Passover rituals explained at CSI seder
Hillel director
leads event sponsored by college’s Multi-Faith Center
Staten Island Advance - April 15, 2005
The conversation got lively when the maror came out
during an interfaith Passover seder hosted by the Multi-Faith Center
at the College of Staten Island yesterday.
“My family used to shave fresh horseradish,” said Pen Fisher of Bay
Terrace. “Tears. You’re supposed to cry.”
Fifteen students, most of them not Jewish, attended the model seder
led by Leebie Mallin, director of the college’s Hillel chapter.
“There must be something about Passover that really speaks to
people,” said Ms. Mallin, citing statistics that show 8o percent of
Jews celebrate Passover, which marks the Hebrews’ freedom from
slavery in Egypt and the birth of the Jewish nation.
“Questions are encouraged,” she said, as she explained the ritual
foods, the four cups of wine, the four questions, the four sons, the
10 plagues.
“Each one of us is supposed to feel like we ourselves were redeemed
from slavery in Egypt,” Ms. Mallin said as she explained the origins
of the haggadah and the obligations of every Jew to tell the
Passover story.
“The idea is, no matter how much you know about the exodus from
Egypt — and if you go to a seder every year, you know a fair amount
—you still are supposed to talk about it.”
Ernest Buehler, the only attendee wearing a kippah, said he was
intrigued by the idea of an interfaith seder. A student in the
college’s Options program for retirees, he decided to drop in to the
Green Dolphin Lounge and check it out.
“Not many years ago, this kind of thing would never have happened,”
said the Rosebank resident.
Some students came for the extracurricular activities credits they
could earn, and some, like Vanessa Joseph of Brooklyn, just wandered
in accidentally, and decided to stay. She said she learned a lot
about Passover and the seder itself.
“I learned never again to eat that stuff,” Roberto Molina of Port
Richmond said of the horseradish. “Anybody want some more of this
thing,” he asked his table mates, pointing to a potato kutrel.
By Leslie Palma-Simoncek
Reprinted here with permission from the
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