Nearly 175 people attended the American Jewish Committee Cleveland’s 15th annual Global Diplomatic Seder March 23 at The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood.
Members of various communities were invited to share in an interfaith seder while making connections across different faiths and backgrounds. Many attendees were returning to AJC Cleveland’s seder dinner while others experienced their first. During the event, Rabbi Richard A. Block and Cantor Kathryn Wolfe Sebo led guests through the reading of the haggadah.
“AJC Global Leadership Seder holds a very special place in Joyce (Wald) and my hearts. We believe in building bridges of mutual respect and understanding,” said Eric Wald, an AJC member who was gifted a seder plate at the event for his past work in helping organize the event. “The retelling of our people’s exodus of Egypt is a story of hope, of aspiration and redemption. It’s also a very human story that in different ways has repeated itself throughout history.”
AJC Cleveland selects prominent members in the community to share their personal reflections on a specific theme that relates back to the Jews’ exodus from Egypt.
This year’s selection of speakers consisted of Reverends Lois Annich, the interim associate pastor at Forest Hills Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights; Ken Chalker, the retired senior pastor at University Circle United Methodist Church in Cleveland; John C. Dorhauer, the general minister and president of United Church of Christ in Cleveland; and Otis Moss Jr., senior pastor emeritus of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland.
Each speaker focused on their personal experiences with the struggle for freedom.
