PASSOVER AND THE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC

MIKEY ADAM COHEN WRITER, INFLUENCER, CELEBRITY INTERVIEWER/ REPORTER, COPYWRITER

Copyrighted by Mikey Adam Cohen

Passover will be one of the many things celebrated this night from other nights previously. When circumstances abruptly change … we need to adapt and serve effectively & so many Jews conducted virtual Passover seders for members of congregations, friends, and family and broadcasted it on YouTube and internet dial-in connections. For centuries, on the first and second nights of the Jewish holiday of Passover, the youngest child has asked his or her elders, “Why is this night different from all others? ”This year, the nights are truly different. And Rabbi Shlomo Segal is among the spiritual leaders who are adapting to a Passover in the shadow of COVID-19. California's stay-at-home order and the need for social distancing caused by the coronavirus outbreak is prompting changes to the eight-day celebration of Passover, which begins at sundown Wednesday.

Individuals are planning to use such online platforms as Zoom to connect with families and friends who are unable to attend their Seders, Passover's ritual meal, which means order. Various congregations and organizations have organized virtual Seders and not just on the first two nights as is traditional. the Zoom Seder you wished you had.

The Saturday Night Passover Seder that aired on YouTube over the weekend brought together dozens of celebrities and raised $2.6 million for the CDC Foundation, the nonprofit wing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government agency guiding America through the coronavirus pandemic.

The broadcast, which drew more than 1 million viewers, had a distinctive liberal coastal Jewish outlook, informed by entertainment biz sensibilities, which was natural enough: No one on the webcast claimed to speak for all Jews, or all American Jews, or for Jews in any frame as the Jewish community’s most visible Jews, the event offered insights about where American Jews are in the national thinking, or perhaps more precisely, where a lot of American Jews want to believe they are.

Here are four messages conveyed by the Saturday Night Seder. Anyone can be Jewish or play at it Jason Alexander, best known for his turn as George Costanza on “Seinfeld,” launches the proceedings with an upbeat ditty called “Dayenu” and welcomes co-choristers Darren Criss, Josh Groban, and Rachel Brosnahan.

Darren And Chris News

Darren Criss, Josh Groban, Jason Alexander, Rachel Brosnahan - Saturday Night Seder After Groban does a cantorial turn, Alexander praises him as “the greatest Jewish voice since Zero Mostel,” and Groban has to explain that no, he is not Jewish. Neither is Criss or Brosnahan. Is that a problem? Brosnahan asks. Not at all, Alexander responds.

“Tonight it doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t a Jew,” he says. Of course, the concept of cultural appropriation complicates matters. Should the abled play people with disabilities? Should cisgender people be cast in transgender roles? Criss is a straight man whose best-known role, Blaine Anderson on “Glee,” was gay. It’s been an issue for non

Jewish actors who play Jews as well — as Brosnahan, an Irish American whose signature role is “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” well Groban especially is a complicated story: His father is a Jew who converted to Christianity when he married Groban’s mother. (Groban and Criss played Tevye in high school productions of “Fiddler on the Roof.”)

The producers of the Saturday Night Seder seem to conclude that appropriation is something to celebrate, not condemn. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon: Jews in the 1970s cheered Valerie Harper’s portrayal on TV of Rhoda Morgenstern, even though Harper was not Jewish because the role was so positive. And if you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember dusty albums in your parents’ collection of Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger singing Jewish songs.

Belafonte and Seeger, notably, also were progressives, and their embrace of Jewish culture stems from a period when being Jewish was, at least in the public mind, identified with being on the left. Much of the Saturday Night Passover Seder includes nods to progressive politics. For the Hollywood Jews who put together this Seder, the opening is a callback to time, perhaps more imagined than real, when Jews had a clear political home. ~ Mikey Adam Cohen Mikey Adam Cohen