Passover to me is informed by the Seder ritual, but it’s more than just that. It’s a Jewish holiday par excellence because every day should be a day where we remember the drive towards freedom. It’s something we should strive to preserve and protect. The month of April marks Passover, and it is the same month that the Civil War ended in 1865. During this time my great-great-grandfather and his brother were at the courthouse the day we signed the terms of surrender with Grant. They had been enslaved Africans at a tobacco plantation in Virginia. And on this day, their former slaveholder comes up to them and says, “You’re free.” I like to think of them as the first black people to realize that the nightmare was over.