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Inclusive Seders

Inviting non-Jews for Passover can add to the experience.

Esther Allweiss Ingber
I Contributing Writer

n Friday night, dear family
members and close friends will
celebrate Passover, sharing a
festive ritual meal that recalls the Jewish
people's escape from bondage in Egypt.
Some Metro Detroit families make a
point of hosting guests from other reli-
gious traditions for the holiday, while oth-
ers prefer to invite only Jews (see sidebar).
Rabbi Joseph and
Susan Krakoff of
Southfield frequently
include guests who are
clergy or work in the
interfaith community.
"The seder by design is
an educational moment,
so it's important to open
Rabbi Krakoff
our doors to non-Jews:'
the rabbi said. "We make the Passover
story modern and relevant by focusing on
injustice where it can be found. Multiple
stories can be told about going from slav-
ery to freedom and from degradation to
accomplishment and achievement"
Tobye Stein of Northville always invited
her non-Jewish college roommates to
come for Passover.
"Since then, I can hardly remember
family seders that didn't include friends
and family of different faiths:' she said.
"Sharing holidays is all about the families
we are born into and the family we make
with our friends:"
Julie Kraus of Southfield also subscribes
to that view. The Catholic friends she's
had to her home "were always well-versed
about the seder from religious school and
wanted to experience it."
Doris Schey of
Huntington Woods said,
"I once invited a nun to
my parents' seder table.
I met her when I was
taking a diversity class
while getting my master's
degree:'
Schey, a retired
Doris Schey
teacher, said she and
her husband, David, are "trying to be
inclusive, instead of excluding people"
at Passover. Guests in the last few years
have included "my dog handler, the music
teacher from McIntyre [Elementary School
in Southfield] and her family, and the
D.A.R.E. police officer who taught my
fifth-grade class and her kids who would
babysit our dog:'

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Fatima Cekic and her husband, Arif, who are Turkish Muslims, will learn more about Passover at Gail and Robert Katz's seder.

Having non-Jewish guests added to the
experience, Schey said.
"You can have Jews at a seder who
don't really care she said. "But some of
the Christians were really interested in
knowing what our seders were like. They
wanted to be there. They took part and
read along with us; it meant something to
them:'

Sharing Rituals

One appreciative seder guest was Stephen
Jones of Detroit, a Buddhist and former
Methodist, who went with his ex-wife
Colette Gilewicz, a Catholic, to two sed-
ers at the Southfield home of Euni and
the late Cantor Norman Rose in the early
2000s. The two women met from their
work with Young Audiences of Michigan, a
nonprofit arts organization.
"The spiritual connection to a meal
with all its symbolism" was interesting for
Jones, who added, "I didn't understand all
the Hebrew, but sharing the rituals of the
seder meal was very special and enriched
my life:'
Mort Meisner of Huntington Woods said
his family's good friend, Katherine Grace
Knox of Royal Oak, has come off and on to
their Passover seders over the last five or
six years.

"Passover is a reminder to Jews to
remember where they came from and how
they were led into the Promised Land:'
Knox said. "The miracle of Passover is how
Jews put blood on their doorposts so the
Angel of Death would pass over and not
kill their first-borns. I have an apprecia-
tion for the Judaic faith as a continuation
of my Christian faith!'
Micki Grossman of
Farmington Hills recalled
one Passover when her
aunt was here from
Toronto, her daughter
invited her blonde, blue-
eyed friend Kristen, and
her son invited his own
friend who wasn't Jewish.
Micki
"It was funny how
Grossman
surprised my aunt was to
hear these non-Jewish kids reading from
the Haggadah in Hebrew, but they had
practiced reading their parts:' Grossman
said.
Arif and Fatima Cekic, who are Turkish
Muslims, got to know Gail and Robert
Katz, all of West Bloomfield, when the
Katzes accepted their invitation to a fast-
breaking dinner on Ramadan called iftar
through the Niagara Foundation. The
organization fosters sustained relation-

ships between people of different cultures
and faiths.
"Since then, our families have devel-
oped a strong friendship and shared
Thanksgiving meals and Chanukah at the
Katz house, and Turkish coffees and meals
at our residence and some other venues:'
Arif Cekic said. "Our family is very excited
to go for a Passover dinner and to learn
more about this tradition. We believe that
those experiences we shared over the years
have strengthened our friendship and
allowed us to have a better understanding
about the Jewish culture and faith:'
Marjory Cohen of Huntington Woods
said, "We have more non-Jews [at her
family's seder] than Jews, by far. A fam-
ily's 9-year-old took it upon herself to
learn how to sing the Four Questions in
Hebrew with a YouTube video. One of our
Chaldean friends who comes to the seder
had a new baby recently named Elijah,
so we are looking forward [someday]
to Elijah opening the door for Prophet
Elijah:'

Culture Clash

Two amusing anecdotes illustrate the cul-
ture clash that can occur at Passover.
Inez Shearer of West Bloomfield said her
father's friend, Joe, from Italy used to join

Inclusive Seders on page 36

34 April 2 • 2015