The Orange As Cultural Jews, we aim to engage with the traditions in a meaningful way that reflects our values, and we believe that the orange on the Seder plate is a beautiful way to manifest said values.
I owe so much to Rabbi Susannah Heschel. All day every day, Jews are Ginding new ways to adapt to the traditional aspects of our religion, in an attempt to rid the age-old patriarchy found in some features of Judaism, and bring in new ways of incorporating those marginalised from our community. The best Seder, in my opinion, blends ancient tradition and modernity. We should encourage participants and family to think about the Jewish peoples’ redemption from slavery, but also about the kinds of oppression both Jews and others still experience. When Rabbi Susannah Heschel was asked to speak on a panel at Oberlin college during Pesach in the early 1980’s, she came across the feminist tradition of placing crumbs of chametz on ones Seder plate as a sign of solidarity with Jewish women contradicting a Rabbetzin’s pronouncement that, “there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the Seder plate.” Rabbi Heschel took this idea and brought it to her family’s Seder. She placed an orange on the table and asked her family to take a segment and eat it as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalised within the Jewish community. Although a great gesture, adding bread to a Seder plate would render everything chametz- consequentially ending Pesach for a religious family. In this new way, the compromise shown in placement of an orange on the Seder plate rather than bread, reGlects a microcosm of my Judaism; as someone who celebrates my own interpretation of Judaism, whilst still maintaining respect for every other individual’s interpretation within the community. Instead of suggesting that the LGBTQI+ community was something forbidden, violating Judaism (like chametz during Pesach), an orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when the queer community are contributing and active members of OUR Jewish community. In addition, the seeds of the orange can be spit out, gesturing the refusal of homophobia within Judaism. I urge everyone reading this to place a seventh item to your Seder plate, an orange.
By Remy Lissek, Eyal Melbourne
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