World Zionist Organization: Celebrating a Remarkable Legacy

Two unusual things happened to me while watching the play “Heschel’s Passover Eve”: I became so engrossed that I didn’t feel the time pass, and then, when it was over, I had an acute urge to ask the protagonist, Rabbi Prof. Abraham Joshua Heschel, a list of questions that had collected in my mind during the performance. In fact, I left the theater with my head swimming in thoughts about what I had just seen and heard. Looking back, I was not only inspired and enlightened, but also energized as a Jew and as a Zionist facing the realities of 2023.

I must admit that I knew very little about Rabbi Heschel prior to watching “Heschel’s Passover Eve,” an artistic adaptation based on Heschel’s life and writings that was commissioned by the World Zionist Organization – a production of which will soon be staged in North America. I had a vague notion that he was an important American Jewish thinker during the mid-20th century, but I frankly was not cognizant of his exceptional life story, including his prominent role as a Zionist rabbi and human rights activist.

Indeed, the professional theater production shines a light on a larger-than-life figure whose story unquestionably deserves to be better known. Rabbi Heschel, I learned, epitomized the Jewish values of empathy, compassion and tikkun olam. He fought for civil rights alongside his friend Martin Luther King Jr., protested against the atrocities of the Vietnam War, and actively took part in the struggle to release the Jews of the Soviet Union. Just as importantly, he was a Zionist and a lifelong supporter of Israel.

The play was the brainchild of Dr. Yizhar Hess, Vice Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, who wished to honor the memory of Abraham Joshua Heschel on the 50th anniversary of his death. “We are celebrating his influence in a manner that has never been done before. Heschel is not well known in Israel, although many people identify with his Jewish values and beliefs, which include a strong commitment to Jewish peoplehood and to human rights,” explains Dr. Hess, adding that there would probably have been streets named after Heschel all over Israel if he had belonged to the Orthodox religious establishment and conformed to the classic Zionist narrative. In fact, since in Israel Heschel never received the recognition he deserves, the current play is an excellent means of rectifying this regrettable truth.

More than one way to be Jewish

In “Heschel’s Passover Eve,” I encountered a trailblazer of the modern era who was profoundly Jewish yet also universal. Heschel was a rabbi and his writings and actions were clearly rooted in his Judaism, but he believed that there is more than one way to be Jewish and he strongly supported religious pluralism. Moreover, he was convinced that Jews have an obligation not to be indifferent to other people’s suffering.

As the play shows, Heschel’s ideology as an adult was greatly shaped by his experiences as a child and young man. Born into a Hassidic family in Poland in 1907, he decided to leave his community as a teenager and to study at the University of Berlin. He was also ordained as a rabbi in the German capital, and it was in Berlin that he first encountered antisemitism and, later, Nazism. After being arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland, he succeeded to escape to London right before World War Two broke out, and later made his way to America.

As a young refugee in the United States, Rabbi Heschel first taught for five years at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, the main seminary of Reform Judaism, before taking a position in 1946 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York City, the leading seminary of Conservative Judaism. Heschel served as a professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism at JTS for 26 years, until his death in 1972 at age 65. During that time, he ordained generations of Conservative rabbis.

The numerous books Heschel wrote during his lifetime, which emphasized the values of pluralism and human rights, were widely acclaimed by the general public and turned him into one of the most well-known rabbis in the United States and beyond.

A mesmerizing historical journey

Although the play features just one actor and a simple set consisting of six wooden chairs, the brilliant performance by Rodie Kozlovsky, who plays Heschel in the play’s Hebrew version, sweeps the audience into an intensive journey through space and time that is totally mesmerizing. Kozlovsky succeeds in making Heschel come to life as a historical persona who is at the same time entirely part of the here-and-now.

Playwright Eran Shavit, director Yoni Eilat, and academic consultant Dr. Dror Bondi all did an extraordinary job creating a production with just the right mix of dramatic and comic elements. The result is a play which suits a wide range of audiences, and causes them to reflect on important issues such as human rights and social justice.

The play is only 50 minutes long and ostensibly takes place during a single evening in April 1968, before the Passover Seder to which Rabbi Heschel invited his friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Through a series of clever flashbacks, we are brought back in time to significant episodes earlier in Heschel’s life. These include a powerful scene in his childhood home in Warsaw, as well as a lifechanging evening during his student days in Berlin and the emotional occasion when Heschel meets Martin Luther King Jr. for the first time.

An English production

“Heschel’s Passover Eve” is currently being performed throughout Israel to different audiences and organizations. Several performances have also taken place overseas for select audiences in New York, London and Buenos Aires. In all performances, surtitles are projected on a screen in both English and Hebrew.

An English production of the play will soon start touring the United States. It will be performed at a large range of venues, for a wide variety of spectators. The protagonist’s strong commitment to human rights and Jewish values will undoubtedly reverberate powerfully with American audiences. In fact, Rabbi Heschel’s legacy is certain to be a source of inspiration, and even a call to action, in contemporary contexts.

As Dr. Hess points out, Jews all over the world embrace Rabbi Heschel’s message of tikkun olam and his pluralistic, empathetic approach to both Judaism and universal values. There is no doubt that Heschel’s deep commitment to Zionism, Judaism and human rights made a powerful impact during his lifetime, and today his principles are as relevant as ever.

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Partnered with the World Zionist Organization