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There is a moment during the N'ilah service on Yom Kippur that stays with me, always. I want to say that it haunts me, but that's really not the right image. It's more a flooding, a rushing-out-and-rushing-in-at-the-exact-same-moment kind of thing.

Reform Judaism's deep commitment to outreach and inclusion, both of Jews–by–choice and interfaith and multi–cultural families, is a core value rooted in the historic development of our Movement.

I grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in a predominately Italian neighborhood in which a prosciutto ball was more common than a matzo ball. My mother maintained a proper Jewish home where we observed Shabbat and celebrated holidays as a family.

In my family, Passover was always the most significant Jewish holiday, with memories so deep and personal they feel a part of me. My anticipation began weeks before the first seder, when my older brother practiced the four questions in Hebrew.

More than 68 percent of Jewish Americans over the age of 18, according to a survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2012, celebrate a Passover seder.

For Jews without close family ties, the approach of Passover can elicit the same gnawing anxiety that Thanksgiving does: While the rest of humanity gathers around tables laden with a home-cooked feast and lifts glasses of wine, you’ll be dining at home alone on leftovers in front of the TV.