Tis the season for matzah, wine and sometimes really bad food–unless you make one of our excellent staff recommended recipes, of course. As Passover approaches, so do the parodies of the holiday. Over the years I have seen many versions of the haggadah, the book of songs, stories and prayers read during the Passover seder (meal). This year it was taken to a new level when I was forwarded the Facebook Haggadah. For those of you on Facebook –this is hysterical. For those of you not on Facebook, you may find it slightly humorous but I have some other great links for you.

I found this video on YouTube and it made me smile. I’m particularly excited to share it with my non-Jewish husband who, while having attended many Passover seders over the past six years may find it useful in explaining what’s going on. (It’s after the cut.) Continue reading →

My nuclear family is going to my mother-in-law this year for Passover, and we are responsible for the child-friendly content of the second night seder. Even though both of us have worked in Jewish education in different capacities, we’ve never been in charge of leading a seder. We’ve always been participants at family seders that older family members led. This year we’re getting trained on doing it ourselves. I don’t think we’re going to be doing it alone, though, since my mother-in-law was a kindergarten teacher for many years and is sure to have a lot to say.

Yesterday my husband went to the Jewish bookstore to get copies of some of the books that I found for the Additional Resources page for the Guide to Passover for Interfaith Families. Today my mom sent me a great resource: the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance published a booklet of activities for children and adults to enhance the Passover seder.

I have used JOFA’s materials in the past, when I was a bat mitzvah tutor for a girl who went to Orthodox day school–we used their booklet on Orthodox bat mitzvah options. I was impressed by the level of knowledge that JOFA educators thought a girl could achieve. (One girl in the booklet learned a chapter of Talmud and then had a traditional siyum, or completion party, as her bat mitzvah celebration. Wow.) Still, I wasn’t expecting JOFA to put out Passover resources that would be so useful for people in interfaith families. (I was also kind of surprised to get something from my mom from an organization with “feminist” in its name, since she usually prefaces the word “feminist” with the word “farbrenteh”– Yiddish for “burning”–but my mom is also a very experienced Jewish educator, and you can count on her to know good materials when she sees them.) It fits with my sense that we are all one big Jewish community and that there is continuity between secular Jews and halachic Jews, Orthodox and Reform, inmarried and intermarried, feminist and … not so invested in feminism. You know that if all of our families were leaving Egypt, we would have been redeemed, together.

I was really excited, in a silly way, to find out that Lieber’s Candy of Brooklyn makes kosher for Passover marshmallow bunnies and duckies–just like Peeps, only no gelatin! (I found the photo here–go give the kosher food detective some love!) I had this great idea to commission someone to make us an Easter basket with all kosher-for-Passover candy to photograph and feature on our site. In order to be kosher for Passover, candy can’t be made with corn syrup, and there are other kashrut rules about ingredients that apply to foods year-round that also apply on Passover.

I wasn’t completely kidding about wanting to blend Jewish food rules with Christian celebratory traditions. We have run one fabulous article by Teresita Levy, who hosts her Catholic relatives each year, Ay Vey, A Kosher for Passover Easter…With Recipes. Our families are increasingly diverse, and I believe with the right recipes and a little metaphoric WD-40 on your metaphoric door hinges, you can open your house to everyone.

I put out a call on Twitter to see if anyone wanted to photograph a kosher Easter basket, and one of my friends asked whether I had contacted Family Table, Greater Boston’s kosher food pantry. See, kosher for Passover Peeps are a cute idea, but there are a lot of Jewish families who can’t afford matzah. It’s a mitzvah, a religious obligation, to eat matzah, and it’s expensive.

Passover is a great time to think about feeding people. We say “all who are hungry, let them come and eat.” It’s emblematic of our freedom that we can host other people at our Passover seders. Right now, in the United States, there are people going hungry. If you are looking for a way to contribute, how about Project Mazon, a national Jewish hunger charity? If you clean your house for the holiday and get rid of leavened food, consider donating unopened packages to the local food bank. Let me know if you have other ideas that will celebrate Passover, Easter or the vernal equinox by making sure that all are fed.