Women’s Seder committee: Stephanie Peck, chair, JCC’s Jewish Life and Learning Committee; Amy Lefcoe, UJFT Women’s Education chair; Miriam Brunn Ruberg, JCC Jewish Life and Learning director; Janet Mercadante, UJFT Women’s Outreach co-chair; Kim Simon Fink, UJFT Women’s Outreach co-chair.
The response to the 2013 Tidewater Women’s Outreach Seder, held at the Simon Family JCC on March 17, was evident before the first bite of egg matzoh crossed a lipsticked mouth.
Women from all affiliations and backgrounds made reservations early, and the Seder drew more than 80 participants.
Excited attendees streamed in to find tables set with spring flowers, a seder plate brimming with traditional and non-traditional elements, and a brochure containing excerpts from the JDC Haggadah: In Every Generation, a traditional Haggadah illustrating not just the order of the seder, but also the wonderful work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).
The women-only seder was presented by the Women’s Outreach of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Simon Family Jewish Community Center. Janet Mercadante, Kim Fink, and Amy Lefcoe chaired the event, along with Stephanie Peck, chair of the JCC’s Jewish Life and Learning Committee. Miriam Brunn Ruberg, director of the JCC’s Jewish Life and Learning program worked alongside Amy Lefcoe, the UJFT Women’s Cabinet education chair, to serve as co-seder leaders.
Mercadante told the ladies in the room that in planning the seder, the committee worked diligently to find just the right balance that would make the program both meaningful and fun. The use of the JDC Haggadah, with its emphasis on the organization’s 99-year-history of rescue, relief and renewal of Jews and Jewish communities around the world, along with singing, group participation, and even tambourines, helped make all feel comfortable.
“This is not all about starving your way through, so that the chopped liver and the gefilte fish all-of-a-sudden look appealing once a year,” says Fink in her welcoming remarks. “It’s about telling our story together.”
“What we’re hoping today, as part of the of the Women’s campaign and outreach, is that we all glean something from this [story] yet again, something beyond our great grandmother’s Maxwell House seder books…and that we will make it our own and add it to our tradition.”
Brunn Ruberg explained some of the lesser known and less traditional items which appeared on the seder plate. The roasted beet, she explained, took the place of the traditional shank bone. And a waterfilled Miriam’s Cup on the Passover table was meant to symbolize the important role of women in the exodus story.
Amy Lefcoe talked about some of the “odd things” we do at a seder: “We raise… we lower…. We cover…we uncover. We do things that we never do at any other time. And the result is that we arouse curiosity, especially of the children. We are telling the story of our exodus, but it’s more than just a story. It’s who we are as Jewish people, and the only way that our kids are going to get excited about this is if we’re excited about it, and so we do things to provoke them to ask questions.”
More than 35 ladies took part during the course of the seder, reading passages and prayers from the Haggadah.
“I really feel that having such a range of people participate made them feel invested in their Judaism and made them feel a part of the community,” says Brunn Ruberg. “It wasn’t just the community leaders reading, but the seniors, the students, and those who are not usually as involved. I think it was terrific.”
Guest Cheryl Dronzek says she enjoyed the seder, and particularly appreciated the tone, intent and use of the JDC Haggadah.
“I think this seder was an interesting opportunity for JDC’s goals and knowledge to be spread about,” Dronzek says. “The Haggadah made the seder more contemporary— making it a broader, as well as a deeper, experience for us.”
The Women’s Outreach Seder was just one program of the UJFT Women’s Outreach committee. These events are designed to bring women from across the Jewish community together to meet and to enable them to sample just some of the work that the Federation does, locally through its service delivery agencies, and abroad, through the work of the JDC.
Sandy Katz, JDC’s regional representative for the UJFT, traveled to Virginia Beach to attend the seder. “It is a special opportunity to actually see a community, and this group of women, use the JDC Haggadah. I’m very excited to be a part of this today.”
The next Women’s Outreach event takes place on Sunday, April 21 at Cinema Café Pembroke in Virginia Beach. It will be a “Girls’ Afternoon at the movies,” featuring the film Avalon. Call Patty Malone at 965‑6115 for more information or to reserve a spot.
To learn more about Women’s Outreach events, visit www.JewishVa.org. To see more photos of the event, click here.
by Laine M. Rutherford