Today, on request, I was going to collect my brother's abstract glass pieces. I also am going to feature a piece on my little puppy who has now reached 42 pounds. Dear readers, you will have to wait for these.
Because something else really caught my eye
Curtis (my partner in crime at Parent Group) sent me this picture.
President Obama conducting a seder at the White House. What? Wow, why is he doing that? How did that happen? Does he usually do that?
Is it for real? My experience is that seders run by non-Jews tend to be condescending and reveling in the primitive Jewish practice. As some artifact, not something that you can really be involved with.
The picture looks legit. Everybody seated, mixed ages, some with yamulkes, engaged, Pres. Obama at the head of the table ostensibly leading. Ilana points out that the Haggadahs they are using are the ones given away by Maxwell House Coffee. I didn't even realize that they still did that. That could be a small seder plate in front of Obama to his left.
But you've got to do some preparation and have some knowledge to put a seder together. I hear that this is the first seder to be held at the White House led by a sitting President. Apparently it came out of a campaign promise. Some staffers were running an impromptu seder in the basement of some hotel on the campaign trail. There's an exhortation that's part of the ritual "Next year in Jerusalem!" which can be taken literally. Or not. Apparently Obama promised "Next year in the White House!"
Somehow I wonder if the White House domestic staff knew how to cook the right food. Not that we do or do it right ourselves.
Still, there's something about it that's encouraging and new. As Curtis says "He's reaching out to everyone and changing our country."
He had two more people than I did.
Photo from whitehouse.gov
1 comment:
Actually, President Bush had a seder meal every year he was in the White House. He just didn't use it like Obama to forward his image. Also, he didn't invite a known and outspoken anti-Semitic (is that spelled right?) to lead the prayer.
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