c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Rabbi A. James Rudin is the national interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee.)

UNDATED _ Passover, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Freedom, begins at sundown April 21, and each year I receive invitations to attend some unique and innovative Passover meals, known as Seders.

The traditional Seder recounts the Biblical story of the Exodus, how the Israelite slaves gained freedom from Egyptian bondage. Seders are celebrated at home amid family and friends on the first two nights of the holiday.

But a growing number of”special interest”Seders is proof that Passover’s universal message of liberation has impacted many diverse groups, and the holiday is an annual reminder that oppression takes a variety of forms.

Some traditionalists become uneasy when classic Passover themes and rituals are used in unconventional contexts, but if this year is any indication, the number of special Seders is increasing.

Here are some of the invitations that have come across my desk:

The Feminist Seder

Miriam, Moses’ sister, is highlighted at this Seder because without her there would have been no Passover. Miriam saved her baby brother’s life by protecting Moses after he was found in the bulrushes by Pharaoh’s daughter. Miriam also led the Israelite women in joyous song when the slaves escaped Pharaoh’s advancing army and crossed the Red Sea to freedom.

A feminist Seder takes the Biblical 10 plagues that afflicted Egypt and recasts them into modern tribulations, including mental abuse, physical battering, economic discrimination, inferior social status, and other forms of oppression aimed at women.

The African-American Seder

This Seder began in the 1960s when the black-Jewish coalition was especially active during the civil rights struggle. But long before then, the stirring story of the Israelite slaves gaining their freedom had captured the imagination of countless blacks. One of the greatest spirituals is”When Israel Was in Egypt Land, Let My People Go!” I still remember a black-Jewish Seder when a minister declared,”… Jews beginning with Egyptian slavery have been the world’s greatest victims and blacks, slaves in the United States, have been America’s greatest victims. Let our peoples go!” The Environmental/Vegetarian Seder

This Seder zeroes in on the environmental disasters that humans have created. Forget the plagues of locusts, frogs, crop blight, and vermin that are described in the Bible. How about today’s plagues of air and water pollution, the thin ozone layer, radioactive leakage from nuclear plants, land despoliation, and drug and tobacco addiction?

A striking feature of this meal is the absence of any reference to the sacrificial lamb, an integral part of the traditional Passover story. And, naturally, no meat is served at the dinner. An Environmental/Vegetarian Seder emphasizes the need to liberate all animals from the lethal knife of the butcher.

The Holocaust Survivors’ Seder

Nazi Germany and its collaborators were far more murderous than the ancient Egyptians, and, tragically, there was no 20th-century Moses to save the 6 million Jewish Holocaust victims from death.

However, those Jews who did survive add their personal Holocaust experiences to this Seder. It is chilling, but nonetheless inspirational, to attend a Seder where the harsh taskmasters of long-ago Egypt merge with the sadistic guards of Auschwitz. One Survivors’ Seder concluded not only with the traditional prayer,”Next Year in Jerusalem,”but also with the songs of freedom secretly sung in Nazi death camps.

The Gay and Lesbian Seder

The number of these community meals is increasing as gays and lesbians link modern America and its growing homophobia to the evils of ancient Egyptian persecution.

Participants at these Seders always stress the importance of self-liberation, of gays and lesbians coming to terms with their sexuality, and, just as the Israelite slaves”came out”of Egypt, so, too, they must also”come out”of their self-created closets of denial. At this Seder, prominent Jewish gays and lesbians are often mentioned in a kind of honor roll.

The Last Supper Seder

A number of churches conduct Seders as a tangible way to identify with Jesus, the Jew, who went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover in his people’s spiritual capital. By re-telling the story of the Exodus, Christians seek to experience a ritual and an event that Jesus knew well.

Some scholars believe the”Last Supper”of the New Testament was, in fact, a Seder, and note that the matzoh (unleavened bread) and wine of the Seder have been incorporated into Christian worship as Holy Communion.

Although the Exodus took place more than 3,000 years ago, Passover’s message of liberation has never been stronger. No wonder it’s the Jewish people’s most popular holiday.

END RUDIN