Editing Passover Seder (section)

==Non-traditional Seders==

===Feminist Seders===
In 1976, the first of a series of women-only Passover seders was held in [[E. M. Broner|Esther M. Broner's]] New York City apartment and led by her, with 13 women attending, including [[Gloria Steinem]], [[Letty Cottin Pogrebin]], and [[Phyllis Chesler]].<ref>[http://jwa.org/thisweek/mar/01/1993/em-broner This Week in History – E.M. Broner publishes "The Telling" | Jewish Women's Archive]. Jwa.org (1 March 1993). Retrieved on 18 October 2011.</ref> Esther Broner and Naomi Nimrod created a women's haggadah for use at this seder.<ref>[http://www.jbooks.com/nonfiction/NF_Groner.htm Non-Fiction: The Many Seders of Passover]. JBooks.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011.</ref> In the spring of 1976 Esther Broner published this "Women's Haggadah" in Ms. Magazine, later publishing it as a book in 1994; this haggadah is meant to include women where only men had been mentioned in traditional haggadahs, and it features the Wise Women, the Four Daughters, the Women's Questions, the Women's Plagues, and a women-centric "[[Dayenu]]".<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/006061143X The Women's Haggadah (9780060611439): E. M. Broner, Naomi Nimrod: Books]. Amazon.com. Retrieved on 18 October 2011.</ref><ref>[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/broner-esther-m Esther M. Broner | Jewish Women's Archive]. Jwa.org. Retrieved on 18 October 2011.</ref> The original Women's Seder has been held with the Women's Haggadah every year since 1976, and women-only seders are now held by some congregations as well.<ref name="jwa2.org">[http://jwa.org/feminism/_html/JWA006.htm Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women's Archive)]. Jwa.org (17 June 2005). Retrieved on 18 October 2011.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-16241579/women-only-seder-held-in-westmoreland-county|title=Women-Only Seder Held in Westmoreland County|author=Helzel, Cynthia Bombach|journal=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review|date=April 14, 2008|via=|access-date=February 10, 2019|archive-date=February 12, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212070535/https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-16241579/women-only-seder-held-in-westmoreland-county|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://brittdurgin.com/writing/women-celebrate-non-traditional-seder Women celebrate non-traditional Seder – Britt Durgin Journalism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101102162900/http://brittdurgin.com/writing/women-celebrate-non-traditional-seder |date=2010-11-02 }}. Brittdurgin.com (2 October 2010). Retrieved on 18 October 2011.</ref> Some seders (including the original Women's Seder, but not limited to women-only seders) now set out a cup for the prophet Miriam as well as the traditional cup for the prophet Elijah, accompanied by a ritual to honor Miriam.<ref name="miriamscup.com"/> Miriam's cup originated in the 1980s in a Boston [[Rosh Chodesh]] group; it was invented by Stephanie Loo, who filled it with mayim hayim (living waters) and used it in a feminist ceremony of [[guided meditation]].<ref name="Jweekly.com"/> Miriam's cup is linked to the ''[[midrash]]'' of [[Miriam#Jewish culture|Miriam's well]], which "is a rabbinic legend that tells of a miraculous well that accompanied the Israelites during their 40 years in the desert at the Exodus from Egypt".<ref name="Esserman defrosting"/><ref name="Miriam's Cup"/> Furthermore, some Jews include an orange on the seder plate. The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when all marginalized peoples are included, particularly women and gay people.<ref>{{cite web | author = Tamara Cohen | url = http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/The_Seder/Seder_Plate_and_Table/Orange.shtml | title = An Orange on the Seder Plate | access-date = 28 March 2010 | archive-date = 1 April 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100401065709/http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/The_Seder/Seder_Plate_and_Table/Orange.shtml | url-status = dead }}</ref> An incorrect but common rumor says that this tradition began when a man told [[Susannah Heschel]] that a woman belongs on the bimah as an orange on the seder plate; however, it actually began when in the early 1980s, while when speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist Haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (as some would say there's as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate).<ref name="ritualwell">{{cite web |url=http://www.ritualwell.org/holidays/passover/onthesedertable/primaryobject.2005-07-08.9776011383 |title=Jewish Rituals for On the Seder Table |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415172700/http://www.ritualwell.org/holidays/passover/onthesedertable/primaryobject.2005-07-08.9776011383 |archive-date=2013-04-15  |website=Ritualwell.org |access-date=18 October 2011}}</ref> Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like [[chametz]] violates Passover.<ref name="ritualwell" /> So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community.<ref name="ritualwell" /> In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out and repudiating what they see as the homophobia of traditional Judaism.<ref name="ritualwell" />

Furthermore, many Haggadah now use gender-neutral English translations.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/nyregion/09haggadah.html?_r=0 |title=Giving a Haggadah a Makeover |first=Joseph|last=Berger|date=8 April 2011|access-date=2 April 2013|newspaper=The New York Times }}</ref>

