To Life!
HOLIDAY
Passover Kurdish-style
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
N
ear the start of Dorit
and Dr. Akiva Kanik's
Passover seder this
coming Monday night, there will
be a knock on the door. When
they answer it, they'll see their 9-
year-old son, Segev David, a sack
flung over his shoulder, playing the
role of a traveler ready to answer
questions that will tell the story of
Passover.
This holiday custom may seem
unusual for Ashkenazi Jews,
whose ancestors come mainly
from Eastern Europe, Russia and
Germany; but to Sephardi families
like the Kaniks, the custom is actu-
ally quite traditional. Sephardic
Jews are of Spanish, Mediterranean,
East and North African descent.
Dorit Kanik's family lived in
Kurdistan until the mid-1930s. The
country was comprised of parts
of Iran, northern Iraq, Armenia,
Syria and eastern Turkey. "Then my
grandparents went to Israel, walk-
ing and riding on donkeys for three
years on a route from Kurdistan
Sta ff pho tos by Ang ie Baa n
A West Bloomfield family shares Old World traditions.
Left: Aviva Zohar of Jerusalem holds her grandson Zev Ovadiah Kanik, 1 month, as Segev David, 9,
and Kinneret Hannah, 5, dote on him. Evyatar Gedaliah, 6, holds a photo of his Kurdish ancestors who
walked and rode donkeys on their way to Israel, carrying the large tray among their possessions.
through Turkey," she said.
Dorit was born in Israel and met
her American husband while he
was visiting there in 1995.
After living in the U.S. and
Israel, the family — also includ-
ing Evyatar Gedaliah, 6, Kinneret
Hannah, 5, and Zev Ovadiah, 1
month — is preparing to spend its
first Passover in Michigan. They
moved to West Bloomfield last
summer.
Dorit recalls the seders of her
youth. "We used to sit on the floor,
on pillows or mattresses. We would
take the doors from the house and
place them on bricks to make a
very low, very big table for 60, 70,
80 relatives. This is how they cel-
ebrated in Kurdistan; so this is how
we celebrated also," she said.
She remembers major prepara-
tions for the holiday. "From the time
Purim ended, one month before
Pesach, we would cook and clean,"
Dorit said. "It was like a big bell
that said, 'It's time to start! Imagine
10 Sephardi women, who all are
the best cooks, all together in one
Right: Evyatar Gedaliah, Segev David and Kinneret Hannah pose as travelers ready to tell the Passover
story. Their parents Dorit and Akiva Kanik are ready to let them in.
A Sephardi Passover
S
ephardi foods, traditions and
customs may differ from those
followed by Ashkenazi Jews
on Passover. Some are typical to most
Sephardim - from both Kurdish areas
and other countries - and some are
specific to the areas of origin.
Food:
• Most Sephardim permit the use of
kitniyot: legumes, including rice, corn,
soy beans, string beans, peas, lentils,
mustard and sesame seeds.
• Many use soft matzah, similar to
pita or a tortilla.
Pre Passover Customs:
-
• Searching for chametz may include
carrying a bowl with bread and salt,
which is meant to ward off evil.
• Candle lighting: Seven candles are
typically lit. on the eve of each Passover
seder, a Kabbalistic tradition that the
Passover seder night radiates a power-
ful spiritual light.
Seder Customs:
• During a Persian (or Iranian) seder,
the song "Dayenu" is chanted while
participants lightly beat one another on
the back and shoulders with bunches
of celery, chives, leeks or scallions to
symbolize the sting of the Egyptian's
whip.
• Instead of dipping a vegetable in
salt water, vinegar may be used.
• Moroccan Jews pass the seder plate
over the heads of participants, while
announcing that they have left Egypt
and are now free. Tunisian Jews follow
a similar custom, but instead touch the
heads of each person with the tray as
a reminder that each once carried the
burden of slavery.
• The afikomen or a handprint made
from charoset may be saved as good
omens for the entire year.
• The Haggadah may be recited in
a combination of Hebrew, English and
Ladino (Hebrew-Spanish language), with
tunes specific to Sephardi traditon.
• Re-enacting the exodus from Egypt
may include a child answering questions
of the Passover story, while holding the
afikomen, tied in a napkin, over his or her
shoulders, as if he or she was traveling.
• North African Sephardim re-enact
the exodus with the seder leader using
a walking stick and the afikomen in a
cloth on his shoulder. A Yemenite seder
leader will circle the table while leaning
on a cane.
Passover Dishes:
• A typical Sephardi seder meal
may include leek soup, a fish appetizer
and huevos haminados, eggs cooked
for 24 hours at a low temperature in
onion skins. The main cour4e prob-
Passover on page 38
ably includes lamb or fish sprinkled
with fruits or vegetables and mimulim
(meat-stuffed vegetables). Side dishes
could include green beans, okra, Syrian
meatballs with cherries and apio
(sweet-and-sour celeriac or celery).
Rice and bean salads and soups and
mixed vegetable dishes with sauces
and spices like coriander, cumin, tarra-
gon, turmeric, ginger and mint may be
included.
Post Passover Celebration:
-
• At the end of Passover, Moroccan
and Turkish Sephardi Jews worldwide
observe Mimouna, a celebration of free-
dom, togetherness and the renewal of
spring and fertility. Celebrants visit one
another's homes, in progression, for a
banquet feast in each home.
• Turkish-Jewish men throw coins
and candy (symbols of wealth) and
grass (symbolic of the "Sea of Reeds")
to children.
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- Shelli Liebman Dorfman, senior writer
March 29 • 2007
37