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ShareSeders come in different flavors
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By Douglas J. Guth
Senior Staff Reporter
In the next few weeks, tens of thousands of Cleveland Jews will be sitting down with their family and friends to retell the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. The Passover seder is considered a timeless tradition, but a handful of local community seders prove there is more than one way to break a matzah.
One of Rabbi Rona Shapiro’s favorite moments during Congregation Bethaynu’s women’s seder March 14 was the enthusiastic rendition of Miriam’s Song, during which participants sang and danced as Miriam the Prophet was said to have done while leading the Israelite women across the Red Sea.
Shapiro and Cantor Danielle Bensimhon led the seder using the Ma’yan Haggadah, a women’s haggadah edited by the rabbi. A women’s seder contains the revelry often found in a traditional ceremony, while emphasizing the story of women’s liberation at the time of the Exodus.
“This is the eternal message of the haggadah – to tell this story in every generation so that each person feels that he or she was liberated from Egypt,” says Shapiro, founding editor of ritualwell.org, a website for Jewish rituals with a feminine slant. This makes the liberation “an ongoing event.”
Husbands and sons are welcome at the women’s seder, even if the ritual is specific to the Jewish female experience, adds the rabbi.
The seder includes a reading making the traditional four children “four daughters” and examining their attitude toward a women’s seder.
Then there’s the “orange on the seder plate” reading, based on the alleged words of a rabbi who said “women belong on the bima like an orange on a seder plate.” These words are transmuted by the women’s seder into a metaphor of Jewish rebirth, ending with, “Our (women’s) place in Judaism will be as visible as the orange on a seder plate.”
Ultimately, women’s seders, which have become an international phenomenon, show “what women and girls can be in the Jewish community,” Shapiro maintains. “It looks at Jewish text through a different lens.”
While Jewish women celebrated their struggles for freedom in Cleveland last weekend, a group of Jews and African-Americans held an integrated “Freedom Seder” at Temple Israel in Akron.
The seder, sponsored by the Jewish Community Board of Akron, was a musically charged affair combining Temple Israel’s choir with singers from local black churches.
The mixed choir sang such African-American spirituals as “Go Down Moses” as well as “Dayenu” and other traditional Passover songs. The 200-plus guests, some from the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), learned the basics of the seder and the meaning of each symbolic food on the seder plate.
Temple Israel spiritual leader Rabbi Robert Feinberg hopes that events like the Freedom Seder rekindle the languishing relationship between Jews and African-Americans.
“Jews and blacks have found meaning in the story of Exodus,” explains Feinberg, who wrote the seder’s special haggadah with Cantor Jason Rosenman. The story of Passover “resonates with our shared history.”
American Jewish Committee (AJC) has promoted global Jewish advocacy and inter-community relationships for over a century. AJC Cleveland’s 7th annual international diplomatic seder held March 16 at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple stands as a small but important piece of that mission, maintains regional director Lee C. Shapiro.
This year’s ceremony was led by Fairmount Temple’s Rabbi Joshua Caruso with music provided by guitarist/songwriter Noah Budin. Guests included representatives from Cleveland’s diverse faith and political community – Asian, Indian, Hispanic, Sikh and African-American leaders all made appearances. (Local Muslim leaders were invited but were unable to attend the seder.)
As Passover is a “festival of freedom,” Shapiro notes, this year’s seder focused on the timely issue of immigration reform. Meanwhile, AJC Cleveland board members served as “table hosts,” helping to spark conversation and interaction amongst the guests, who were also encouraged to read Hebrew prayers from a haggadah translated to English.
There’s no better time of the year than Passover “to share our story and build bridges,” Shapiro believes.
The suffering of Jews in Egypt can raise awareness of the continued misery of some segments of modern society, contend the organizers of an upcoming Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland seder focusing on child hunger.
The March 22 seder will be held at Federation’s downtown headquarters. Guests are asked to bring two or more non-perishable food items for donation to the Jewish Family Service Association and the Cleveland Foodbank, says Warren “Renny” Wolfson, who chairs the Inter Group Relations portfolio of Federation’s Community Relations Committee.
Using one of the most evocative lines from the traditional Passover seder – “Let all who are hungry come and eat” – Federation will adapt the Child Nutrition Seder ceremony created by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the national Jewish nonprofit organization MAZON.
The seder re-contextualizes the historical message of redemption from slavery with the modern struggle faced by hungry children across our country, notes Wolfson, who expects 60 guests at the event.