===Public Seders===
The group of people who hold a Passover Seder together is referred to in the [[Talmud]] (tractate Pesachim) as a ''chavurah'' (group). In the [[Far East]], for example, [[Chabad-Lubavitch]] emissaries regularly conduct Seders for hundreds of visiting students, businesspeople and Jewish travelers. The Chabad Seder in [[Kathmandu]] regularly attracts more than 1,200 participants.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chabadofeugene.org/seder.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217033750/http://www.chabadofeugene.org/seder.htm |archive-date=2009-02-17 |title=chabad of Eugene – Passover Seder |access-date=2008-09-29}}</ref> In 2006, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS and Baltic Countries organized over 500 public Seders throughout the [[Former Soviet Union]], led by local rabbis and Chabad rabbinical students, drawing more than 150,000 attendees in total.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=130381 |title=FJC: 150,000 celebrate Passover at FJC sponsored Seders in the FSU |date=2004-04-16 |access-date=2008-09-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215044549/http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=130381 |archive-date=2009-02-15 }}</ref>

In [[Israel]], where permanent residents observe only one Seder, overseas students learning in [[yeshiva]]s and women's seminaries are often invited in groups up to 100 for "second-day Seders" hosted by outreach organizations and private individuals.

===Christian Seders===
{{See also|Christian observance of Passover}}
Some [[Christians]], especially but not only [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Protestants]], have recently{{Timeframe?|date=March 2022}} taken great interest in performing Seders according to the ancient rubric. Many churches host Seders, usually adding a Messianic Christian Passover message, and many times inviting [[Messianic Jew]]s to lead and teach on it. The [[Gospels]] place the [[Last Supper]] at Passover, so that some Christians have interpreted it as a Seder; in consequence some Christian Seders are on [[Maundy Thursday]] as part of commemorating the Last Supper.<ref name="Reynolds2021">{{cite journal |last1=Reynolds |first1=Simon |title=Why the Church should not appropriate the Seder |journal=[[Church Times]] |date=9 April 2021 |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/9-april/comment/opinion/why-the-church-should-not-appropriate-the-seder |access-date=13 March 2022 |location=London}}</ref> Many Christians cite the meal as a way to connect with the heritage of their own religion and to see how the practices of the ancient world are still relevant to Christianity today.<ref name="worldwide">{{cite web|url=http://wwrn.org/articles/21173/?&place=united-states&section=judaism |title=WorldWide Religious News-Some Jews see trespass in Christian Seders |access-date=2013-03-16}}</ref> However, the current form of the Passover Seder dates from the [[Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinic]] period, after Christianity and Judaism had already [[Split of early Christianity and Judaism|gone their separate ways]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2006-04-11|title=The Origins of the Seder|url=https://schechter.edu/the-origins-of-the-seder/|access-date=2021-02-25|website=The Schechter Institutes}}</ref> Some Jews and Christians consider Christian Seders an inappropriate [[cultural appropriation]] of Jewish ritual for non-Jewish purposes.<ref name="Reynolds2021"/><ref name="worldwide" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Why Are Christians Starting To Have Passover Seders?|date=March 26, 2018|last=Feder|first=Shira|publisher=[[The Forward]]|access-date=February 25, 2021|url=https://forward.com/food/397452/why-are-christians-starting-to-have-passover-seders/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicsslashletters.org/features/why-is-this-night-different-the-problem-of-the-christian-seder/|website=Politics/Letters|title=Why is this Night Different? The Problem of the Christian Seder|last=Friedman|first=Matthew|date=April 17, 2019|access-date=February 25, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heyalma.com/why-are-christian-passover-seders-a-thing/|website=Alma|title=Why Are Christian Passover Seders a Thing?|last=Burack|first=Emily|date=March 27, 2019|access-date=February 25, 2021}}</ref>

===Interfaith Seders===
A number of churches hold interfaith Seders where Jews and non-Jews alike are invited to share in the story and discuss common themes of peace, freedom, and religious tolerance.  During the [[American civil rights movement]] of the 1960s, interfaith Seders energized and inspired leaders from various communities who came together to march for equal protection for all. The first of these, the ''Freedom Seder,'' was written by [[Arthur Waskow]], published in ''Ramparts'' magazine and in a small booklet by the Micah Press and in a later edition (1970) by Holt-Rinehart-Winston, and was actually performed on April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the third night of Passover, at Lincoln Memorial Temple in Washington, DC. It celebrated the liberation struggle of Black America alongside that of ancient Israel from Pharaoh, and was the first Haggadah to go beyond the original Biblical story. It sparked a large number of Haggadahs celebrating various other forms of liberation – feminism, vegetarianism, the liberation movements in Latin America in the 1970s, ecological healing, etc.. <!--{{See Waskow's book ''Godwrestling -- Round 2.''}}--> Today, many [[Unitarian Universalist]] congregations hold annual interfaith community Seders.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe|title=Unitarian Universalists have diverse and inclusive beliefs|date=9 February 2015|website=UUA.org}}</ref> A number of Interfaith Passover Seder [[Haggadah]]s have been written especially for this purpose.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}

