JEWS!!!!

Last week, I was asked to write a sentence for the London Jewish News about Passover. But I got carried away and wrote a massive paragraph.

Anyway, now that the London Jewish News have their sentence (and they published it!), here’s the rest of it…….

Left to my own devices, I don't do any Judaism at all. I may have grown up in a semi-kosher household, been sent to cheder and barmitzvahed, but now that I'm all grown up, that's all been confined to my childhood memories. The only time my Judaism rears its bekappeled head is when I go home to my family.

For me, family and Jewishness are inextricably linked. When we were growing up, religious festivals were the reason my family saw so much of each other. The only time we saw our grandparents was Friday night dinner, and the only time we'd see our extended family of dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins was at the annual Seder.

Every year it's the turn of a different branch of the Foreman dynasty to host it – sometimes with up to thirty diners. My dad relishes how regimented and ordered the ceremony is, and the rest of us relish how much fun it is to disrupt - like a big classroom the whole family can misbehave in.

It's got songs, tongue twisters, an invisible man, a find-the-matzah challenge, and a bit where the entire family dips their finger in wine and says “blood!” in unison. The Seder is the world's most elaborate drinking game! The whole event is made all the more hilarious by the recent addition of baffled gentile wags.

My brother and sister and I, all three of us massive atheists, have acknowledged how terribly sad it would be to lose the tradition of the huge annual family Seder, and we've all half-heartedly vowed to keep it going for future generations. But I suspect that when my parents go, they'll take the tradition and the knowledge of how to do it properly with them. That being the case, let's all enjoy the handful of seders we have left as much as we possibly can.

Happy Pesach!

Reply · Report Post