“There are things in this world we still have to overcome,” he says. “We need to address hunger wherever it exists.”
dguth@cjn.org
One of Rabbi Rona Shapiro’s favorite moments during Congregation Bethaynu’s women’s seder March 14 was the enthusiastic rendition of Miriam’s Song, during which participants sang and danced as Miriam the Prophet was said to have done while leading the Israelite women across the Red Sea.
Shapiro and Cantor Danielle Bensimhon led the seder using the Ma’yan Haggadah, a women’s haggadah edited by the rabbi. A women’s seder contains the revelry often found in a traditional ceremony, while emphasizing the story of women’s liberation at the time of the Exodus.
“This is the eternal message of the haggadah – to tell this story in every generation so that each person feels that he or she was liberated from Egypt,” says Shapiro, founding editor of ritualwell.org, a website for Jewish rituals with a feminine slant. This makes the liberation “an ongoing event.”
Husbands and sons are welcome at the women’s seder, even if the ritual is specific to the Jewish female experience, adds the rabbi.
The seder includes a reading making the traditional four children “four daughters” and examining their attitude toward a women’s seder.
Then there’s the “orange on the seder plate” reading, based on the alleged words of a rabbi who said “women belong on the bima like an orange on a seder plate.” These words are transmuted by the women’s seder into a metaphor of Jewish rebirth, ending with, “Our (women’s) place in Judaism will be as visible as the orange on a seder plate.”
Ultimately, women’s seders, which have become an international phenomenon, show “what women and girls can be in the Jewish community,” Shapiro maintains. “It looks at Jewish text through a different lens.”
While Jewish women celebrated their struggles for freedom in Cleveland last weekend, a group of Jews and African-Americans held an integrated “Freedom Seder” at Temple Israel in Akron.
The seder, sponsored by the Jewish Community Board of Akron, was a musically charged affair combining Temple Israel’s choir with singers from local black churches.
The mixed choir sang such African-American spirituals as “Go Down Moses” as well as “Dayenu” and other traditional Passover songs. The 200-plus guests, some from the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), learned the basics of the seder and the meaning of each symbolic food on the seder plate.
Temple Israel spiritual leader Rabbi Robert Feinberg hopes that events like the Freedom Seder rekindle the languishing relationship between Jews and African-Americans.
“Jews and blacks have found meaning in the story of Exodus,” explains Feinberg, who wrote the seder’s special haggadah with Cantor Jason Rosenman. The story of Passover “resonates with our shared history.”
American Jewish Committee (AJC) has promoted global Jewish advocacy and inter-community relationships for over a century. AJC Cleveland’s 7th annual international diplomatic seder held March 16 at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple stands as a small but important piece of that mission, maintains regional director Lee C. Shapiro.
This year’s ceremony was led by Fairmount Temple’s Rabbi Joshua Caruso with music provided by guitarist/songwriter Noah Budin. Guests included representatives from Cleveland’s diverse faith and political community – Asian, Indian, Hispanic, Sikh and African-American leaders all made appearances. (Local Muslim leaders were invited but were unable to attend the seder.)
As Passover is a “festival of freedom,” Shapiro notes, this year’s seder focused on the timely issue of immigration reform. Meanwhile, AJC Cleveland board members served as “table hosts,” helping to spark conversation and interaction amongst the guests, who were also encouraged to read Hebrew prayers from a haggadah translated to English.
There’s no better time of the year than Passover “to share our story and build bridges,” Shapiro believes.
The suffering of Jews in Egypt can raise awareness of the continued misery of some segments of modern society, contend the organizers of an upcoming Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland seder focusing on child hunger.
The March 22 seder will be held at Federation’s downtown headquarters. Guests are asked to bring two or more non-perishable food items for donation to the Jewish Family Service Association and the Cleveland Foodbank, says Warren “Renny” Wolfson, who chairs the Inter Group Relations portfolio of Federation’s Community Relations Committee.
Using one of the most evocative lines from the traditional Passover seder – “Let all who are hungry come and eat” – Federation will adapt the Child Nutrition Seder ceremony created by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the national Jewish nonprofit organization MAZON.
The seder re-contextualizes the historical message of redemption from slavery with the modern struggle faced by hungry children across our country, notes Wolfson, who expects 60 guests at the event.
“There are things in this world we still have to overcome,” he says. “We need to address hunger wherever it exists.”
dguth@cjn.org
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