Jeffrey A. Gopen’s Passover Message for 2026

Chag Sameach from Jewish HomeLife

Every year at Passover, we ask the same questions. We retell the same story. But somehow, it never feels the same twice. We are not the same. We come to the table carrying different years, different losses, different hopes, different fears.

That is, I think, the point.

When I reflect on what it means to be a good Jew, I don’t believe the answer lives in any single practice or level of observance. I believe it lives in how we treat one another. In our willingness to show up: for family, for community, for the stranger. Our tradition has a phrase for the impulse to turn away from suffering: lo tukhal lehit’alem — you cannot look away. That instinct to move toward need rather than away from it is at the heart of Jewish values. And right now, it feels more important than ever.

We are living through a moment when Jewish institutions, the organizations and community pillars that have anchored Jewish life for generations, need us to show up for them the way they have always shown up for us. It can feel easier to step back when the world feels heavy. But our tradition teaches us that this is when community matters most.

At Jewish HomeLife, I see this every day. I see it in the Berman Commons staff member who sits with a resident who has no family visiting that week. In the Weinstein Hospice team that brings dignity and compassion to life’s most sacred passage. In the Eckstein Home Care worker who notices something is off and makes the call. Because to them, it was never a question. Of course you stay. Of course you make sure people are taken care of.

It’s not a job description. It’s a value system.

In the volunteers who show up week after week, and the families who trust us with the people they love most, I see the same thing: the understanding, as Jews have always understood, that caring for our elders is not charity. It is an honor. It is who we are.

The Passover story is not simply about leaving Egypt. It is about what we are commanded to build once we are free: a community that does not leave its most vulnerable members behind.

To me, that is what it means to be a good Jew. Not perfection of practice, but faithfulness of presence. The willingness to see need and lean in.

May your seder table feel full of warmth, memory, and the people who matter most. Jewish HomeLife is here, as always, for those who need us.

Chag Sameach.

Jeffrey A. Gopen is the President & CEO of Jewish HomeLife.