How to Conduct an Interfaith Passover Seder

Passover, a major holiday on the Jewish calendar, addresses many universal themes, including the nature of freedom and oppression. Passover also has historical significance for Christians, as the last supper is widely accepted to have been a Passover seder. This wide appeal helps to explain the prevalence of interfaith seders, which are conducted in a variety of capacities. The following will give you some guidelines to consider when planning your own interfaith seder.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Advertising (if hosting a large, public event)
• Modified haggadot
• One or more officiants

1. Consider the nature and desired participants for your event. To begin with, interfaith can mean different things in different contexts. Do you want to host a Jewish-Catholic seder? A Black-Jewish seder? A seder open to everyone? Will this be a small gathering at your house? A large event hosted at a synagogue? An event on a college campus? Answering these preliminary questions (and articulating the desired result of your event) is the first step to planning it.

2. Pick an appropriate date. Some Jews feel strongly about participating in a "traditional" seder during the first 2 nights of Passover (when these are required for Jewish law). If your seder follows a non-traditional format, and/or is designed more for the purposes of interfaith dialogue than for those of following Jewish legal precepts, you may wish to hold your event on another night, keeping in mind that the seventh and eighth days of Passover are also holidays. You should also of course avoid scheduling your event on other holidays associated Judaism or any other religion (this precludes Friday night and Saturday, which constitute the Jewish sabbath).

3. Ascertain the purpose of your event. An interfaith seder could serve many purposes, from educating a group of non-Jewish students about the holiday's rituals to underscoring Jews' and African-Americans' shared experience of slavery, oppression, and freedom. Articulating whom you hope to reach with your event, and what you want the event to accomplish, is very important.

4. Buy or create a haggadah that reflects your purpose. Traditional Jewish seders use a haggadah, an order of service, that includes the required readings, prayers, and rituals. You can either adapt a haggadah for your event, or purchase one that fits your needs.

5. Choose one or more officiants. Depending on the nature of your event, you may wish to have the respective clergy members conduct it. If your event is not associated with a particular religion, or at least with clergy members, find one or more people (probably from among the organizers) to facilitate the event.

6. Bring people together. Whether you start off your event with a silly ice-breaker or have select participants share personal stories, you need to bring people together and to allow them to share their respective experiences. Without some kind of exchange like this, the event may fall short of its intended goals.

Tips & Warnings

• While allowing people to share and participate is obviously important, you should nevertheless keep time and size constraints in mind when planning these elements of the seder. There is nothing more tedious than having people sit through a hour of attendees introducing themselves.