Social Justice Seder an update on the tradition
Hillel hosted 130 people at the fifth annual event.
Published April 9, 2010
Students gathered Thursday at Hillel for the Social Justice Seder, a meal relating the Passover story to modern-day social justice issues.
The Seder is a Jewish meal to celebrate Passover, a holiday marking the Hebrews' freedom from slavery. About 130 people attended the fifth annual Social Justice Seder, Women's Center adviser Suzy Day said. It included social justice speakers, live music, readings and prayers.
"The story of Passover is a story of liberation," Hillel Executive Director Kerry Hollander said. "Many of us have restrictions. The Social Justice Seder reminds us of what Martin Luther King Jr. said that none of us are free until all of us are free."
A committee of representatives from different groups organized the Seder. Sponsoring organizations include the Mizzou Alumni Association, Hillel, Women's Center, Multicultural Center and Jewish Student Organization.
Social Justice Seder Committee Chairwoman Rachel Levin said most attendees had never experienced a Seder before. Levin led the Seder and participants read along from the Haggadah, the booklet of stories about Passover.
"It gives people a chance to experience a culture they never have before," Levin said. "It's kind of a hand-holding, you're walking people through something that's new to them."
Food eaten during the Seder reminds participants of the Passover story. Charoset, a fruit-and-nut paste, looks like mortar to symbolize the buildings the Hebrews constructed for the Egyptians. The Social Justice Seder connects the Hebrews' slavery to current oppression, Levin said.
"I think the most important part is people are supposed to feel like they're slaves in Egypt," Levin said. "It's supposed to be re-walking the path of the exodus. I think it's important to know how it feels to be oppressed yourself."
Levin said this understanding of oppression enables people to empathize with others.
The Social Justice Seder committee selected 10 modern-day plagues, or social justice issues, to discuss at the Seder. In the Passover story, God sends the 10 plagues against the Egyptians to secure the liberation of the Hebrew slaves.
"Tonight, we will stray from the traditional listing of the plagues so that we may visit 10 plagues from our own recent past, and that we are currently facing," Levin read from the Haggadah.
Representatives from the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center, Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center and Invisible Children spoke about the black male graduation rate, how bystanders perpetuate violence and child soldiers in Africa, respectively.
"Once people heard about all these plagues, they'd hear from these three people who are working on these issues," Day said. "That's an inspirational way for people to hear about how they can get involved if they want to."
Seder volunteer Struby Struble said former Women's Center adviser Beth Pickens came up with the idea to organize a Social Justice Seder in 2006, after attending a queer Seder in San Francisco.
"She wanted to do a broader range of issues, so she created the Social Justice Seder," said Struble, also a former Women's Center adviser.
Struble said she came back to volunteer for the Seder because she enjoyed learning about the Jewish faith.
"Getting the experience of cooking and preparing dishes in a kosher kitchen is something people who aren't Jewish don't often get to experience," Struble said. "It makes me want to learn more about other religions, how their actual life experiences and interactions follow their faith beliefs."
The Social Justice Seder usually falls during Passover, but this year the Seder took place afterward, because most of Passover was during spring break, Levin said.
"When any of us fail to use our freedom to liberate others, we are not yet free," the group read from the Haggadah.