Rules of Engagement

PASSOVER

Rules of

APPEALING TO KIDS

Engagement

Party planners provide tips to keep your Zoom seder guests participating.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

All-in participation is the key to a apart, they can decide to have every housesuccessful Zoom seder, accord- hold individually cooking the same menu ing to four local event planners with recipes provided in advance by email. whose clients have asked for help with If they live close together and the numZoom weddings, Zoom bar and bat mitz- ber of households seem manageable, each vahs, Zoom baby naming ceremonies and dish can be assigned to one person with Zoom holiday parties during this past year one household assuming distribution tasks of pandemic isolation. — receiving the foods, dividing up the por-

The idea is to have everyone sense tions and setting up packages as specialties togetherness at a singular event while are delivered and picked up. Recipes can be keeping active, so they don’t feel that they emailed at a later date so that others can try are just looking at another screen. out the ethnic delicacies on their own.

While the four — Gail Ball, Janice “An easy choice for the food could be Cherkasky, Susan Siegal and Andrea Solomon — are looking forward to when they again can plan in-person activities, this past year of online events provided several lessons for planning this year’s Passover seders. “One person has to be in Gail Ball charge,” said Cherkasky of Franklin, whose business is Gourmet Parties. “That doesn’t ordering from a specific caterer so that mean the person in charge the same meals could be picked up indidoes everything. It means that vidually by a member of each household,” the person in charge involves Cherkasky said. everybody so that the seder is While one person is in charge of the Janice Cherasky well organized.” service, everyone should have a part in Involving everybody means recitation, they agree. The first decision has having someone specifically coordinating to do with choosing the Haggadah, which food choices and sources, someone else could be mailed or emailed in advance or making assignments for the service and yet projected on the Zoom screen so everyone another handling the technology. can follow along.

Cherkasky explains that, as a group, “I have a friend who writes a Haggadah, people first need to decide how they want and it’s not long so it will work for our to arrange for the food with three con- Zoom service, but, of course, that option siderations in mind — the level of kosher must be agreed upon in advance,” said observance, the distances between homes Solomon of West Bloomfield. and the total number of guests entering If the Haggadah is projected on the screen, into the celebration. one with colorful pictures would be more Whether people live close together or far interesting, especially for the youngsters. Gail Ball of Gail Ball Events in West Bloomfield advises that special consideration should be given so that very young children feel connected to the service and, therefore, the holiday and Judaism. “Children could be asked to draw pictures of what is being observed or even given Passover coloring books,” Ball said. “The seder should be interactive for them as well as the adults as they show what has been drawn.”

Susan Siegal, a planner in partnership with Terri Trepeck for the Event Bliss & Gifts party store in Franklin, likes to enhance the seder by assigning parts of the Haggadah to guests and asking them to sing their parts Susan to a Broadway melody indiSiegal vidually chosen. “It really gets everyone involved,” Siegal said. “Others have to try to name the seder tune. It’s different, and it’s fun.”

Solomon believes the service is made more interesting with young children in costumes if they are so inclined. This makes them feel they have stepped into the times being marked by the service.

Setting the table in similar ways also adds to the feeling of oneness, Solomon advises. While participants can agree on the kinds of centerpieces, Solomon is glad when a relative likes to provide small crafted objects to enhance the mood. One year, she brought plastic frogs to increase connections to the holiday story.

Depending on the distance of the families and friends interacting this year, interested participants can decide on symbolic objects to be sent by mail or delivered.

With the search for the afikoman, adults can agree to hide it in a comparable place in each household.

“AN EASY CHOICE FOR FOOD IS ORDERING FROM ONE CATERER SO THE SAME MEALS ARE PICKED UP BY EACH HOUSEHOLD.”

— PARTY PLANNER JANICE CHERKASKY