PREACH AND TEACH

To connect the plight of slaves today to the story of Jewish liberation:

  • Deliver a Shabbat Hagadol or Passover sermon(s) on the topic of modern slavery and Jewish responsibility. The Rabbinical Assembly has provided Sermon Sparks. 
  • Give a d’var Torah on the plight of slaves at your Adar or Nissan board meeting.  
  • Teach classes for all ages on this topic! Texts and sample lessons for adults, college students, teens, and children are available at Next Year Free! A Modern Slavery Curriculum at www.FreeTheSlaves.net/Judaism
  • Host a speaker or invite a scholar-in-residence to speak. Some organizations will send a speaker to your community no cost (although a donation to the organization is the prevailing and expected custom). Other organization and individual speakers will charge an honorarium.
  • Distribute handouts to your community:
  • Passover Prep is a one-page handout. One side of the page describes the problem of – and solutions to – contemporary slavery. The other side suggests actions that Jews can take in ten hours, ten minutes, or even ten seconds to free slaves this Passover.
  • Reproduce or adapt one or two of your favorite readings from Haggadot, so that your students or congregants have something new from you for this year’s Seder:
    • Seder Starters: Expand on the Telling has curated Seder activities and readings that relate to modern-day slavery. This resource includes material from a wide variety organizations.
    • T’ruah’s full-length Haggadah, published in 2015, is included in Seder Starters: Expand on the Telling and deserves mention in its own right: The Other Side of the Sea: A Haggadah on Fighting Modern Day Slavery. It can be used either as a complete anti-trafficking seder or in individual segments to enhance your seders. Highlighting the words and experience of survivors of human trafficking (including artwork for trafficking survivors), it links Pesah to modern-day slavery and contemporary fights for liberation. The Haggadah also incorporates an extensive section on how to take action.
  • Screen films for Adult Education, or as part of a Social Action Film Series:
    • Free the Slaves provides dozens of short videos, which you can share via youtube or screen in classes. 
    • "Food Chains" is a 2014 documentary that delves into the current situation of farm workers in America and includes a discussion of how the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida helped uncover many cases of human trafficking among tomato pickers. 
    • Robert Biser gave an ELI (Jewish TED) talk on human trafficking: Starting at 10:35, Biser ends his educational and motivational presentation with three steps that Jews can take to end human trafficking: 1) identify fighting human trafficking as a Jewish calling; 2) buy righteously; 3) connect to anti-trafficking organizations.

ENHANCE YOUR SEDERS

  • Supplement your family, model, and community seders with dozens of activities, symbols, and readings available: Download Seder Starters: Expand on the Telling

    • Seder Starters curates and organizes downloadable materials from many organizations. Here are just a few of the suggestions provided:

      • add a padlock to the Seder plate

      • share the testimony of a freed slave

      • ask a fifth question (about slaves)

      • calculate your Passover slavery footprint

      • give an afikoman gift that matters – books about slaves or donations to rescue people and keep them free

GIVE TIME, MONEY, AND INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

to those fighting slavery

  • Connect with a national or international organization that fights slavery full-time. For example,
    • ATEST: the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking is a coalition of most of the major national anti-trafficking organizations. ATEST spearheads legislative efforts on human trafficking, including increasing federal funding to support trafficking survivors.
    • The Beyond Survival Fund provides emergency support to trafficking survivors, bridging the gap until they can receive government benefits.
    • Breaking the Chain Through Education, run on a shoe-string by Jews from New Jersey, rescues child slaves off fishing boats in Ghana and then aids in their rehabilitation. They have built a school for former child slaves and provide social work, food, and health care, as well as education.
    • Free the Slaves partners with local leaders and organizations to combat slavery around the world. It does its advocacy and fundraising with faith-based communities, including the Jewish community. In 2015 alone, Free the Slaves liberated 2,265 people from slavery; educated 82,583 villagers in “slavery hot spots” on how to fight trafficking; and trained 1,281 government officials in identifying and combatting slavery.
    • Freedom Network USA is an umbrella organization for many survivor support agencies around the country. They focus on human rights and place the needs of survivors at the heart of any anti-trafficking solution.
  • Partner with Jewish organizations that fight slavery, such as:
  • Find local organizations, such as a municipal coalition against trafficking, and partner with them. Be sure to begin by asking what they need.
  • Dedicate tzedakah funds from your discretionary account and/or conduct a fundraising effort through a committee or task force within your synagogue or school, e.g., Social Action Committee, Sisterhood, Parent-Teacher Association, etc.
  • Distribute Seder Coupons, a beautifully illustrated half-page handout. One side of the half-page makes the connection between modern-day slavery and Passover and encourages donations to Free the Slaves. The other side shares Rabbi Tarfon’s teaching from Avot 2:21 in calligraphy.

