Liberation seder 9th April 2020

We held a liberation seder on the second night of Pesach with Rabbi Danny Rich presiding. (You may remember Lee Harpin’s outrage in the Jewish Chronicle at the very idea!)

Below we reproduce the invitation and link to the liberation Haggadah we used.

We also carry a brief report of a wonderful, warm and life-affirming occasion which also raised much-needed funds for the British Shalom Salaam Trust.

And warm thanks to Naomi Wayne, whose idea it was, and to her and Mike Cushman for making it happen. And, of course, to Danny Rich.

Zephyr Schlosberg, asking the four questions

Download the Liberation Haggadah here

On the second evening of Pesach, JVL  along with BSST (British Shalom-Salaam Trust), JSG (Jewish Socialists Group)and JJP (Jews for Justice for Palestinians) held an online Liberation Seder.

The service was led by Rabbi Danny Rich and featured the Socialist Magician Ian Saville hiding and finding the Afikomen. There were many helping us with the readings including friends from Hebron and the Golan. At the end of the service Mike Heiser sang a beautiful Yiddish version of Bella Ciao.

We were joined by over 200 participant from as far afield as New Zealand and from all across Britain, including by Jeremy Corbyn (but sadly without his beetroot).

One aim of the evening was to raise funds for the excellent work of the British Shalom-Salaam Trust. Alexis Sayle encouraged us all to donate

Regrettably, owing to technical difficulties the video misses the first four pages and eight minutes of the Seder so you won’t  be able to see Danny Rich’s moving introduction, Esther and her children lighting he candles and Mike and Naomi talking about the importance of food to Jewish families and the significance of the matzah (unleavened bread).

Here is the invitation to the seder:

Click on the image below to sharpen it

When people registered we gave them more information about the Seder:

We have been working hard to make this an interesting and enjoyable event both for our Jewish friends to be able to take part in a real Seder, which reminds us of the emancipatory meanings for all of Pesach, and for our non-Jewish friends to participate in one of the most important Jewish events of our year.

For those who don’t know a Seder is a mixture of story-telling, religious ritual and a meal but food and drink play an important part in the story telling and the ritual as well as the meal.

A Haggadah is the book we use for a Seder. We have looked at many Liberation Haggadahs and you can download the one we will be using

As food and drink play such an important part in the evening we have also prepared a list of the key items and you may wish to prepare as many, or as few, as you wish so you can take a full part. You can read about the food and drink for Seder

Of course we paused a 8.00 to join in the clap for the NHS and all our carers.

enjoy

 

 

 

Comments (3)

  • Jane says:

    Greeting and warm wishes to everyone at JVL in these most difficult times. Your infectious positivity, pardon the pun, has lifted my spirits today.

    0
    0
  • Rodney Watts says:

    Well, many thanks indeed to Naomi, Mike and Danny, for such a meaningful and heart warming family type evening. It was so nice to put faces to people who I only know by name, and it was good too that Danny made Christians feel welcome. (I happen to have Jewish roots, but am a follower of Jesus (Yeshua HaNotzri)) Tony Greenstein pointed out to me some while ago that Jesus today would probably be in administrative detention.
    We are in troubled times, both in terms of politics and religion, caused by the existence of Israel and Zionism, but gatherings like the Liberation Seder help to maintain hope and solidarity. The only problem now is that I have resigned my LibDem membership, but Keir Starmer……..??

    0
    0
  • vicki gilbert says:

    can i share the sky first article with others not in jvl. [of course – it is publicly available on Sky Nwes – there is alink to it in the article above – JVL web]

    has it been published widely on social media already.

    regards vicki

    0
    0

Comments are now closed.