26 | APRIL 2 • 2020
Next Year in Person;
This Year on Zoom
COVID-19 changes Passover plans for many families.
JENNIFER LOVY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Passover
F
or sisters Elayne Moss and Terry
Schwartz, Passover is a marathon event
of cooking and entertaining. Together,
they host an average of 35-40 people for
each seder. Throughout the week, they pretty
much have an open-door meal policy for
family and friends. It’
s a tradition that started
during their childhoods.
Lunch guests average around 12 per day,
and dinners are about the same, if not more.
Do the math and, on the conservative side,
they serve between 230 and 260 Passover
meals.
Earlier this month, before the virus tra-
versed the country, Moss made part of her
Southfield kitchen kosher and completed
most of her Passover baking. She also
cooked dozens of meatballs and prepared
four batches of chicken soup, each with 10
pounds of chicken boiled in a 16-quart pot.
At the time, she had no idea her guest list
was about to be reduced to three or four
immediate family members.
Moss now plans on giving the soup and
extra food to extended family and friends,
whom she invited to drive by for carry-out.
Schwartz, who grew up in Metro Detroit
and now lives in New York, said this is the
first Passover the family will not be together.
She and her husband will join Moss and the
rest of their family for seder on Zoom, a vid-
eoconference service.
Recently, a group of Orthodox rabbis in
Israel said they would permit the use of
technology like Zoom to allow families to
conduct a seder if it is turned on before the
start of Passover.
Farmington Hills resident Lila Zorn was
supposed to host her immediate and extend-
ed family — nearly 50 — for the first-night
seder. Now they will gather via Zoom from
their respective homes.
“
At least we will be able to connect and
not feel as isolated,
” Zorn said. “The purpose
of the seder is to teach your children. This
year they’
ll learn that you follow the rules (of
social distancing), you respect everyone else
and try to keep them safe, and you remem-
ber what’
s important.
”
Jacqueline Rose, a West Bloomfield native
now living in Vermont, is among those who
will have a laptop or cell phone at the seder
table. This year marks the first time she, her
husband and their two children (ages 10 and
12) will not be in West Bloomfield celebrat-
ing with her parents.
Rose said she will use Zoom the first
night; the second night will most likely be
limited to her immediate family. “I plan to
crack out the seder plate I got for my wed-
ding but never used,
” she said.
Suellen Trionfi, on the other hand, is
opting for a quiet seder with her partner,
Kenneth Sidlow. “We’
ll enjoy the holiday the
best we can,
” she said.
They spend half the year in Commerce
Township and the other half in Sarasota.
Currently, they are in Florida, where they
typically stay until after Passover. It’
s a holi-
day they traditionally celebrate with Sidlow’
s
brother and a group of friends.
“It’
s a nice mix of Jews and non-Jews all
learning and enjoying the holiday together,
”
she said.
Trionfi has five pounds of matzah and
four gallons of frozen chicken soup. Like
Moss, she will make care packages for the
guests who should have been at her Passover
table.
Hardworking hostesses:
Sisters Terry Schwartz
and Elayne Moss just
before one of their
usually massive seders.
Elayne Moss and her sister,
Terry Schwartz, usually host
about 35-40 people per seder,
but not this year because of
the coronavirus.
COURTESY OF ELAYNE MOSS AND TERRY SCHWARTZ
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