A Passover Korech – sandwich – using the Zionist Ideas to Zionize the Seder, so prepare to celebrate Israel’s 78th by welcoming some Zionist thinkers to the seder.
Zionist Texts from The Zionist Ideas in Conversation with the Haggadah.
(Longer excerpts and mini-bios can be found in The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, Tomorrow)
by Professor Gil Troy, Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute, the Global Think Tank of the Jewish People.
If the button didn’t work, you can use this link as well:
https://giltroy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/ZIONIST-TEXTS-FOR-THE-SEDER-2026-2.pdf
Letter from Gil Troy
Pesach, 2026/5786Dear Friends,
This is the updated 2026 version of the supplemental Zionists texts for the Seder, I’ve shared annually since publishing The Zionist Ideas to mark Israel’s 70th birthday in 2018.
As we approach this year’s Seder with – as of this writing – the American-Israeli War with Iran unresolved and Hezbollah bombing Israel regularly from Lebanon, it’s easy to make one prediction: Israel and Zionism will be hot topics at most Seder tables worldwide.
Be open to honest conversations and serious questions, that’s what the Haggadah is meant to encourage! I humbly offer my recent e-books: “The Essential Guide to October 7 and its Aftermath” and “The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew- Hatred,” to help you clarify your thoughts before – or after.
But please, please, don’t let our enemies win. Avoid a defensive Zionism of the hunched back and the furrowed brow. They want every conversation about us to be about them… meaning about the conflict, the rights and wrongs of Israeli military strategy, etc. – and they want our Zionism to be conditional, contingent on Israel’s “good” behavior or whether we like Israel’s government at the moment. Few American Jews approach their American identity that way. We remember that a patriot is someone who loves his or her country because of its politicians sometimes… but despite its politics always.
Use these texts to think more broadly – and celebrate. The Haggadah – and these additions – remind us of how central Zionism, Jewish peoplehood, and the Land are to Judaism – for thousands of years, culminating with today’s great adventure in Jewish Statehood. And, beyond appreciating it intellectually, take the opportunity to toast Israel and the Jewish people, highlighting all that we have accomplished in a blink of historical time. Wishing us all meaningful seders, a genuine peace spawned by victory, and a better world.
Chag Sameach,
Gil Troy
Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought, The Jewish People Policy Institute