===White House Passover Seder===
{{main|White House Passover Seder}}

[[File:Barack Obama hosts a Seder dinner 2009.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Obamas host the first [[White House Passover Seder]] in 2009 (White House photo).]]
In 2009 President [[Barack Obama]] began conducting an annual Passover seder in the [[Family Dining Room#2015 Obama redecoration|Old Family Dining Room]] of the [[White House]], marking the first time that a sitting US president hosted a Seder in the White House.<ref name=huff>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/14/white-house-seder-_n_5146629.html|title=How Three Jewish Junior Obama Staffers Brought The First Passover Seder to the White House|first= Paul Brandeis |last=Raushenbush|date=14 April 2014|access-date=3 April 2016|work=[[The Huffington Post]]}}</ref><ref name=cs>{{cite web |url= http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2013/0325/Why-Obama-a-Christian-hosts-a-Passover-seder-each-year-at-White-House|title= Why Obama, a Christian, hosts a Passover seder each year at White House|first=David T.|last=Cook|date=25 March 2013|access-date=3 April 2016|work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]}}</ref> The private dinner for about 20 guests,<ref name=for>{{cite web |url= http://forward.com/news/173508/how-is-the-white-house-seder-different-from-all-ot/|title=How is the White House Seder Different from All Others?|first=Devra|last=Ferst|date=21 March 2013|access-date=3 April 2016|work=[[The Forward]]}}</ref> both Jewish and non-Jewish – including the President and his family, members of the President's and First Lady's staffs, and friends and their families<ref name=hill>{{cite web |url= https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/237766-israeli-relations-put-focus-on-white-house-seder/|title= Iran deal, Israeli tensions put focus on White House Seder|first=Jordan|last=Fabian|date=3 April 2015|access-date=3 April 2016|work=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]}}</ref> – features the reading of the Haggadah, traditional rituals such as the hiding of the afikoman and the cup of Elijah, and the reading of the [[Emancipation Proclamation]].<ref name=huff/>

===Virtual Seders===

When people wish to participate in a shared Seder but are unable to be physically together, technology such as [[Videotelephony|videoconferencing]] software can be used to facilitate a "virtual" Seder.  In 2020, the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] resulted in a surge of virtual Seders, as many Jews sought to practice [[social distancing]] during the holiday, or lived in jurisdictions where they were legally required to do so, and thus could not visit the homes of friends and family who were hosting Seders. The website OneTable saw a fourfold increase in the number of virtual seders it hosted from 2019 to 2020, and [[Zoom (software)|Zoom]] was widely used to host virtual Seders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/08/world/passover-2020-coronavirus-real-plague/index.html|title=This Passover, the seders are virtual. The plague is real|author-first=Daniel|author-last1=Burke|website=CNN|date=8 April 2020 |access-date=2020-04-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20200406/passover-during-coronavirus-celebrating-communal-holiday-alone|title=Passover during coronavirus: Celebrating a communal holiday alone|last=Bosma|first=Alison|website=MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA|language=en|access-date=2020-04-09|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407064620/https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20200406/passover-during-coronavirus-celebrating-communal-holiday-alone}}</ref> Virtual seders were endorsed by [[Progressive Judaism|Progressive]] rabbis but eschewed by [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] rabbis.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://themedialine.org/top-stories/observing-passover-in-the-time-of-the-11th-plague/|title=Observing Passover in the Time of the 11th Plague|first=Tara|last=Kavaler|date=April 8, 2020|access-date=April 9, 2020|work=The Media Line}}</ref> The [[Rabbinical Assembly]] of [[Conservative Judaism]] issued guidance (though not an official [[Conservative halakha|Conservative responsum]]) specific to 2020 on using videoconferencing to facilitate Seders while avoiding or minimizing violations of [[Jewish holidays|Yom Tov]] restrictions that limit the use of electronic devices on holidays.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/streaming-seder|title=Streaming Seder {{!}} The Rabbinical Assembly|website=www.rabbinicalassembly.org|access-date=2020-04-09}}</ref>

===Seder in space===
In 2022, the Israeli astronaut, [[Eytan Stibbe]], participated in the first privately sponsored trip to the [[International Space Station]] as part of the "Rakia" mission to conduct [[Science and technology in Israel|science and technology]] experiments for a number of universities and startups in Israel.  As part of the “Rakia” mission, Stibbe held the first Seder in space on the first night of the holiday.  This included reciting kiddush, drinking grape juice, eating matzah, and relating to his fellow astronauts about the values that the Seder tradition and the reading of the Haggadah can teach, noting that the story of the exodus from Egypt of the people of Israel "from slavery into freedom" shows that "no dream is beyond reach".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wrobel |first1=Sharon |title=Second Israeli Astronaut at First Passover Seder in Space: 'No Dream Is Beyond Reach' |url=https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/04/18/second-israeli-astronaut-at-first-passover-seder-in-space-no-dream-is-beyond-reach/ |work=Algemeiner.com |date=18 April 2022}}</ref>