passover
Long Tradition
For 66 years, Harriet Berg has joined
the Nadis family seder.
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
S
ixty-six years ago, Sara Nadis
was a newlywed whose hus-
band, Maxwell, asked if she
could make a seder.
“I said, ‘Sure,’ and he was
delighted,” she recalls. “We invited
Harriet and Irving Berg and their
two young children. Irving and my
husband had been friends since
kindergarten, and we enjoyed
being with all of them.
“Our seders continued every
year after that — and so did our
wanting the Bergs with us.”
As the Nadis family grew with
three children and eight grand-
children and as other relatives and
friends came to be invited, the
celebrations changed. Sara Nadis
reached a point of turning over
most hostess responsibilities to her
daughter, Deborah Rubyan, but
kept on making the gefilte fish and
overseeing the seder plate.
This year, with some family
members moved on and away,
and with the death last September
of Maxwell Nadis, more than 30
guests will be seated in Rubyan’s
Maxwell and Sara Nadis with Harriet Berg
at a more recent seder
West Bloomfield home
with Harriet Berg happy,
as always, to be among
them.
“I love Harriet, and
I’m so glad she has been
with us every year,”
says Rubyan, who joins
relatives at Congregation
Beth Ahm for services.
“Harriet has had a won-
derful leadership career
in the world of dance,
and she was ahead of the
times bringing a feminist
point of view to our cel-
ebrations.
“Thanks to Harriet, Miriam’s cup
holds a place along with Elijah’s
cup, which she also has brought.
Also, thanks to her, an orange has
made its way onto our seder plate
as a symbol of women’s rights and
inclusion in Judaism.”
Berg thinks the emphasis on
women’s rights fits in with both
traditions and current events.
Tradition has to do with the idea
of Passover as marking liberation
Irving and Harriet Berg with their son, Marty, at the
Nadis seder in 1962
ABOVE: Maxwell
Nadis leads a seder
in 1961.
LEFT: Sara Nadis
and Harriet Berg,
1960.
from slavery, and the timeliness
has to do with the movement to
end the enslaving harassment of
women.
EVOLVING SEDER
For Berg, who led the Festival
Dancers at the Jewish Community
Center, these seders revitalize her
religious identity as do the local
women’s seders she helped launch
years ago.
“When the Nadis seders started,
ritual and food were very tradi-
tional,” Berg says. “We still use
the same Haggadahs, and we go
around the table so that everyone
plays a part in telling the original
story of Passover.
“Kugels and rich dishes were
plentiful and still are served, but as
healthy diets took hold, the foods
on the Passover table fell in line.
There are now more vegetables
and fruits.”
With the increasing number of
guests, Rubyan has added table
extensions to reach from her din-
ing room into her living room.
“It has been fascinating to
watch the generations grow and
to meet new- comers,” Berg says.
“Deborah’s son, Michael, picks
a different theme each year and
makes creative computer place-
cards and other materials for the
people attending.
“Some of the guests bring pre-
pared foods, but I prefer bringing
plants, varieties that can be kept
and continue growing for years to
come.”
Rubyan celebrates each of the
people at the Nadis family table.
“This will be the first year my
dad will not be with us,” Rubyan
says. “He used to make the chrain
(horseradish), and when Irving was
still with us, he used to be the taste
tester to decide if the mixture was
strong enough.
“The young people learned and
continue our traditions, which
include inviting new people. We
are enriched by the friends who
feel like family and the newcomers
who enlarge our
experiences.” •
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March 29 • 2018
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