The Havurah's Dan Rogger is hosting a special Kabbalat Shabbat Friday, April 11th at 6:30 pm to read Arthur Waskow's 'Freedom Seder'. Join him for a potluck dinner to think about how inequities in contemporary society are reflected in the founding story of the Jewish people.

BACKGROUND

During Passover 1969, on the anniversary of King's death, 800 people gathered in the basement of Lincoln Temple, a black church in Washington, D.C. to hold a Passover ceremony to highlight and discuss inequality, racism and more. There are histories of the event at https://capitaljewishmuseum.org/remembering-the-freedom-seder-and-looking-ahead/ and https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/04/04/397323302/in-freedom-seder-jews-and-african-americans-built-a-tradition-together

The event was led by Arthur Waskow, who famously wrote a 'guide to the Passover story' (a 'Haggadah') specially for the evening that has become known as the "Freedom Seder". It can be found at https://opensiddur.org/compilations/table-guides-and-haggadot/passover-seder/the-freedom-seder-haggadah-for-passover-by-the-shalom-center-and-rabbi-arthur-waskow/ and Rabbi Waskow's own story of the Haggadah is at https://religiondispatches.org/take-history-into-your-own-hands-why-i-wrote-the-freedom-seder-and-why-its-still-necessary/ (plus more on him at https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/holidays/articles/arthur-waskow-freedom-seder).

In 1969, Passover began on Wednesday April 2 and ended on Thursday April 10, such that the first anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination - April 4^th - fell during Passover.

A FREEDOM SEDER IN 2025

April 4th is the 56th anniversary of the first the Freedom Seder and the 57th anniversary of the assassination of MLK. This year, the Havurah will honor the idea of a Freedom Seder by reading Waskow's Haggadah together. It feels like it is an important time to come together and debate, act and celebrate in the fight for equality and broader justice. And where better to start but in the community just outside the Capitol itself?

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