ZOOMINAR: “The Seder is Always Virtual. Why Should This Year Be Any Different?”
By Amy E. Schwartz, Moment editor, Ask the Rabbis, Books, and Opinion
Moment’s Haggadah Supplement: The Seder is Already Virtual. Reflections for a Ritual in Extraordinary Times.
Moment’s Guide to the Global Pandemic -news, resources and analysis—plus some lighter fare.
Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban? by Ilene R. Prusher, Moment Magazine, April 2007.
Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber (The story of the forest is the second passage.)
Private Joel and the Sewell Mountain Seder by Bryna J. Fireside – Historical fiction, ages 8-11
All Other Nights by Dara Horn, Historical novel
Jews and the Civil War edited by Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn.
Israel’s Chief Rabbis say Passover Seder can’t be held via videoconference
14 Sephardic Orthodox Rabbis say Passover Seder can be held via videoconference
National Museum of American Jewish Military History
“Passover in Goebbel’s Castle”
(letter displayed at the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, Washington, DC)
Letter addressed to the National Jewish Welfare Board
In March 1945, as we were crossing the Rhine, I was determined to celebrate the Passover in proper style. I searched the area for an appropriate building. Most of the local Germans whom I approached for information were uncooperative. But finally, one responded, “Goebbel’s Castle is in this vicinity.”
Following his directions, we soon came to the castle. There I was ushered in to see Colonel Barney Oldfield, Commander of the 9th Army Press. “Sir,” I explained, “Jewish soldiers of the 9th Army are about to celebrate the Passover. May I utilize the facilities of this Castle for the celebration?” “Chaplain,” the colonel answered, “I come from Hollywood. If anyone back home submitted a script to me that called for a Jewish Passover to be celebrated by a Jewish Chaplain and American Jewish soldiers in Goebbel’s Castle I would reject it as a tale too incredible to believe. Now you come to me with such a request. I am delighted to grant it.”
A couple of hundred Jewish GIs participated in those Passover services. They knew full well the agony, the terror and the degradation that their Jewish brethren had been subjected to by Goebbels, and they saw their celebration of Passover in his castle as an act of God.
–Rabbi Joseph S. Shubow
“Horseradish Special”
(Account displayed at the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, Washington, DC)
About a week before Passover, Chaplain Michael D. Geller received an SOS via MARS Radio. The operator could not decipher the emergency high-priority message from an air base in Puerto Rico. Geller said, “Spell it out to me and maybe I’ll be able to help.” Letter by letter, the message read: PESACH SEDER SUPPLIES—NO CHRAIN—GEFILTA.
Geller patiently resolved the bureaucratic logistical problems and sent off three gallon jars of horseradish.
The day before Passover, Geller received another call from the MARS Radio operator, “Chaplain, it’s another one of those classified and unpronounceable messages.”
“Spell it out,” Geller said.
This time he spelled, CHRAIN ARRIVED B’SHOLOM. CHAG SAMEACH AND A KOSHER PESACH.