A ruler who didn’t understand the situation because he didn’t ask about what came before, then oppressed people because they were different, and then people who worked for him deceived him because his orders were inhuman.
Pharaoh’s opening observation about the Israelites may be the original xenophobic slander:
“Here, these people, the Israelites, are many-more and mightier than we are! Come-now, let us use-our-wits against it, lest it become many-more, and then, if war should occur, it too be added to our enemies and make war upon us or go up away from the land!” [Exodus 1:9-10]
In Exodus our ancestors could not fight this lie alone and even with Moses’ and God’s assistance, could not change Egypt – they left instead.
Throughout history we have worked to address anti-Semitism and oppression wherever we find it in the hope of transforming the places in which we live to be more just and equal societies.
The Jewish take-away from Exodus is figure out a way to alleviate oppression everywhere.