for openers
Together — at Last! 
I 

was like a kid in a candy 
story these past few weeks 
in anticipation of hosting 
my first in-person seder in 
three years. Pesach is my 
favorite holiday 
because the 
focus is on pass-
ing the story of 
our heritage on 
to our children, 
who will then 
pass it on to 
their children, as 
has been done for many cen-
turies now. 
Something else particular-
ly meaningful for me is the 
confluence of Judaism and 
Christianity this time of year: 
three of the Gospels share that 
Jesus’ Last Supper was the first 
night of Passover, so that meal 
very likely included lamb, 
wine and unleavened bread, 
and perhaps even bitter herbs 

and a version of charoset. Of 
course, the seder (service) did 
not exist then, but non-Jews at 
my seders over the years have 
found it very special to expe-
rience the foods and tradition 
that Jesus partook in at the 
Last Supper.
The pandemic provided 
quite a juxtaposition with 
stories of those who tried to 
observe Passover during the 
Holocaust, and those today in 
Ukraine.
Passover is a story about 
freedom and, ultimately, this 
holiday tells a story about our 
people’s liberation from Egypt, 
while we pray for those today 
not free to worship as they 
wish. 

Paul Gross is a meteorologist at 
WDIV-TV Channel 4 and is a board 
member at Temple Kol Ami in West 
Bloomfield.

Paul Gross

PURELY COMMENTARY

Every year, Paul includes on his seder plate a 2000-year-old pottery 
shard he brought back from an archeological dig on a trip to Israel 10 
years ago. “This ancient artifact honors our ancestors who laid the 
foundation for Judaism today and, more recently, family members no 
longer with us,” he said.

The Gross 
family seder

I

t’s strange to me that I 
have memories that are 
40 years old, much less of 
events that shaped my life. 
 This month is one 40th 
anniversary that 
was pivotal in 
my life personal-
ly and connect-
ed me deeply to 
the history and 
welfare of the 
Jewish people. 
 Forty years 
is a significant period for the 
Jewish people, especially at 

this season related to the orig-
inal Exodus. 
My mother was not a par-
ticularly religious woman 
but being Jewish was very 
important to her. Israel was 
important to her. Raising her 
children in a Jewish environ-
ment and passing along tradi-
tions were important to her. 
There were many ways that 
this played out, most of them 
non-remarkable, not partic-
ularly noteworthy, and not 
things about which I have any 
particular memories, much 

less ones that impacted me. 
One night in April 1982 
over dinner, something that 
was no less unremarkable 
became a catalyst for some-
thing in my life that she surely 
was not planning, about which 
she was certainly not advocat-
ing per se, and as a result of 
which she had good reason to 
think I was a bit crazy. I was 
17, so the crazy part she could 
have written off as immature 
adolescence. 
We sat at the gray Formica 
table, each in our own spot 

with me to her left at the 
“head” of the round table. 
Often my mother would share 
news and other events. 
That evening, she took out 
the latest edition of Hadassah 
Magazine, the organization of 
which she was a Life Member, 
and read an article about the 
phenomena of Jews in the 
west “twinning” their bar and 
bat mitzvahs with Jewish peers 
in the Soviet Union who were 
unable to celebrate the mile-
stone because of wide perse-
cution of Jews and attempts to 
erase Jewish tradition. 
My mother was informing, 
but also advocating as my 
brother was to become a bar 

Jonathan 
Feldstein

essay
Forty Years Since Hadassah 
Magazine Changed My Life

continued on page 12

4 | APRIL 28 • 2022