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Source: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0422-halevi-passover-unesco-20160422-story.html
The Jewish Story Is Under Assault
(Los Angeles Times) Yossi Klein Halevi - All of the factions in the Palestinian statehood movement deny the existence of a distinct Jewish people with a right to national sovereignty. The Jewish calendar tells a different story. On Passover, we celebrate the birth of the Jewish people through our escape from Egypt. The Passover Seder ritual is the retelling of the exodus - "as though you yourself left Egypt" - and the message is: There is no Judaism without the Jewish people and its story. The Seder culminates with the affirmation, "Next year in Jerusalem," a reminder that the Jewish story that begins in Egypt ends in the Land of Israel. We're a specific people bound to a specific place. The writer is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.