NEW YORK (RNS) — Hundreds of protesters gathered at Union Square in Manhattan on Monday afternoon (April 6) for a Passover Seder to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and corporations working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The demonstration, organized by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, ended in front of the nearby headquarters of the technological giant Palantir. An ICE contractor since 2011, Palantir has a $30 million contract with the agency for ImmigrationOS, a platform tracking self-deportations and visa overstays. 

As hundreds of protesters chanted “Shut down Palantir” and “Let my people go” outside of the building, a dozen held a sit-in in the lobby. The group, all wearing T-shirts reading “Abolish ICE,” gathered around a black banner that read “ICE kidnaps, Palantir profits. Let my people go.”

Shortly after the protesters arrived in front of the headquarters, the New York Police Department entered the building and arrested about 15 protesters, according to JFREJ. Rabbi Abby Stein, formerly part-time rabbi of Brooklyn’s progressive Kolot Chayeinu congregation, was among the protesters who held the sit-in. 

“As Jews and as New Yorkers, we know all too well that when one group of people is surveilled, we are all in danger,” Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg, founder of the progressive Queens congregation Malkhut, told the crowd parked in front of the company’s headquarters.

Monday’s demonstration was part of JFREJ’s Seder in the Streets, one of the group’s long-standing Passover traditions. In 2024, JFREJ held one to denounce the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Last year, its members joined a Seder in the Street organized by the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace to advocate for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student placed in ICE detention for his role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. (JFREJ doesn’t “take a position on Zionism.“)

Passover, which is from April 1 to April 9 this year, commemorates the Exodus, the Jewish people’s journey out of Egypt. During the holiday, Jewish families gather for Seders, ceremonies meant to recount the story of the Exodus as told in the Haggadah, the Passover Seder booklet. Participants also eat bitter herbs and flatbread, called matzo, which symbolize parts of the story.

Seder in the Street events trace their roots to the 1969 Freedom Seder that brought together Jewish and African American activists to denounce the Vietnam War and the oppression of Black people.

Sophie Ellman-Golan, JFREJ’s communications director, said organizers chose to dedicate this year’s Seder to protesting ICE because Passover’s story of liberation brought them to consider those currently held in detention. “We can’t celebrate a liberation holiday when so many of our neighbors are in captivity right now or hiding in their homes because ICE is terrorizing them. We want an end to corporate collaboration and profiteering off of people’s pain,” she said. 

At Union Square, the group gathered around a large round banner, representing the Seder plate, painted in blue, reading “Melt ICE.” Attendees held other banners reading “Jews against deportation” and wore black T-shirts that said “We’re not going back” or “Abolish ICE.”

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an appearance alongside Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism, at the Union Square gathering. During his brief address, the mayor said the story of Passover generated hope for many oppressed groups.

“I know that in this moment, for many New Yorkers, that freedom feels out of reach, whether it be freedom from a suffocating cost-of-living crisis, freedom from a rising tide of antisemitism or freedom from the brutality of ICE,” Mamdani said.

The first Muslim to serve as New York’s mayor, he also praised JFREJ’s efforts to combat the “rising tide of Islamophobia in this city.” He was joined by other city officials, including former Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish, and Aliya Latif, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Faith-Based Partnerships.

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, co-founder of Kolot Chayeinu, who led the evening’s liturgy, told participants the plight of immigrants resonated with Jewish Diaspora communities because of their own story of migration, but also because of the Passover story.

“If this holiday teaches us anything, it is that a better, liberated future is possible — one with no loopholes or carve-outs, and this time, nobody will be left behind,” said the rabbi, who also serves as the co-chair of the board of T’ruah, a Jewish human rights organization.

The group focused most of the evening on singing, bringing together liberation songs from different social justice movements and the Jewish Mizrahi tradition.

The group sang “Let My People Go/Go Down Moses,” which was rewritten for a fundraising campaign to bail people out of ICE detention in 2020, and “This Is for Our Families,” which was sung by protesters in Minneapolis during ICE’s Operation Metro Surge in January.

After sharing matzo, the group proceeded with the ritualistic blessing of the four cups. As he blessed the third cup of wine, Lander noted he had long struggled with God’s commandment to kill the firstborn of each Egyptian family as one of the plagues sent to Egypt. Lander, who is running for Congress, said a medieval midrash, or rabbinic commentary, helped him understand that Jews protected Egyptian children during the 10th plague.

“That’s a question we asked at our Seder table this year,” Lander said. “Would we take the children of Egyptian families, of Palestinian families, of Iranian families, of Lebanese families, of Venezuelan families, of Cuban families, into our home?”