April 2026
As Passover approaches, my mind fills with images of my three daughters gathered around the Seder table, legs wiggling, toy frogs flying, stories of heroism and freedom coming alive before their eyes. And then, as they grew older, those same stories cracked open something deeper: the Jewish and universal call to ask hard questions, wrestle with what it means to truly be free, and strengthen your obligations to others.
Freedom From. Freedom To.
This year, these questions feel anything but abstract. We are living in a time of heaviness and uncertainty. The weight of the world’s pain is both persistent and deeply personal.
What are we seeking freedom from? What does our freedom empower us to move toward?
During this season of freedom, I think of our Good People, our social visionaries who choose, again and again, to transform pain into purpose. Drawing often from their own lived experiences of hardship and injustice, they have made the courageous decision to not turn away from today’s challenges, but to turn toward building, healing, and repairing what is broken.
This is a different kind of freedom. Not the absence of burden, but the presence of possibility.
Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with Evie Litwok, founder of Witness to Mass Incarceration, on our Good People Talk! podcast. Evie’s story is rooted in her own painful experience with incarceration and her commitment to ensuring others in that system are met with greater dignity and hope. She spoke about refusing to let pain have the final word, instead using what is broken as a bridge to connection, advocacy, and repair.
Speaking with her, I was struck by how her work, and her incredible spirit (she’s got chutzpah!), echoes the deeper message of Passover.
Freedom is not just about what we leave behind. It is about what we carry forward, from silence to voice, from invisibility to dignity, from systems that dehumanize to communities that heal.
As we gather around our Seder tables this year, telling the story of our people’s journey from narrowness to possibility, I am holding our Good People especially close, thinking of the courage it takes to carry both grief and hope, and the many quiet, powerful ways our Good People help others.
Thank you for being a part of the Good People Fund family. Thank you for standing alongside those doing the work of healing and repair, and for recognizing that freedom is not only something we inherit, but something we help create for others.
On behalf of the Good People Fund staff and board, I wish you and your loved ones a Passover filled with meaning, reflection, and the possibility of new beginnings.
Julie
