Jewish Activists Hold Passover Seder Outside ICE Office to Protest Family Separations and Detention Deaths

A Passover Seder held on a Hartford sidewalk Tuesday evening wasn't just about retelling an ancient story of liberation. It was a direct challenge to the immigration enforcement apparatus operating inside the building above them.

The Hartford Jewish Organizing Collective organized the ceremony outside the Abraham Ribicoff Federal Building on Main Street, which houses an ICE field office. Their message: the Jewish call to remember liberation from bondage demands action against modern systems of detention and family separation.

"A Passover seder is a Jewish ritual that we commemorate every year in order to retell the Passover story of our liberation from 'Mitzrayim', which means both Egypt and the narrow places," said Daniella Hobbs, a co-organizer. "We're here to recognize the narrow places that we still experience today and hope to move towards freedom."

Those narrow places, according to the organizers, include ICE detention centers where people have died in custody and where families continue to be separated. The group is demanding the release of hundreds of Connecticut residents currently detained by immigration authorities, according to estimates from the Deportation Data Project.

"ICE we've seen has been ripping apart families, ripping apart communities, people have been dying in ICE detention centers," Hobbs said. "All of these are just violations of our freedoms and our rights."

ICE did not respond to requests for comment, but the agency has consistently defended its operations as enforcement of federal immigration law, claiming arrests target people who have violated visa terms or have criminal convictions. The agency maintains these actions make communities safer -- a claim that rings hollow to those who have watched neighbors disappear into detention or seen families destroyed by deportation.

The Seder also addressed Trump's recent threats against Iran. After launching attacks on the country, Trump threatened to "end a whole civilization" -- language that organizers said fundamentally contradicts the freedom celebrated during Passover.

"As Jews, it's important for us to stand up and say, we don't stand for that," Hobbs said. "We stand for freedom for all people, and that none of us are free unless all of us are free and that's both here and in places like Iran."

Trump has framed the Iran attacks as efforts to initiate regime change and create regional stability. The U.S. has agreed to negotiate with Iran during a two-week ceasefire, though military action may not fully cease. University of New Haven professor Ken Gray noted that American and Israeli objectives in the conflict may diverge.

"The United States and Israel are fighting this war together but the end goal for the United States and the end goal for Israel may be different," Gray said. "So at some point, Israel may go it alone as the United States decides that they are done."

The sidewalk Seder represents a growing movement of Jewish activists refusing to separate their religious tradition from contemporary struggles for justice. By holding the ceremony outside an ICE office, organizers made explicit what they see as a direct line between ancient oppression and modern detention systems -- and their obligation to resist both.

The ritual's central question -- "Why is this night different from all other nights?" -- took on new meaning on a Hartford sidewalk, where the answer involved not just remembering past liberation, but demanding it for people locked inside detention centers today.