Passover

By: Nhan Phan, Emilia Kniestedt

On Friday, November 22, the Exeter Jewish Community (EJC) held a Seder open for the entire Exeter community. According to Director of Studies Scott Saltman, who helped prepare for the event, “different foods represent different aspects of the story. The most familiar is matzo, or unleavened bread. After fleeing Egypt in the Exodus under the leadership of Moses, the Jewish people had no time to wait for yeast in bread to rise. We honor that hardship by eating only unleavened bread for eight days!”

Lower Avery Selig returned home to celebrate the occasion. She described the seder meal in more detail. “First, we start off with prayers for the food and drinks. Normally we have Passover Seder books with the blessings. Most blessings are said by the whole family, while others are said by the youngest member of the family.”

Saltman talked about a change to this year’s service, “The most memorable part was going through the Haggadah, the book that guides the service, and choosing what passages we would read. The book is over 200 pages long, and this is the first time EJC was using this particular book. We had to choose passages that honored the traditions and told the story of Passover, recognizing that this would be the first Seder many attended. We also had to make sure we kept it to a reasonable length.”

Upper Andy Horrigan also enjoyed the number of new faces at the celebration. “I've never seen a celebration of Jewish culture at Exeter so packed,” he said. “I expected there to be maybe ten people, but there were six tables completely filled with students and faculty too. It was a really good way for everyone to come together.”

“Everyone was very glad to be there, very happy with what they're doing and really willing to have conversations, willing to celebrate. It was really nice. For those who were not necessarily Jewish, more often than not, they were very respectful and willing to participate within the common tradition,” Horrigan added.

Upper David Kim talked about his experience attending the Seder. “As someone who does not identify as Jewish, I feel like Passover, as a celebration, is a great opportunity for me to experience different kinds of cultures as well as understand the depths of the Seder meal and how it is symbolic of Jewish stories,” Kim said.

Horrigan described the matzoh breaking at the beginning of the ceremony, emphasising the camaraderie and significance of the event. “Everybody around the table, we broke off one piece of matzoh and we all took part in it. It was very friendly. It was a very good moment for our small community.”

Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Reverend Bonnie-Jeanne Casey noted the holiday’s unique role of both educating and celebrating, “I love the Seder so much because teaching, storytelling, and education are built into the ceremony. Seder tells the story through the meal and that’s one of its powers… we are purposefully trying to walk a line of educating, but educating in the spirit of an embodied tradition. The Passover Seder is really a great expression of support and solidarity across religious identities.” 

Rev. Casey also noted how Seder is purposefully meant to be a cross-generational ceremony. “Passover is so great because there’s purposefully meant to be multiple generations around the table.”

        Rev. Casey went on to explain Find the Afikomen, the tradition of hiding a piece of matzo and giving the youngest the task of finding it. She explained how the game “assumes that you're going to have different ages around and that's important too, at a school like ours, where the student body is largely 14 to 18-year-olds, and it's really important to have faculty as adults at these kinds of events. On the one hand, yes, it's a Jewish student event, but it's very much a Jewish community event.”

         Upper and EJC co-head Ben Martin concluded by noting the inclusivity of EJC in general. “Every Friday night, we have Shabbat dinner, open to all members of the Exeter community, Jewish and non-Jewish. EJC is a good time for all, we always appreciate new members of the community,” Martin said.