On Saturday night I attended a Passover seder in Israel for the first time, thanks to the kind invitation of my new friends Shlomi and Orna. I was afraid that I might feel a little lost, since the seder was conducted entirely in Hebrew and I was surrounded by mostly new and unfamiliar faces, but in fact I had a wonderful time. That was in part because of the warm welcome I received, and in part because of the fascinating people I met. Orna's mother came to Palestine from Poland in 1944, so I told her about my grandmother who came to America from Poland in the 1930s. Asher, the brother of Orna's mother's first husband (who was killed in Israel's War of Independence), described himself as coming from a Communist background. I asked whether he was a follower of Ber Borochov, the great theoretician of Zionist Marxism, but he scoffed with a wave of his hand, saying Borochov was the theoretician of the Poalei Zion ("Workers of Zion"), Ben-Gurion's party. I took that to mean he had been to the left of Ben-Gurion and Poalei Zion. (I later learned that after Poalei Zion split into left and right factions in 1919-1920, the left faction became the Jewish Communist Party in 1921, which split in 1922, reunited as the Palestine Communist Party in 1923 and became an official section of the Communist International.) I also discovered that one of Asher's sons was a founder of Peace Now in 1978 and signed the famous "Officers' Letter" to Menachem Begin. Left-wing politics runs like a thread through the whole family.
Many things were familiar, including the traditional songs that are sung at the meal, but some things were different: no cup for Elijah the Prophet (whose return will herald the coming of the Messiah in Jewish tradition -- Shlomi gave me a long exposition about why he doesn't like Elijah), no yahrmulkas, and, most perplexing for me, they still said "Next year in Jerusalem" not (as I expected) "This year in Jerusalem." Since Gev, the host of the seder, was a kibbutznik, we used a special hagadah from the kibbutz movement. Also, Jews in the Diaspora have two seders (on the first and second nights), but for historical reasons Jews in Israel only have one seder on the first night.
All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and utterly fascinating experience for me.
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2 comments:
Did it compare to last year in Madison?
That sounds like such fun! Pesach Sameach to you and A (together at last!). I went to two seders around the corner from our house and at the second one made a new friend- a new law and history prof at your institution who, it turns out, did her undergrad in Montreal and knows a good friend of mine. Small world indeed!
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