Although a rabbi blessed the wine at this Passover Seder, Jewish Voice for Peace says their emergency seder was organized because they couldn’t celebrate Passover as usual — with war raging across the Middle East.
“Never again is now. Never again for anyone,” protesters chanted outside City Comptroller Mark Levine’s office on Wednesday.
Protesters gathered outside Levine’s office to demand that he not invest city funds in bonds tied to Israel, which they say would provide funding for Israel’s bombing of Iran, Lebanon and Gaza.
“Amidst all this death and displacement we know there can be no seder as usual we cannot tell our liberation story as if it were neutral while our tradition and our tax dollars are being used to wipe Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese families off the face of the earth,” Danny Kaplowitz, a member and organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, said.
In 2023, then-City Comptroller Brad Lander phased out the city pension fund’s holdings in those bonds by allowing them to mature without reinvesting. But Levine said in January that he plans to resume investment in the bonds.
In the past, Levine has said bonds linked to Israel are a sound investment and investing in them is a decision many city comptrollers have made.
“You know it would be a disgrace to buy Israeli bonds, particularly at this moment, because are we supporting what he’s [Netanyahu] doing in Lebanon? Are we supporting what he’s doing in Gaza?” Jane Hirschmann of the Jewish Voice for Peace Seder said.
Last year, the Jewish Voice for Peace Seder was held to call for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his participation in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. But this year, Khalil attended the Seder.
“Just as you prayed for my freedom last year, today let’s all pray together that by next seder, the Israeli occupation, the Israeli genocidal regime will have ended,” Khalil said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is an outspoken critic of Israel, pushed back in January against Levine’s plans to reinvest in those bonds.
“I don’t think we should purchase Israel bonds,” Mamdani said. “We don’t purchase bonds for any other sovereign nation’s debt, and the comptroller has also made his position clear, and I continue to stand by mine.”
NY1 reached out to the comptroller’s office to get his response to the demands of these protesters. But his office did not respond for comment.
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