Annual Freedom Seder
An interfaith celebration of multicultural unity
and our yearning for universal liberation
12th Annual Freedom Seder
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Marriott Center Dining Room
Campus Center 11th Floor
This uplifting celebration of multicultural and interfaith friendship, cosponsored by the Black Student Union and the Muslim Students Association, will once again feature a delicious buffet dinner with foods from around the world prepared by the students in Hospitality & Tourism Management 457 (Prof. Linda Kinney's "Large-Scale Catering" class). It's an event not to be missed!!
Our 11th annual Freedom Seder (on 4/2/09) featured, for the first time, an international buffet dinner prepared by the students in Hospitality & Tourism Management 457.
Our 2008 Freedom Seder, the tenth, was also very special. It commemorated and honored the students who created and sustained this great tradition. Thank you!!
Freedom Seder "Hall of Fame"
organizing committees 1999–2008
The Freedom Seder is a ritualized celebration of multicultural and interfaith unity, based on the Exodus themes of the Passover Seder, a ceremonial dinner marking the beginning of this week-long spring festival celebrated by Jews around the world. The ceremony gives voice to our desire for all people to be free from slavery and other forms of oppression.
While the Passover Seder commemorates
the redemption of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, its themes resonate with
the historical experience of many peoples.
Thus the Freedom Seder commemorates
the experience of all people who have been enslaved, exiled or otherwise oppressed,
while praying for the unity and liberation of
all people.
The Passover Seder reminds Jews of our own experience of slavery and redemption by retelling the biblical story of Exodus using various ritual foods such as bitter herbs, roasted eggs, salt water, unleavened bread or matzoh, and four cups of wine (or grape juice).
The Freedom Seder builds on the themes of Passover to commemorate the experience of African Americans, Native Americans, Muslims and other communities who have experienced oppression in the course of their own history. It culminates with a cultural program and buffet dinner, with foods chosen by the student organizers to represent their diverse cultures.
The goals of the Freedom Seder are to:
• Reconnect to our own historical experience of slavery, exile and redemption;
• Learn about the experience of other peoples by listening to their stories as told in their own voices, and thereby build bridges between our diverse communities;
• Reaffirm our commitment to challenging and overcoming oppression and embracing freedom and redemption for all people;
• Affirm the common humanity of all people.
.jpg)
Originally a collaboration between the Black Student Union (BSU), the Jewish Student Union (JSU), and the Office of Jewish Affairs, the 1999 Freedom Seder revived a tradition that had lain dormant for several years.
Photo of the 1999 Freedom Seder organizing committee: Nikan Hodjat, Cornelius Harris, Dan Kapner, Teeomm Williams, Hannah Braune, Nicole Patton, Jonathan Goldman, Malika Tafawa, Larry Goldbaum.
A graduate assistant in the Office of Jewish Affairs, Teeomm Williams (in photo below), worked tirelessly to recreate the Freedom Seder in Spring 1999 and ensure its continuation in subsequent years. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Teeomm, along with a dedicated group of students from the BSU, JSU and, beginning in 2001, the Delta Xi Phi multicultural sorority, for their leadership and hard work on this program!
We've continued to nurture the relationships that grew out of that initial collaboration—for example, hosting a visit by BSU and JSU members to an exhibition on African American and Jewish history at the University Gallery in October 1999.
(See Bridges and Boundaries)
More recently (beginning in 2007), the Muslim Students Association also got involved. So there is now participation by
all three Western religions descended from Abraham.
The cordial relationships formed among the Seder’s organizers and participants represent a dramatic turnaround from the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the relationship between African American and Jewish students in particular was characterized by distrust and overt hostility—one of the reasons the Office of Jewish Affairs was created in 1995.
In June 2000, OJA director Larry Goldbaum presented a new workshop, Celebrating Unity and Liberation: The Freedom Seder as an Antidote to Black/Jewish Conflict at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE). The following year, Jewish and African American students from the Seder organizing committee co-presented the workshop with Goldbaum at NCORE in Seattle, cementing an already-strong friendship.
To learn more...
Freedom Seder Haggadah (PDF, 24pp, 1.3MB)
... the booklet of songs, poems and other readings used at our
10th Annual Freedom Seder in April 2008.
Celebrating Unity and Liberation: The Freedom Seder as an Antidote
to Black/Jewish Conflict (PDF, 8pp, 28KB)
... a workshop presented by Larry Goldbaum, director of the Office of Jewish Affairs,
at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE).
The workshop syllabus includes:
* a historical overview of Black/Jewish relations in the U.S. and at UMass Amherst;
* a discussion of the shared themes of the Passover and Freedom Seders;
* the challenges involved in organizing such a program;
* bibliography for further study.
Newspaper and television coverage:
Pass It On: Freedom Seder (Guideposts, April 2007)
Guideposts is an interfaith magazine with eight million readers.
PBS "Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly" (PBS 4/22/05)
Jewish, Black communities unite for 'Freedom Seder' (Collegian 3/31/04)
Students unite at Freedom Seder (Collegian 4/23/99)
Sponsoring organizations:
Office of Jewish Affairs
Black Student Union
Muslim Students Association
Delta Xi Phi Multicultural Sorority, Inc. (UMass Amherst chapter)
[top of page]
