodus. The story is believed to have taken place in the 13th century BCE, and follows the journey of the Israelites, led by Moses, from slavery in Egypt toward the freedom of the Promised Land.

The retelling of the story during the Passover seder includes plenty of legendary stories to keep one entertained as they wait for the feast (which comes afterward) such as the burning bush, where Moses is called by God to lead his people to freedom, the Ten Plagues: rivers turning to blood, darkness which is touchable, and deaths of first born children (to name a few). Moses’s Parting of the Red Sea is one of the most legendary parts of the story, and has been the source of inspiration for many films including The Ten Commandments (1956) and The Prince of Egypt (1998). Moses has served as a sort of hero archetype for the fiction, sci-fi and fantasy world, which many beloved fictional characters mirror closely. One blogger drew comparisons between the story of Moses and the Israelites and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, noticing similarities between the twelve dwarfs and each tribe of the Israelites, Gandalf and God, and Bilbo and Thorin both representing Moses.

Such an ancient and epic story will no doubt have influence on literature, cinema, and entertainment. But far from the fictitious world, the story of the Exodus and the Israelites has had a powerful relationship with social justice movements. The call “Let My People Go” originates in the Exodus, when Moses demands that the Pharaoh release the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This phrase has since gained more recognition and has become one of the most famous slogans of liberation and resistance. 

A British publisher named Victor Gollancz had covered and spread awareness of anti-Semitism, Hitler, and the Nazi’s in Europe early on, publishing books beginning in 1933. However by 1942, Gollancz published a pamphlet titled “Let My People Go: Some practical proposals for dealing with Hitler’s Massacre of the Jews and an appeal to the British Public,” which highlighted the scale of Hitler’s genocide against the Jews. Gollancz published this because he realized that the world was unaware of the scale of the atrocities committed, and estimated that about 1-2 million Jews had already been killed. His article was an immediate call to action to the world, and he warned, “unless something effective is done, within a very few months these six million Jews will all be dead.” Gollancz’s article impacted public awareness and discourse about the Holocaust, and played a large role in informing the world about the ongoing genocide of the Jews, selling about a quarter million copies in three months. The title once again revived the ancient cry for Jewish liberation - this time from the Hitler and the Nazis.

In the 1800s, a Spiritual written by enslaved African Americans in the South called “Go Down, Moses” echoed the biblical cry for freedom: Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land, tell old Pharaoh: To let my people go. Harriet Tubman used this song and other Spirituals as a code to signal to enslaved African Americans that she was near to help any who wanted to escape slavery via the Underground Railroad. The Exodus was a core inspiration for many African American Spirituals, who saw themselves in the Israelites; captive, but loved by God and destined for freedom.

Civil Rights Movement leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. referenced the Exodus story often, and titled one 1965 article “Let My People Go,” which criticized the brutal apartheid system in South Africa, and urged global leaders to cut support for South Africa economically. 

Across the world, Soviet Jews wanted to emigrate to Israel or the United States after World War II, but the Soviet Union restricted this heavily, as they believed emigration out of the USSR was a betrayal, and feared Western foreign influence. While antisemitism in the Russian Empire and later Soviet Union was prominent (though fluctuated during some periods), under Stalin it grew worse, and by the 1970s anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union was systematically and socially widespread. Synagogues were closed, Hebrew education was banned, and celebrating Jewish holidays was discouraged or punished. Jews faced discrimination in their daily lives, were banned from certain career paths, and denied university admission. This sparked the Jewish Refusenik Movement. Inspired by the story of the Exodus, activists in the USSR and abroad used the slogan “Let My People Go” to demand that Jews be allowed to emigrate out of the Soviet Union. 

From the 2007 documentary “Refusenik by Laura Bialis

Natan Sharansky was a human rights activist in the USSR and Refusenik leader who was sent to the Gulag on false accusations of collaborating with the CIA. Sharansky famously celebrated Jewish holidays with what he and his prison mates could scrap up in the Gulag and was supported by his wife, who - living in Israel - advocated tirelessly for his release. After nine years, Sharansky was released in 1986, and reunited with his wife in Israel. Sharansky went on to serve in many positions of the Israeli Ministry, and currently serves as Chairman for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. When asked about passover in an interview, Sharansky said: “Our family celebrates two sidrei Pesach - one on the fifteenth of Nissan, centering on Yetziat Mitzrayim, leaving Egypt, and one on Bet Adar Alef, the day of my liberation from prison, my Yetziat m’Soviet Union, leaving the Soviet Union.”

By the early 1990s, restrictions against immigration of Soviet Jews out of the USSR began to loosen, due to social pressure and Gorbachev’s reforms - particularly the glasnost which reduced restrictions on emigration. 

Today, the ancient cry “Let My People Go” has found its way back to the Promised Land, where banners, speeches, and protests echo the same plea Moses made to the Pharaoh in the Exodus. Jewish communities all across the world have revived the phrase once again, to call for the release of the 59 hostages still in captivity in Gaza - of which only 24 are believed to be alive - abducted from Israel during the October 7, 2023 massacre led by Hamas. It is difficult to ignore the haunting parallels between those still in captivity and the Israelites described in the Exodus, who were held in Egypt - which Gaza borders - and where the story of liberation of the Jews first began. Today the ancient demand “Let My People Go” carries the weight of both the past and the present. 

Credit: Tanya Zion-Waldoks, May 11, 2024, Beer Sheva, Israel

This Passover - as well as last - Jews across the world set aside a seat at the seder in honor of those in captivity unable to celebrate their freedom. The empty chair is a reminder that the story of Jewish liberation is not ancient history, but has been a recurring historical issue, and is currently a living reality. Special prayers were said at this year's passover seders, asking for the return of the hostages. In the traditional way of ending the Passover seder after the Haggadah has been recited, the concluding words were cried out with even more significance, symbolizing hope for the Jewish people’s return to their ancestral homeland: “Next year in Jerusalem!”