BUY CONSCIOUSLY & RIGHTEOUSLY

  • Buy Fair Trade kosher-for-Passover chocolate for your synagogue’s enjoyment, for fundraising chocolate sales, and for a chocolate seder. Use the following resources to purchase and promote Fair Trade:
  • Enlist your Kitchen Committee or Caterer in buying products that are slave-free.
  • Consider requiring Fair Trade certifications, along with Kashrut certifications, for products that are eligible to be designated Fair Trade, such as coffee, tea, and chocolate. (Not all supply chains covered by Fair Trade include anti-trafficking measures, but Fair Trade is always a good way to support small farmers around the globe and ensure that they were paid a competitive price for their goods.)
  • Visit www.knowthechain.org to learn which companies protect the rights of workers. Know the Chain has a database of over 5,000 companies. Shop at and invest in businesses that have clear guidelines backed by third-party, ongoing, on-the-ground monitoring, with mechanisms for enforcement and penalties for human rights violations.
  • Teach children and teens about Fair Trade in connection with Passover. Download George Kelly’s curriculum “Tell Your Child on that Day,” (p.33) which includes a lesson on “Fair Trade as a Jewish Value” and Amy Dorsch’s curriculum “Let the People Go: Modern-Day Slavery and Jewish Responses” (p.138), which includes “Taking It Home: Being a Consumer with a Conscience.” These lessons and more are available free in Next Year Free! A Modern Slavery Curriculum
  • Buy books about modern-day slavery as an afikoman prize or Passover host(ess) gift.
  • Start a community pledge to buy ethically. Ask the members of your community to pledge to buy a certain product (e.g., chocolate, coffee) only from ethical sources. Tally up how much your community will spend on slave-free goods in one year, and let companies in that industry know that you will only buy ethically produced goods. (This suggestion comes from T’ruah.)
  • Share the artful pictures and stunning estimates developed by T’ruah and Slavery Footprint; they let you know how many slaves it typically takes to produce the items used at a Passover seder.

SPREAD HOPE

  • The persistence of slavery is frightening and disheartening. It is important to emphasize that there is a path and a way out! With mere funds and sufficient will, we can end slavery in our lifetimes. Many organizations have proven track records – not just in rescuing individuals, but in changing and protecting whole communities.  
  • Share in an easy, accessible fashion about hopeful interventions. Distribute a one-page handout or even a half-page informational “coupon” to congregants and students, to provide concrete steps that people can take to make a difference.  
  • While the task to end slavery is daunting, it is also within reach. Kevin Bales, author and expert on slavery and founder of Free the Slaves, is optimistic: 

“It can happen. Five thousand years of slavery can end forever. Two hundred years of pretending we don’t have slaves anymore can end forever…Yes, $13 billion a year in slave-made products and services is a lot of money, but it is exactly what Americans spent on Valentine’s Day in 2005…No industry or corporation, no political party, no state or country or culture is dependent on slavery…Never has the world been so rich, never have travel and communication been so easy, never have so many countries been ready to work together, never has the world had the end of slavery so easily within its grasp.” (Kevin Bales, Ending Slavery, 2007, p. 3-4)

In the words of the Haggadah, “Next year, free!”