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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/03/31/m4c_collards_0330.html

Besides the traditional bitter herbs and sweet wine, a Passover seder on Thursday will include unexpected treats: collard greens and sweet potato pie.

The idea is to recall the shared struggles of Jews and African-Americans, said seder organizer Eunice Baros.

The dinner, to take place at the Marriott City Place, includes a special Haggadah, or Passover story, that includes poetry by Maya Angelou and reminds participants, "Let us recall the struggles of all people in every generation, in every part of the world."

Passover commemorates the exodus of Jews from slavery in Egypt. The connection with the history of blacks was obvious to the organizers, including LaRoi Wright, an artist and drummer and one of the seder organizers.

Wright hopes his son can have a "bro mitzvah," a hybrid coming-of-age rite for young black men, based on the Jewish bar mitzvah.
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Questions? Comments? Complaints?

I do approve, well I approve of this more than I approve of say the Faux Mitzvah that were getting big a few years back.

What are you saying? Collard greens aren't traditional Passover foods? They are in my house, buddy. Sweet potato pies? Them too -- I just make sure to use kosher-for-Passover ingredients in the crust. It's got little to do with black or white, and everything to do with being Southern. Jews of all times and places have adapted the prevalent cuisine to the laws of kashrut. That's why Ashkenazi Jews make blintzes, kreplach, matzah balls, kugel, and cholent. It's why Sephardi Jews have made bourekas, hummous, baba ghanouj, falafel, and chamin. It's why Ashkenazim eat challah while Sephardim eat pita. We're able to live within the world, absorb into any culture, while still maintaining our own integrity.

Now that all that is out of the way, I love the fact that they're doing this. At my sedarim, I make sure that everyone is reminded not only of the Israelites' captivity in Egypt, but also about the many other times and places in which one group of people have oppressed another group of people. I'm so glad that finally this is being done on a large scale, and getting publicity.

That reminds me of an episode from the Sarah Silverman Program, where she made a bet with a black waiter about how much harder it was to live the daily life of a Jew than it was to be Black. xd

Well you don't really have to it brought back to you, you can just buy the food when pesach ends, but not eat it until you do the nasty ritual of flour and buttermilk in the mouth. EWWWWWWWW!!!!!! *shiver* I hate doing that. Then it's yummy donuts, cake, mufleta, funnel cake, crispy fried dough in orange blossom honey, wasp honey, royal jelly, and other. It's a sugery yummy hyper active feast. And then there is the Irish treats my mom makes sometimes, with some french-canadian food. I need to look into my Inuit heritage for some yummy inuit sweet treats.

And why not try to enlighten them on Maimouna. Yes, most White european Jewish foods have no taste and are bland, but that doesn't mean you have to suffer. Example my family in long island are now beinf ashkenazified as we speak, and all they eat is nasty cholent for Shabbat lunch. No tortilla, no falafal, no malawach, no israeli salad, no pickled baby eggplant. But thank god they still have the salads. Mabucha, baba ganush, oily peppers, and so forth. The rest of the family reminds them where they came from by bringing the good stuff.

Really? There has to be others here on Gaia. And man, it must be hard being the son of a Rabbi.

I follow the Iberian (Portuguese/Spanish/Moroccan) traditions since I was brought up that way, it's my dads side, and my mom adopted it when she converted. My mom is actually French-Canadian of Irish and Native American background, and if you back over 2000 years, Viking.

That episode was really fun and at the same time really insulting. But the truth is it is harder being Jewish. Much harder. I don't care what anybody says, it is.

Cut down the quote trees, folks. smile

I saw on your profile that your a Cohanim.