Jay Cranman’s Message for Passover 2026

What does it mean to be a good Jew? I don’t think this question has a clean answer. In fact, I get a little suspicious when it does. Because most of what I experience, in my own life and in the Jewish community, feels more like tension than clarity.

On one hand, we’re taught to take care of our own. There’s a deep instinct there. It shows up in how we build community, how we give, how we show up for each other in hard moments. It’s almost hardwired. And I don’t think that’s wrong. I think it’s human.

At the same time, we carry values that push in the opposite direction. Tikkun olam. Tzedakah. A responsibly beyond our immediate circle. A belief that our lives are meant to add something to the broader world, not just reinforce the boundaries around us.

So, what do we actually do with those two instincts?

Maybe the question isn’t which one is right. Maybe it’s noticing, in real time, when we’re being pulled inward…and asking why.

I’ve felt that more acutely over the past few years. After Oct. 7, there was a real urge, at least for me, to get smaller. To focus inward. To spend less energy trying to bridge gaps that didn’t feel mutual. There were moments where it felt like people we thought we were in community with just weren’t there or didn’t show up in the way we expected. That feeling doesn’t make you less principled. It makes you honest.

But I’ve also been asking what happens if we stay there. We become tighter, more insulated, more certain of who is in and who is out. It may feel safer in the short term, but over time it shrinks something essential, not just our community, but our sense of purpose.

To me, being a good Jew is not about eliminating that instinct. It’s about not letting it become the only one we listen to. It’s about remembering that “our own” can’t just mean people who look like us, think like us, or sit next to us in services. At some point, it has to include the people who need help the most.

Because if everyone only helped their own, I’m not sure that’s a world most of us would actually want to live in.

So maybe being a good Jew is less about drawing the circle tighter, and more about deciding how wide we’re willing to draw it…especially when it’s harder than it used to be.

And if that sounds too simple, it probably is. I don’t think this resolves cleanly. It lives in that tension, between pulling in and reaching out.

The question, at least to me, is simple…when that moment shows up, do we close the circle, or widen it?

Jay Cranman is the CEO of Jewish Family & Career Services Atlanta.