JERUSALEM (AP) – A year ago, Giordana Grego’s parents spent Easter at home in Israel, alone but grateful to have escaped the worst pandemics in Italy. This year, the entire family will gather to mark the Jewish holiday of liberation and pandemic liberation.
Israel has vaccinated more than half of its 9.3 million population, and as coronavirus infections have declined, authorities have allowed restaurants, hotels, museums and theaters to reopen. Up to 20 people can now gather inside.
It is a strong change from last year, when Israel was in the first of three national blockades, with closed businesses, checkpoints installed on empty roads and people locked up in their homes. Many could only see their elderly relatives through video calls.
“For us in Israel, really celebrating the celebration of freedom certainly has a completely different meaning this year, from what we have experienced,” said Grego, who immigrated to Israel from Italy. “It’s amazing that this year we can celebrate together, given that everyone in Italy is still stuck.”
Passover is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the biblical deliverance of Israelites from slavery in Egypt after a series of divine plagues. The week-long spring festival begins on Saturday night with the highly ritualized Seder meal, when the story of the Exodus is told. It is a Thanksgiving atmosphere, with family, friends, celebration and four cups of wine.
Throughout the week, observant Jews refrain from eating bread and other leavened food to commemorate the hardships of fleeing Egypt. Instead, he eats unleavened matzah.
Preparations for the holidays involve cleaning the spring to the extreme to remove even the smallest crumbs of leavened bread from homes and offices. Boiling water boilers are set up on street corners to boil kitchen utensils, and many burn their discarded bread, known as chametz. Supermarkets surround the aisles with leavened products, wrapping black plastic shelves.
Most Israeli Jews – both religious and secular – spend their Seder with extended families. Last year’s Easter was a major break in tradition.
Government restrictions forced the closure of synagogues and limited movement and assembly to slow the spread of the virus. Some organized the ritual meal with the nuclear family, others by videoconference, while a few unhappy people kept the Seder alone.
Another blockade was imposed during the Jewish holidays in September, again hindering family reunions, and a third came earlier this year with the appearance of more contagious variants of the virus.
By the third blockade, Israel had launched one of the most successful inoculation campaigns in the world, after the government provided millions of doses from Pfizer and Moderna. Israel has now vaccinated more than 80% of its adult population.
It is too early to say that the Israeli coronavirus crisis is over, as new vaccine-resistant variants could emerge.
The Israeli-occupied vaccination campaign in the West Bank and Gaza has slowed down, with Israel criticized for not sharing more of its supplies. Israel has vaccinated more than 100,000 Palestinian workers working in settlements in Israel and the West Bank and sent several thousand doses to the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinians have imported more than 130,000 doses on their own, but it could be several months before shots are available for the vast majority of the nearly 5 million Palestinians in the territory. Experts say this could pose a risk to Israel’s public health efforts.
For now, however, Israelis are enjoying what feels like a post-pandemic reality, giving special significance to Easter.
“It is not only symbolic that it is the feast of freedom, but it is also the feast of the family,” said Rabbi David Stav, the chief rabbi of Shoham and the head of the liberal Orthodox organization Tzohar.
“This year, families are coming together. People who were so lonely, especially the older ones, who broke away from their families, suddenly discover the freedom and joy of being with them. ”