{"id":1641,"date":"2006-04-11T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-11T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/2006\/04\/11\/a-profoundly-moving-interfaith-seder-experience-2\/"},"modified":"2017-05-07T18:16:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T18:16:20","slug":"a-profoundly-moving-interfaith-seder-experience-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/?p=1641","title":{"rendered":"A Profoundly Moving Interfaith Seder Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>It felt like any other communal Passover Seder. The tables were set with Matzah, wine, horseradish and Charoset and there was a nice sprinkling of children in attendance. However, this Seder was different. It took place a week before Passover and most of the participants were not Jewish or to be precise the crowed of 85 was half Catholic and half Presbyterian. <\/span>  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Seder took place in Westcliffe, a small devoutly Christian town in the rocky mountains of Colorado. My friend, Lou Kravitz, who leads this Seder each year, invited me to address the participants. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was taken back by the sincerity and warmth of the Seder attendees. As a student of history I was deeply moved by the warm reception I received from this group of devout Christians. Less than a hundred years ago, in Eastern Europe and Russia, Jews were scared to walk the streets during this time of year. <\/span><\/p>\n

In fact during Easter Christian anti-Semitism found its most powerful expression. Time and again throughout history during this time of year Christians would preposterously and falsely accuse the Jews of murdering Christian children to use their blood in the making of Passover Matzos. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council decreed that Jews were not allowed to leave their homes during Easter and in <\/span>1881, during the reign of Czar Alexander III, Russia’s first major pogrom began at Easter and spread to a hundred Jewish communities. The brutal and murderous Kishinev pogrom of 1903 that left 49 Jews dead and more than 500 injured and where 700 houses destroyed and 600 businesses were looted took place on Easter weekend. Indeed the litany of anti-Semitic attacks by Christians during the Easter season is far too long to catalogue in a short article. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>And the truth is that even today in America, although to a much lesser degree and often in an unintentional manner, anti-Semitism still finds expression in Churches during this time of year. Notwithstanding this, the fact that Jews and devout Christians can celebrate Passover together in a congenial, respectful and friendly manner is worth celebrating. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was particularly moved when after the Seder I noticed there was traditional Jewish music playing in the hall. Upon finding the person in charge of the music I asked him whether he was Jewish, he told me that he was Catholic but that he enjoyed Jewish music and played it regularly at home. He then went on to tell me that he was brought up in New York where his father worked for a Jewish clothing manufacturer. Since his father had Passover off from work his family celebrated Passover too. Although they did not understand the meaning they would nonetheless celebrate by eating Matzah and drinking four cups of wine. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon reflection I came to the following conclusion. It is neither amazing military might nor incredible economic power that makes the United States of America the greatest country in the world – both of these are subject to change. The fact that this country fosters an environment in which members of different faiths can celebrate together as brothers and sisters makes it the greatest country in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the United States could somehow export this type of environment to others, the world would be a much safer place. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It felt like any other communal Passover Seder. The tables were set with Matzah, wine, horseradish and Charoset and there was a nice sprinkling of children in attendance. However, this Seder was different. It took place a week before Passover and most of the participants were not Jewish or to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2335,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1641\/revisions\/2335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levibrackman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}