"We're Not So Different"
Unity seder at Shorefront Y brings together students to show commonality among ethnic groups.
by Geraldine Gross
It wasn't only Asians, blacks and Latinos who listened intently and asked questions about the customs of Passover at a special seder last week in Brighton Beach.
Tatyana Panchenko, a Jewish sophomore at James J. Reynolds High School who emigrated from Moscow three months ago, was eager to learn, too.
"Passover may be part of my tradition, but I know very little about it," she said. "Hopefully, now I will learn more."
Panchenko was among 250 young public school students and diverse religious leaders who packed the Shorefront Y's gym for an appropriately named"Unity Seder," sponsored jointly by the Council for Unity and the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services.
The program included readings from a special Unity Haggadah written by Jonathan Katz, director of community education for the Jewish Board, with the assistance of Mimi Wiesel, a rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Jewish Board intern.
The story of the Exodus may be 3,000 years old, Katz points out, but "the struggle against oppression and slavery continues. People who are different can take the model of the traditional seder and build upon it to focus on the enslavements teenagers are subject to - such as prejudice, violence and drugs."
The Unity Haggadah, says Katz, emphasizes the universality of the seder, its symbols and issues.
Robert DeSena, founder and director of the Council for Unity, says that individual unity seders have been hosted for about 15 years by a number of the 25 public schools that have council chapters, along with similar events pertaining to other religious and ethnic celebrations. But this was the first year the Passover seder was expanded to include 10 schools and a large group of students.
"The seder is an excellent vehicle to show commonality, a great way to show people that we're not so different," said Thomas Krever, director of programs at the Council for Unity, which was founded 20 years ago to expose youth from various backgrounds to each other's cultures and bring out similarities.
The council was DeSena's response to an upsurge in gang violence at John Dewey High in Brooklyn, where he was a teacher. Acting as mediator, he brought together the gang leaders and persuaded them to move from confrontation to cooperation. The six gang leaders were the first six council members.
Five years ago DeSena was asked by the city Board of Education to give up teaching and devote his full time to the council's work.
The Jewish Board and the Council for Unity have worked together on a number of projects in the city's schools over the years. "We have mutual interests in promoting harmony and equality," Katz says. "We both have contacts and resources."
One ongoing program in which both groups are involved is the Jewish Board's Russian Adolescent Program, which seeks to help young immigrants from the former Soviet Union adjust to life in the United States. In fact, the idea of organizing a citywide unity seder was a natural outgrowth of RAP's endeavors, says Katz.
For many participants, the seder counterbalanced the self-interest that can be a byproduct of ethnic pride.
Barkim McKibben, a student at Martin Luther King High in Flatbush, said he had come to the unity seder "to experience cultures and traditions different than my own." Whitney Mann said he was "looking forward to learning new things and meeting new people."
The program began with the reading of a brief history of the seder. A student at each table then swept up the small pile of chametz, or breadcrumbs, left in the center of each table. The Unity Haggadah explained that this action, based on the search for leaven, "symbolizes getting rid of excess and decay in our lives, clearing the way to focus on what is really important and getting a fresh start."
Two students then came forward to the center table to light candles. The entire group recited the blessing: "Praised be Thou, creator of the Universe, who has given us light in which to see the good in our neighbor, even if he or she is different from us."
The three special matzahs placed on each table were held up in turn while another student explained their meaning. Matzah is the bread of oppression, the student said, but it is also the bread of hope, "encouraging us to speak with each other about our pain and by so doing to grow beyond it, to change our lives for the better."
Readings and poems were also included in the text of the Unity Haggadah and read aloud by individual students. A boy read a poem in Russian about "Russia's fearful years"; others read works by Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. The Ten Plagues of the traditional Haggadah were recited and contrasted with 10 modern-day plagues, such as the "teaching of hate and violence," "perverting law and justice" and "making war."
The unity seder complete, the participants rose to recite the unity version of the hope expressed at the conclusion of the traditional Passover seder: "We earned the right to gather together this year through our commitment to working for unity and fellowship among all peoples of the Earth. May we again be worthy to celebrate this unity seder next year. This year we are still, to some degree, slaves to our prejudices and fears. Next year, may we all be free."
