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Passover

Content type
Collection
Drawing of male and female holding basket and looking at each other

Maraviglia's Fifteenth-Century Prayer Book

Evelyn Cohen

The British Library shares a fifteenth-century prayer book commissioned by a father to his daughter, Maraviglia, a testament to women’s participation in fifteenth-century Italian Jewish ritual life.

Seder Plate

Preserving and Refurbishing Passover Traditions

Ilene Smith

Next year in Jerusalem, we like to say. But really, next year, who knows?

Topics: Passover

Magda Schaloum

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Roz Bornstein interviewed Magda Altham Schaloum, on June 5, 2001, in Mercer Island, Washington, for the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Schaloum shares her experiences growing up in Hungary, including enduring antisemitism, the impact of anti-Jewish laws, her family's separation and deportation to Auschwitz, her survival through slave labor camps, and her life after the war, including immigrating to Seattle and building a new life with her husband and children.

A charcuterie board with cheese and fruit

Charcuterie: More Jewish Than You Think!

Catherine Horowitz

Here’s how to put a distinctly Jewish spin on the charcuterie trend.

Statue of Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain

Jewishness Itself is a Home

Isadora Kianovsky

Over the course of my semester abroad, I realized that, even though I wasn’t at home, I wasn’t without a home, either.

Collage of old photo of author's grandmother and her brisket recipe in a frame

A Recipe That Defies Time—Just Like Passover Itself

Savoy Curry

The ingredients are simple, but the connections to my family and to Jewish history run deep.

Episode 73: An Orange Belongs on the Seder Plate Like...

Hard-boiled egg—check. Greens—check. Charoset, maror, shank bone—check. These are the traditional seder plate items that represent the themes of Passover. Many people have also adopted the feminist tradition of including an orange... but what does it symbolize, and how come so many people have the story wrong? In this episode of Can We Talk?, host Nahanni Rous talks with Susannah Heschel, who created the ritual in the 1980s, about the real meaning behind the orange. She also talks with her aunt and cousin, who introduced the orange to the Rous family seder.  

Kyla Kupferstein Torres and her Afro-Semitic Sisters

Finding My Village of Black, Jewish Moms

Kyla Kupferstein Torres

When we come together, there is no question of who belongs.

Passover-Themed Collage Featuring Matzah and Decorative Bowl

My Charoset Bowl: From Female Ancestors, to My Mom, to Me

Mira Eras

Mira Eras describes how a charoset bowl passed through generations of women in her family keeps her feeling connected to her mother's love for holiday traditions.

Topics: Feminism, Food, Passover
JWA Passover Card 2021

Four Questions for Passover 2021

Judith Rosenbaum

JWA's CEO, Judith Rosenbaum, has new questions for us this Passover.

Topics: Passover

Episode 40: Rachel Sharansky Danziger: Let My Story Go

Rachel Sharansky Danziger’s connection to the Exodus story is personal. Her parents, Natan and Avital Sharansky, were born in the Soviet Union. Natan spent nine years in a Soviet prison after he was arrested for his political activism in 1977. Avital led an international campaign to pressure the Soviet regime to release her husband and other Jewish refusniks. In this episode, Rachel discusses the way her family celebrated Passover and shares what she learned from the Hagaddah about passing her family's liberation story down to her children.

Mixed-media landscape

The Promise of the Land: An Interview with Rabbi Ellen Bernstein

Catherine Bell

Rabbi Ellen Bernstein talks about Jewish ecology and her environment-focused Passover haggadah, The Promise of the Land.

Topics: Activism, Passover
Close-up of a parsley plant.

Parsing the Meaning of Parsley

Ella Plotkin-Oren

Parsley reminds me of my Judaism.

Topics: Activism, Food, Passover
A seder plate with the six traditional items and an orange.

The Orange on the Seder Plate

Ellanora Lerner

There are a few stories that you may have heard about the orange on the seder plate.

Israeli Flags in Jerusalem

Next Year in Jerusalem

Lisa Batya Feld

A rabbinical student studying in Israel explores how it feels to say “Next Year in Jerusalem” this year, knowing that next year she won’t be there.

Topics: Passover, Zionism
Flourless Chocolate Cake

How to Pull Off Passover

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

A first-time Seder host shares her journey to prep for Passover, and a recipe for flourless chocolate cake with ganache.

Topics: Recipes, Passover
Red Rope Stock Image

Ritual and Obsessions

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

“This is the part of your brain that holds your obsessive-compulsive disorder,” she said, her tone firm. “We can fray this cord, but we can’t just break it.” ... I imagined a dark red cable, floating somewhere in the space between my ears, demanding my attention every waking moment of the day. In light of Passover approaching, it seemed particularly cruel that I found myself struggling with the concept of freedom.

Composite Image of the Book of Miriam by Ellen Frankel

The Five Books of Miriam

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

At the root of The Five Books of Miriam is our great cultural urge as Jewish people—a desire to question, to be in a constant dialogue with God, with ourselves, and with each other.

Final Plating Photo For Kuku

Vegetarian Kuku for Passover

Lisa Yelsey

I offer a nutritious, delicious dinner recipe to stave off the Passover madness. It is easily made parve, so you can have it with your meat or dairy meals. It works great for large or small seder gatherings, and with vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. Kuku is an Iranian/Persian egg dish that I would describe as frittata-like.

Topics: Recipes, Passover
Bella Abzug at Rally to Impeach Nixon

Justice You Shall Pursue

Caroline Kubzansky

Jews have a particular responsibility to ensure proper use of presidential power.

Topics: Passover, Law
Vegetarian Matzoh Ball Soup Final

Vegetarian Matzoh Ball Soup

Lisa Yelsey

I have been a vegetarian for about seven years now, and one of the only foods I regret giving up is good matzoh ball soup. My mom has made it for holidays my whole life, and I miss it. Nothing’s better than eating matzoh ball soup, loaded with chicken and vegetables, and sitting with your family during the holidays.

Topics: Recipes, Passover
Charoset Meringue Cookies

Charoset-Inspired Meringue Cookies

Lisa Yelsey

Hi, everyone!! Passover is fast approaching, and if you are anything like me, you are dreading Passover Madness (that’s when you’ve been keeping kosher for Passover totally fine for four or five days and suddenly you’re furious at everyone and everything in your life).

Topics: Passover
Miriam Holding a Timbrel

The Forgotten Sister: Miriam

Madisen Siegel

Miriam is one of many strong women described in the Jewish texts, and is far too often forgotten when we retell our stories. Two stories stand out to me in illustrating that Miriam is a truly wise and courageous woman: when Miriam saves her brother Moses in his youth, and when she leads the Jewish people in celebration after they successfully cross the Red Sea to safety. 

Topics: Feminism, Passover, Bible
Timbrel

Leading with Timbrels: Another Side to the Passover Story

Molly Pifko

Every year, my temple holds a women’s seder on the second night of Passover. This ritual has always been important to me because throughout my Jewish education, I have clung to stories as the basis for my learning. 

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