Passover, The Fourth of July, and the No Kings Rally

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, March 28, 2026, millions of Americans will gather around the country (with additional supportive protests in many other nations) to declare our opposition to autocracy and tyranny. At the previous “No Kings” rallies that I have attended, the mood has been upbeat, even fun. Strongmen tend to take themselves very seriously, and certainly do not like being mocked. Oppressors oppress; humor and joy are buoyant, counteracting that pressure, and demonstrating that our spirits will not be crushed. I have certainly felt uplifted and strengthened by joining the crowds who are determined to express our shared commitment to democracy.

Tomorrow’s rally falls just a few days before the beginning of Passover. The story we tell at Passover asserts that the very Source of Creation opposes tyrants like Pharaoh. The Torah unequivocally assumes that anyone who would crush other human bodies and spirits in service of their own power is subverting the very intention and moral law of Creation. I invite you to reread my piece from last Passover, where I elaborate on this core Jewish axiom.

Tomorrow’s rally is also auspicious in that it is the first “No Kings” gathering of 2026, the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Our Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, is the founding document of our nation. Especially now, the Declaration deserves careful rereading. The Founders begin by asserting a truth they find to be self-evident: that all men [sic] are created equal, and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This claim aligns with the Torah’s understanding that all people are created in the image of the Divine, that is, that every person, regardless of station, is endowed with a majestic and irreducible essence.

We tend to be less familiar with the rest of the Declaration, in which the Founders lay out the tyrannical behaviors of King George III that have led them to declare independence. In the face of Donald Trump’s tyrannical behavior, this latter part of the Declaration remains stunningly relevant, especially as we mark “No Kings Day.” These claims from 250 years ago seamlessly align with our own experience today. Here are some of the most salient passages:

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

•He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

•He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

•He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

•He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

•He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

•He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

•He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

•He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.

•For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

•For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States;

•For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world;

•For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;

•For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;

•For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences;

•For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.

•He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

•He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us...

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

As a patriotic American, and as a committed Jew, I say “No!” to all tyrants, unfit to be the rulers of free people.

Shabbat Shalom, and in Solidarity,

Rabbi Jonathan Kligler

Gratitude to Rabbi Karen Levine for directing me to read the Declaration of Independence more closely.

(I donate all revenues from paid subscriptions to this blog to the Sulha Peace Project)