Left-wing activists criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over the weekend after pictures posted on social media revealed the Passover seder she hosted for Jewish House White House staffers at her home included the Israeli-made Psagot wine, produced in Judea and Samaria.
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"Psagot's vineyards are on stolen Palestinian land. It's not cool. It was the Trump that 'legitimated' the theft," James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, said on Twitter.
Nevertheless, former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who visited the winery with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, praised the move on Twitter.
Friedman uploaded a photo of a wine Psagot named in his honor, and jokingly added, "Next year I would recommend that the Second Family serve the 'Friedman' vintage from the Psagot Winery. I may be biased but I think it's very good."
CEO of Psagot Yaakov Berg said in a statement that the Harris and her husband, Jewish Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff "have shown that they understand wine" and "have shown respect to Israeli wine."
He also pledged that if Harris "continues in a positive direction, for example by opposing the Iran nuclear deal," the winery would name a wine in her honor as well.
A day earlier, Harris and Emhoff attended a virtual White House seder hosted by the Biden administration for the second year in a row. "The People's seder" was streamed on the White House YouTube page.
White House Jewish Liaison Chanan Weissman served as master of ceremonies and led a type of order modeled on the seder, featuring Jewish administration officials, leaders, and celebrities.
Emhoff started off the list of administration officials, reflecting on what Passover means to him and his family.
"Ever since I was a kid, I've been inspired by the story of Exodus, whose retelling serves as the heart of our seder experience. And I know I'm not alone," he said. "Generations of my ancestors and many of yours have turned to the redemptive promise of the Passover narrative as a source of hope. To endure prejudice, persecution and pogroms. To survive expulsions and to seek emancipation. To believe in a possibility of a promised land and to know it's not beyond your reach."
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden appeared together in a video, with Biden noting that thanks to the progress made during the pandemic, "this year's Passover marks the first time in three years that many families and friends sit around the seder table together again."
The war in Ukraine was a recurring topic for many of the speakers starting with Emhoff and the president.
"During this holiday our hearts [are with] the people of Ukraine and all the people who are fighting for freedom," Biden said. "May the spirit of Passover, deliverance from oppression, carry you forward and give you strength."
The virtual seder was the first time Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, has delivered remarks since her confirmation on March 30.
She said, just like the Passover matzah, the world is always in some form of balance between wholeness and brokenness.
"This past month, it has been terribly broken. All around us we see pain, suffering, killings, attacks on children and civilians. And so many of us individually are broken in ways that are invisible to others," Lipstadt said.
She noted that her position is made necessary by the brokenness of the world, antisemitism. While she said she will not be able to repair that brokenness, she prays that next year for the next seder, her work would have made the world "a little bit less shattered, less broken."
"The matzah we break cannot be repaired, the world we inhabit can be repaired. It is in our hands to do so," she said.
Actress and Jeopardy host Mayim Bialik, introduced the four questions, which were recited by children from The Shefa School – a New York-based day school for students with language-based disabilities.
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"We're at a time in history yet again where the story of exile and exodus is upon us as the world watches a war play out in Ukraine, a country where many of my own ancestors and many of our ancestors fled just a few generations ago," Bialik said.
"They say every Jewish question has several answers, and I guess as host of Jeopardy, I know a lot about questions and also a lot about responses. … There are many questions to be asked about our global as well as communal responsibility to the people of Ukraine and the people of all nations who still suffer and are not free. Suffice it to say the lessons of the seder and the struggle for freedom, which Passover embodies, are as true now as they were thousands of years ago when our people fled oppression in the hopes of something better."
Academic and religious leaders who spoke included Cantor Maj. David Frommer, Jewish Chaplain at the United States Military Academy at West Point; Andrew Rehfeld, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University; and Shuly Rubin Schwartz, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
JNS.org contributed to this report.
