Growing up as a Catholic, Easter was abundant chocolate, thrilling egg hunts and hot cross buns.

For my Jewish hubby it was *very* different. Easter was the time when antisemitic bullies would leave church hyped up on Jew-blaming sermons and hunt him down for a beating. /1

Easter was the time he was invited to a Baptist church by the pastor who yelled from the stage that "we feel an anger at the Jews for killing our Lord."

Whilst staring *straight* at my Jewish husband. /2 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/passion-plays-and-oratorios-christ-killers-and-the-deus-ex-machina_b_7097460

Easter was the time when his Christian friends would sigh, slump their shoulders and look at my Jewish hubby with pitying eyes that he couldn't have chocolate eggs and join the 'fun'. /3

Easter was the time that my Jewish hubby intellectually knew and viscerally felt the pogroms against Jewish communities down through the ages.

Pogroms as recent as 1940 in Nazi occupied Poland. /4
https://www.jhi.pl/en/blog/2019-03-21-the-easter-pogrom-1940

Easter. It's eggs and chicks and bunnies. It's hope for many. For some Jewish ppl it may mean trauma, remembrance of pain, exclusion, hate-fueled blame and judging eyes.

There will be chocolate and egg hunts for us today. But with awareness, with care.

With gentleness. /end