To the editor: Thank you for the description of our Passover holiday by Peter Smith (“In the Passover ritual, Jews worldwide reenact an ancient story of liberation,” March 30). It was so right and inclusive for me, a Jew living in a time when it is questionable whether it is safe to wear my Jewish Star of David out in public. My answer is that I do, no matter what, and do so proudly.
The op-ed piece by guest contributor Daniela Gerson was very relatable to me as well (“At Passover, I think of families like mine, forced to wander,” March 31). My Polish father and uncle also fled east from the Nazis and ended up in Siberia. My father and mother met and married there. They were also wanderers as Gerson describes and later, in Germany, were labeled displaced persons.
That the Passover story continues to be told to generations of Jewish children and that we Jews, even in recent history, continue to wander explains why we, as a people, so often voice our support for all refugees and asylum seekers. We understand and empathize with the search for freedom and a peaceful life.
Esther Friedberg, Studio City