Ritual Meal a Time to Celebrate Ties to Past : Group Seders a Strong Trend

This is the bread of affliction which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry--let them come and eat. All who are needy--let them come and celebrate the Passover with us. --Passover Haggadah

While Jews in the United States have traditionally celebrated the Passover seder meal and service as a home-based, family event, there is a growing trend in Orange County toward congregational and communal observance of the holidays, a trend dating back to the event being commemorated.

The eight-day festival, commencing tonight at sundown, begins with evening meals on the first two nights, during which the story of the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt traditionally is recounted by parents to their children.

According to the account in Exodus, God would visit a plague on the Pharaoh and Egypt, after which the Pharaoh would free the Hebrew slaves--forcing them to leave. Before they were to leave, each Hebrew family, was to eat unleavened bread and to prepare a lamb. The lamb would serve two purposes: Its blood would be daubed on the doorpost of each home to protect the firstborn therein from the Angel of Death executing the fatal Tenth Plague on the Egyptians, and it would be consumed as a final meal before their departure.

But since not all families--then as now--were the same size, the Lord, according to Exodus 12:4, made allowances: “If the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.”

Most of the synagogues and centers in Orange County are holding group seders. Although modern group celebrations of the event have made some concessions to the 20th Century, the spirit is identical to that of biblical time, sponsors say, and the story told and sung in Hebrew and English is the same one told for thousands of years.

Group seders are “getting to be traditional,” said Philip Fuchs, religious chairman of Temple Judea in Laguna Hills, where 225 people are expected Saturday night.

“The basic idea of a seder is to be together,” said Rabbi Mendel Duchman, executive director of the Chabad of Irvine Jewish Center, which expects 85 people, many of them students at UC Irvine, for its Saturday night seder. Initially, he said, group seders “were for people who didn’t have any other place to go. Now, it’s pretty much the first thing people think of.”

Chabad groups, which in some areas bake their own matzoh, also are sponsoring seders in Laguna Beach and Anaheim. According to Rabbi David Eliezrie, leader of Chabad of Anaheim, its seder tonight will be conducted in Hebrew.

Such group seders “help Jews rediscover their links to the organized Jewish community,” Eliezrie said, and “rebuild their relationship with their heritage.”

Not a New Development

It has always been the custom for families holding their own seders to invite “unattached” people into their homes for Passover, as the Haggadah--the prayer book used to conduct the service--reminds participants that “you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.” Nor is the congregational seder a new development; Temple Beth Emet in Anaheim has hosted one for the past 27 years.

But contemporary American life, particularly as it exists in Southern California, has contributed to this phenomenon. Home seders, which require elaborate preparations, can be difficult to put together, particularly so for young singles, retired seniors, small families, students, single-parent households and two-career couples.

“When you come to California you get sunshine, but you don’t have family,” said Reva Samuels, an organizer of Temple Bat Yahm’s first-night seder. “We’re trying to create a feeling of a large family.”

“I’m a busy professional person,” said Samuels, explaining one of the reasons she felt the need to attend a congregational seder. The Newport Beach synagogue is expecting 200 people this evening at its seder, Cantor Alan Weiner said, which will provide “an opportunity for us to individually have a little less cooking and a lot more togetherness.”

On the East Coast and in the Midwest, many Jews spend the evening of the first seder with members of their immediate families and the second night with members of an extended family. All but two of the communal seders in Orange County will be held the second night.

Seder for Singles

“Our congregation is like an extended family,” said Rabbi Stephen J. Einstein, of Congregation B’nai Tzedek, a Reform synagogue in Fountain Valley. B’nai Tzedek has been hosting seders for nine years and expects about 150 Saturday night, Einstein said. Each year the congregational gathering “fills up faster,” he said. Southern California and Orange County, Einstein said, “is a transient kind of area. People have their roots in other parts of the country.”

For the first time this year, the Jewish Community Center of Garden Grove is hosting a seder for singles. According to the center’s director, Rabbi Jeremiah Bergman, the center “generally does not sponsor religious services,” but that “last year we were besieged by singles looking for a place to go.” Bergman, who will be conducting the seder Saturday, said he expects the gathering will be “a community experience distinct from the family experience.” About 50 will be attending the center’s seder, at which Bergman said the events related in Exodus will be compared to the condition of Jews in the Soviet Union and in Ethiopia today.

The majority of the group seders are being conducted by each congregation’s rabbi--or the cantor, in the event the rabbi leaves the area to be with members of his own extended family. All the Orange County gatherings are being held in synagogues or center social halls. Prices range from $15 to $25 per plate for adults, with sliding price scales used for senior citizens and children. The meals are catered, some by caterers that observe the ritual dietary laws of kashrut and some that have been instructed in the requirements for Passover, which preclude use of leavened bread and pastry and certain vegetables.

The seders were open to members of the Jewish community at large, although some congregations gave first notice to their members. On Thursday, most of the synagogues reported that the dinners were sold out, with attendance ranging from 50 to more than 200. However, growth in the phenomenon of group seders has been uneven in Orange County. Temple Beth David of Westminster and Harbor Reform Temple Shir-Ha-Ma-A-Lot had to cancel scheduled seders several weeks ago because of lack of interest.

One synagogue, Temple Beth El of Laguna Niguel, is taking the evolution of family and communal celebration of Passover a step further, holding a pot luck seder on Saturday.