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Passover Seder Heavily Attended
By Carina Finn '10
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This year, Sweet Briar’s annual Passover Seder went from being a small celebration attended by only a handful of students to a true community event. An unprecedented 17 students came to the Seder, which was held at the Chaplaincy.

This event was not just for the practicing Jews on campus—about 11 of the students who came were professed Christians. Some came because they were curious, others because they felt it was an important part of the holy week, since the Last Supper was, in fact, a Passover Seder.

The Jewish students were more than happy to sit around the table beside their Christian classmates.

“Judaism does not proselytize, so we're not interested in converting people, but as a religious minority on campus we are delighted to be able to share our tradition with others who may not be familiar with Jewish practices and ideas,” said Rachel Reynolds ‘07, a Sweet Spirit who attended and helped to organize the Seder.

Reynolds is hopeful that the celebration of Passover on campus will continue to grow in popularity. Moving the event to the Chaplaincy seemed to give it a more public feel, as it was previously held in Alix Ingber’s home.

Though Ingber had always been a great hostess, according to those who have attended previous Seders, the move seemed to make it more accessible to the community. There was also more word-of-mouth advertising.

Reynolds led the gathering, partly due to a self-admittedly loud singing voice. A traditional Seder includes the reading of the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt. There are also prayer and songs, usually sung in Hebrew, and, of course, the festive meal.

However, Sweet Briar did not hold an entirely traditional Passover: Reynolds added some outside readings and made some changes to the conventional Seder plate. While the Seder meal usually contains charoset (a chopped mixture of apples, walnuts, and sweet wine), a green vegetable, a roasted egg, a lamb’s shankbone, a bitter herb (usually horseradish), and saltwater, an orange was also added.

This practice stems from a 1980s a homophobic comment made by a Rabbi, that lesbianism had as much place within Judaism as chometz, or leavened grains, at a seder. A prominent feminist scholar thus began the tradition of adding an orange, which is not forbidden but certainly noticeably out of place, to the seder plate. This statement is especially appropriate at a women’s college, but Reynolds also had something else in mind.

“The orange has been used as a symbol in support of diverse sexual orientations, but I thought it would be great if we also used it as a symbol of diversity in general, given the composition of our group,” said Reynolds.