Seder caters to blacks, Jews with collard greens, sans ham

Besides the traditional bitter herbs and sweet wine, a Passover seder on Thursday will include unexpected treats: collard greens and sweet potato pie.

The idea is to recall the shared struggles of Jews and African-Americans, said seder organizer Eunice Baros.

The dinner, to take place at the Marriott City Place, includes a special Haggadah, or Passover story, that includes poetry by Maya Angelou and reminds participants, "Let us recall the struggles of all people in every generation, in every part of the world."

Passover commemorates the exodus of Jews from slavery in Egypt. The connection with the history of blacks was obvious to the organizers, including LaRoi Wright, an artist and drummer and one of the seder organizers.

Wright hopes his son can have a "bro mitzvah," a hybrid coming-of-age rite for young black men, based on the Jewish bar mitzvah.

Wright is providing a video called Freedom, which shows a black man in chains but represents "freedom for all people," he said.
Freedom will be aired during the seder and Wright will perform on the drums.

Sy Bernstein's connection was personal. A union official, he was in Memphis, Tenn., working with garbage workers on strike when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. He joined the organizers at lunch last week.

Bernstein, of suburban Boca Raton, recalled that Jews worked closely with blacks during the civil rights era. Rabbis regularly marched with King, and in 1964, three civil rights volunteers - two Jews and a black man - died together after being ambushed in Mississippi.

The seder food will be cooked in the kosher kitchen of the Marriott City Place in West Palm Beach, which means that the collards will be made without the traditional seasoning of ham hocks, prohibited by kosher food laws.

The seder will not be a "teaching seder," but more of an opportunity to share traditions, said Rabbi Alan Sherman, chaplain of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County and a longtime participant in interfaith efforts.

"It will be multilayered," said Sherman, who plans to point out the overlaps between black and Jewish cultures. For example, the horseradish used at the seder.

"It represents the bitterness of slavery, but not only the bitterness of the Israelites, but also the bitterness of the African experience. This would strengthen the bonds. We will build something unique together."