Belated Passover thoughts

Someone asked me at the first seder, "So do you have any family traditions?"

I joked, "We have a tradition of being at someone else's house! We haven't had a seder in our own house since I was 12 years old."

We do have haggadahs and a seder plate... but we don't have family nearby in Rochester for anyone to come. We do have family friends but many of them have families nearby. So we usually do it with our family friends who have families outside of Rochester. So it works out. Especially when the husband and my mother cook together. You can gain 2 pounds overnight.

Anyhow, as I have experienced different seders each year, my awareness have heightened as I have come to notice certain manners, customs, and traditions that each seder had. This is the beauty of American Judaism. How do American Jews, living in a pluralistic and democratic society, interpret the meaning of Passover and the seder? My seminar a year ago touched upon this. Who are the guests? How long has that particular tradition been in effect? What food is served? How is the charoset prepared? How is the story told?

As wonderful it would be "ha'shanah ba'ah b'Yerusalayim", I think it's truly an experience to be at an American Jewish seder. Israel is good for once but American Jewish seders are forever because it seems to me that there are no two same sederim. You just have to keep traveling and to learn something new each time about the host family. But, you know, I could be wrong about Israeli families too given that there are different levels of observance.

This year, I went to a local Ann Arbor family's home with another UM student. There were 25 people! I really enjoyed myself as I experienced every minute of it- the traditions, the food, the singing, and so forth. They introduced one tradition that I must admit that I really liked: creating our own seder plate. The husband collected very random things from around the house and we had to blindly draw an item out of the bag. Then, throughout the seder, we could call it out and explain how this item was significant for the seder plate. For example, I got a stuffed cow with a straw hat. So I saved it for the very last part of the seder and said, "Now the seder is coming to a close and we're out of Egypt into the Land of Israel, this cow represents milk and honey." Everyone loved it. Such a fitting meaning. There was a wrench, a calculator, a little jug, etc. This tradition really encouraged us to reflect, laugh, and participate.

The second night I went to my friend Sam's house. His mother had caught me writing on Sam's Facebook wall saying how much I wished he was in the US so I can come over to his family's seder and help eat the food! She invited me and arranged for a ride with other guests. The format was the same as last year, more or less. Just that Sam wasn't there to drink 4 full cups of grape juice! He's still in Israel but his absence didn't bother me as much as I really enjoyed all the company of others, including his little sister. I still get a kick out of their Dr. Seuss' 4 questions song. That's their tradition that really stands out because of its silliness, creativity, and universality.

I think it would be quite fun if I collected some of my favorite traditions and presented them at my first home seder some time down the road.

The rest of the holiday went by so fast.... and I didn't each as much matzah as I thought. So I have an extra box for next year!

Party Crashers on Israel's Birthday

I went to the Diag in search for falafels that American Israel Movement student group was going to be handing out. All gone. After 2 hours since they opened. All gone. All I got was tabouleh and hummus. Eh, okay. I'll take those. The students also passed around small pieces of chocolate cake with white frosting with a small piece of paper with a fun Israel fact. Mine said, "Homosexuals serve openly in the military." Yay, go Israel!

As I turned around to walk away from the tent, a guy handed me a piece of paper, and I took it. I started reading it and it started with "Thank you for celebrating Israel's independence and..." it listed all the anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian facts such as 700,000 Palestinians being forced out of the territory in 1948 war. Oh B.S.! I tossed it away in disgust.

I couldn't believe it. Oh dare they. We do have the First Amendment going on here and they have the right to exercise their right to free of speech. Just as one side of my mind started protesting that they shouldn't have "crashed" the party like this, the other side considered another scenario. Now I forget what it was but whatever it was, I shut up.

It's really incredible to observe greater level of antisemitism on university campuses like Michigan and Berkeley. Yes, there is a good number of Michigan students who are anti-Israel and have proposed for the University to divest in companies who have ties with Israel and support its endeavors. Fortunately the administration flat out said no way. It's just so scary to see some Muslim students take advantage of their leadership positions in the student assembly to make proposals of that sort. I also have seen a number of anti-Israel comments (sometimes antisemitiism as well) on New York Times. You don't see Jewish students looking to do anything about American companies that have ties with Israel's enemies.

Sometimes whenever I see anti-Israel protests in Ann Arbor, I just want to take the posters and rip them apart and call the protesters idiots. Instead I just give them a glare, ignore them, and/or mutter what a bunch of idiots they are. Maybe next time, I should get my own posters and stand next to them or across the street and hold them up. You know, crash their party.