Well, maybe there’s one short-lived Passover tradition, after all. Jews have been celebrating the spring festival, which commemorates their exodus from Egypt, for thousands of years. Some of the details, like the commandment to eat only unleavened bread, are even in the Bible.) And the ritual meal, called a seder, draws on the practice of…
Last year was our first Passover in our new house. Nearing the holiday, the dining room was still piled high with moving boxes. Since the seders fell on the weekend, all of my husband’s family flocked to Toronto. With my parents coming from Montreal, we would number nearly 30 with nine children between the ages…
7 Secrets to a Splendid Seder* from* the Jewish Daily Forward on Vimeo. From our archives, terrific secrets and tips that are as relevant today as they were when we produced them two years ago. Five years ago, I became the keeper of our family Seder. As the self-appointed repository of the recipes and traditions…
Attend a Reconstructionist Passover dinner this season, and there’s a good chance there will be a new addition to the Seder plate – pineapple, to represent support for refugees and immigrants. “In American colonial times, the pineapple was a symbol of welcome and prosperity. They were special gifts because of the great labor and expense…
In a small shop in Roswell, Georgia, not far from Atlanta, Russian immigrant Natalya Shapiro paints matzo with stunning chocolate. As a small child in Belaya Tserkov, in Ukraine, she used to visit her grandparents often. Her grandfather was a baker, and her grandmother baked matzo throughout the year, storing it in a special bag…
Let’s talk matzo balls. At my family’s Seders, my mother passed judgement on the always delicious dumplings by dubbing them either floaters or sinkers. Floaters were light and fluffy, while sinkers were heavy and dense. You would think by these descriptions that a designation of sinker would be a bad thing, but in fact, I…
With the “Unofficial Hogwarts Haggadah” coming out any day now, here are some highlights: Harry embarks on his own personal journey of exodus every year. He leaves the Dursley’s to return to Hogwarts, his promised land. The miracle of the splitting of the sea is certainly matched by the wonder of platform 9 and three-quarters….
President Barack Obama sounded a wistful note in his last Passover message as president. “Mah nishtana halailah hazeh?” said the White House statement released Friday, hours before the start of the holiday, using the Haggadah’s phrase, reserved for the youngest child at the seder meal, who asks “Why is this night different from all others?”…
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