Clearbrook women gather for Seder to celebrate female figures in Jewish history.
By: Elaine Worden
Gathered around tables lined with glasses of red wine and plates of matzah, hundreds of women from Clearbrook and surrounding communities were given an opportunity to celebrate the exodus from Egypt in a different light.
The Clearbrook Section of the National Council of Jewish Women held a Women’s Seder at the Clearbrook Cultural Center on Monday afternoon. The festivities included ceremonial traditions, songs and a break to eat lunch. The Women’s Seder is a traditional celebration that involves reading the Haggadah. The book recounts the story of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, except it is missing just one thing the presence of women.
Many Jewish women are trying to change that, as they attempt to bring equality to women throughout their religion by not only addressing this issue, but honoring women.
Officiated by Cantor Anna West Ott of the Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, the Seder began with a medley of traditional songs.
Strumming her acoustic guitar, Cantor Ott sang for the participants. She told the women that today would be a time to acknowledge their foremothers and women who are integral to the foundation of the Seder, such as Miriam, the sister of Moses.
Miriam helped to lead people out of the desert, and it is said that the Exodus could not have occurred without her.
Passover, the eight-day observance that marks the freedom and exodus of the Israelites from Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, will begin at sundown April 23.
Passover is a celebration of freedom, and a reminder of a past full of slavery and how these struggles were overcome.
"There’s a lot of symbolism, and it’s an event that I think all people should honor," said Sylvia Singer, a Clearbrook resident and NCJW member.
During the first two nights of Passover, a ceremonial dinner called a Seder is held, which is a special family meal that involves rituals, symbolic foods and the reading of the Haggadah.
"Women were really excluded from the service entirely," Ms. Singer said. She also said the place for women was in the kitchen.
Many women are accustomed to preparing big Seder meals for their families, Cantor Ott said. During this Seder, however, they would get a meal prepared for them.
"For these women who are used to doing things in a very traditional way, it gives them a different look at Jewish practice and that it can be reinvented during different times in their lives," said Cantor Ott.
Cantor Ott asked each of the women to recite their name, their mother’s name and their grandmother’s names out loud to symbolically give all of the faceless women throughout history a name.
"The traditional Seder is centered around family, and what we have done is center this around a family of women," said Sarai Zitter, a resident of Greenbriar and a NCJW member.
As with Passover, symbolism and the importance of breaking barriers were an important part of the Women’s Seder.
"It’s trying to set a new tradition for equality," said Ms. Zitter.

