Saturday, April 11, 1998

Passover tributes for diverse causes

By EMILY GURNON / San Francisco Examiner

It was a major political event some 3,500 years ago: the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt.

Today that event, celebrated in Passover, has a more contemporary resonance for many Jews, who use the holiday to focus on other political struggles Ñ from the legacy of slavery for African Americans to Palestinian self-determination to a local union organizing effort by bagel store employees.

"The reason we celebrate it every year is that this pattern continues to replicate itself," said Rabbi Alan Lew of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco. "Almost anyone can resonate with this message of oppression and liberation from oppression. We're actually commanded to see this story in a larger sense and see ourselves in it."

Lew said he would emphasize homelessness in the traditional Passover dinner, the Seder, this year.

"Our responsibility toward the poor in our own community Ñ that's the clearest mandate of the Passover season that there is," he said.

On Tuesday Lew's synagogue hosted a special Passover Seder for a group of Jews and African Americans that featured readings from black poet Langston Hughes, writer Alice Walker and Martin Luther King Jr.

Led by Lew and the Rev. Amos Brown of Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, the dinner emphasized themes common to both groups: the struggles for liberation, freedom and dignity.

Brown said he liked the idea of the dinner because it gave the two communities an opportunity to think about how they could work together.

"What I'm saying is we can have unity in the midst of diversity," Brown said. "You don't have to let diversity be an occasion for bigotry or indifference."

The dinner was organized by the Isaiah Project, a San Francisco group made up of Jews and blacks who wanted to develop a more trusting relationship between the two communities and work on social justice projects together.

The joint Seder was "a way for us to share our common heritages," said Brian Gaines, co-president of the Isaiah Project. "The themes of the Passover Seder are common to both of our people, that of freeing ourselves from slavery, freeing ourselves from oppression."

Rosa Bundy, a member of Third Baptist, said Tuesday night's event was her first Seder. "I think the only way people in this country are going to be able to live together and in harmony is through events like this," she said.

In recent years, relations between blacks and Jews have been strained by conflict. Religious leaders on both sides have made what many consider inflammatory anti-Semitic or racist remarks.

"It's tragic that we've been separated, with the anger between us, when we have so many similarities," said Herb Fajors of San Leandro, Calif., who is black.

As described in the biblical book of Exodus, the story of Passover goes like this: In order to help the Jews escape their slavery under the pharaoh in Egypt, God sent an angel to kill the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. The Israelites were warned to mark their doorways with lamb's blood so that the angel would "pass over" their homes. The pharaoh relented, and the Israelites escaped in the middle of the night.

Focusing on oppression of other communities during Passover is nothing new, said Rabbi Pam Frydman Baugh of Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco.

During the 1960s, Jews held "freedom Seders" to recognize the struggle for civil rights among blacks. Some spoke out during their Seders against the war in Vietnam, she said.

Today, some Jews take time during the Passover dinner to advocate autonomy for the Palestinians, a cause that would be anathema to some Orthodox Jews, who believe the Palestinians remain a grave threat to Israel.

"We believe it's tragic that today the Jewish people are in the position of being an oppressor to the Palestinian people," said Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine and the rabbi at Beyt Tikkun congregation in San Francisco.

For more traditional Jews, the original significance of Passover is politics enough for the holiday.

"The celebration itself is a celebration of a political issue," said Rabbi Jacob Traub of Adath Israel, an Orthodox congregation in San Francisco. "That suffices for our congregation and the members of our congregation. "Each of the other groups have their own ways of celebrating their personal liberation, and we wish them well. This is a specific Jewish event."

But for Nado Green, the holiday is the perfect time to highlight political struggles of all kinds. Green, 23, is among a group of employees, former employees and union members trying to form a union at Noah's New York Bagels in San Francisco.

They plan to hold a Seder outside the bagel shop Monday to dramatize what Green described as Noah's exploitation of Jewish values for profit. "They really market themselves with Jewish stuff," and emphasize their commitment to "tzedakah," or charity, said Green, a former employee. "But you can't talk about tzedakah every other day when that's coupled with low wages and bad benefits and no job security and pretty profound lack of respect for workers."

Gwen Wysling, human resources director for Noah's, said the company treated its employees well, offering competitive wages, vacation time and health benefits for employees and their domestic partners.

The need to resist injustice, both here and around the world, is implicit in Passover, Green said: "I don't see how people can get through a Seder without thinking about that kind of stuff."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)