Mary C. Curtis

Seder offers

message of

perseverance

Bring together tradition and real life, and the results may surprise you.

Each table at the Ninth Annual Women's Seder at the Levine Jewish Community Center looked familiar, graced with the Seder plate holding the symbols of Passover.

Sunday's service was a symbolic start to the holiday that begins sundown April 2. In the capacity crowd of 130, Jewish women joined Christians and Muslims; women of every denomination were made to feel at home.

The evening's prayers remembered Sarah and Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, women of strength, courage and resilience.

On each table sat Miriam's Cup, its water representing sustenance for a people delivered from slavery.

Their spirit and more was needed to face an invisible problem brought into the light. For on this marking of the Jewish holiday of freedom, the evening's other theme was freedom not yet earned.

"As we celebrate the miracle of our liberation in ages past, we also acknowledge that some women remain enslaved - by partners who abuse them," said the Passover prayer."

We pray for true shalom bayit - safety and peace, mutual respect and marital harmony in every home."

"Every Seder is about the world," said Barbara Thiede, the rabbinical student who led the service. Every person should take that leap into knowing what it means to be oppressed, she said.

"Memory leads to action; knowledge leads to engagement."

On this night, prayer promises were made to victims of domestic violence: "To hear their silence. To notice their sadness. To feel their loneliness, sense their shame, understand their bitterness and support their craving for liberation.”

Some women are "doubly abused," a counselor said, by their partners and by isolation. It happens in Jewish homes, in every kind of home.

No, the evening was not a downer.

A survivor spoke out: "I am a new person now and have had a second chance at living the rest of my life. Have courage. Make your life a blessing. You deserve to be safe. You deserve to be loved and valued. Ask for help until you get help."

She later told me that some of the women who heard her testimony this evening aren't yet ready to share their stories but are glad she's speaking for them.

There was joy, determination and dancing.

At my table, Bette Andrews of Charlotte praised the combination of faith and the world. "The alternative Seders are the most memorable."

Fran Samarel, who welcomed visitors as she does members of her spiritual family at Temple Beth El, said, "Religion should bring people together, not separate them."

Sometimes, women need a reminder of the critical need to be among themselves, said Thiede, "a place to practice and observe with women of all faiths."

At the beginning of the evening, she previewed the music program and told us to expect something different. Every Passover service, Thiede said, "has a sound all its own."

This one did.

Mary C.Curtis:

mcurtis@charlotteobserver.com.