08 Apr 2012 8 Comments
in Family, Food, Holiday, Traditions Tags: Passover, seder
My husband and I set the table this afternoon for our second night Seder. When we finished I realized that we were both wearing our bathing suits. He was still in his board shorts from his morning surf session and I had just returned from the neighborhood pool after swimming some laps. “Now that is being Jewish in Hawaii I thought.”
Chag Sameach to all with aloha from our Seder table to yours.
06 Apr 2012 5 Comments
in Food, Hawaii, Holiday Tags: brisket, Good Friday, Hawaii State Department of Education, horseradish, mince meat, Passover, Pez, Safeway Kapolei, Six13 Jewish Acapella, Temple Emanu-El, The New Yorker, Times Market
Because Good Friday and the first night of Passover fall on the same date.
It has always been a complaint of mine that Good Friday is a state holiday in Hawaii. It seems odd to me.
When I taught at Wai’anae High School as an employee of the Hawaii State Department of Education I did not complain. I was always willing to take a day off, even if it isn’t my holiday.
When I enrolled my kids in a private school that promotes itself as non-sectarian and that administration continued to schedule Good Friday as a school holiday year after year, I began to get a bit ferkrimpt (that’s Yiddish for annoyed).
A few years ago somebody told me that the legislature has it off to prepare for Easter. Huh? Prepare? What do they have to do? Could they possibly be spending an entire day dying eggs in pretty colors? or putting together baskets of candy? or do they have to catch up on their sleep so they can make it to an Easter sunrise service a few days later?
Forgive me if this sounds sacrilegious, but from my perspective there is not a lot of formal observance of Good Friday. Easter Sunday is already a non work day and most of the people I know are pretty pagan about their rituals.
Which brings me to my next point. Good Friday and the first night of Passover are on the same date this year–today. Yet few in this wonderful state of aloha have the slightest notion that Jews in the islands, and around the world, are preparing for one of most important holidays in our heritage.
Why can’t it be a state holiday for us too? We actually have a lot of preparing to do.
Admittedly, some things have changed since I moved to Hawaii over 20 years ago. Local grocery stores such as Safeway and Times Market carry traditional Passover foods such as Matzah and gefiltah fish, even in Kapolei.
I no longer have to order it months in advance at Temple Emanu-El to have it shipped in for us.
When I went to Kapolei Safeway the other day to purchase matzah I was pleasantly surprised. They have come a long way.
Of course the Easter merchandise bombards you as soon as you walk in the door and I did have to walk around a bit before I could find the Jewish food section. But it was there. And it was decently stocked. Just as are we Jews on the island of Oahu.
They are set up for Jews all year round which is kind of nice since we are not just seasonal residents. I noticed that they sell Yahrzeit candles which means I don’t have to order them on eBay from now on.
I can’t quite figure out why they have included mince meat and Thomas the Tank Pez in this section. If anybody has any insight into this choice, please let me know. But I have decided not to complain, it seems fairly harmless.
I’ve been enjoying all of the Facebook posts from friends and family near and far about their Passover preparation. The brisket is cooking at my sister’s house. A local Jewish woman is looking for fresh horseradish and another woman in Honolulu posted that her house smells like Passover–yum.
It makes me feel like a part of a larger Jewish community.
What many people don’t realize, is that it takes days to prepare a Passover seder meal that tastes like Bubbe used to make. We should get a day off too.
Our Rabbi posted a fun article on the Temple Emanu-El Facebook page that was published in the New Yorker that I thought was hilarious. Here is the link.
And while I don’t always enjoy the You Tube videos people post, I really like this one that Lisa Block, my Temple Beth Ohr Hebrew School classmate who lives in California, shared.
And here is the Passover greeting from my friend Beverly who lives in South Africa.
While the State of Hawaii might not realize that our holiday is important too and that many of its local community are celebrating a holiday other than Easter, perhaps the enticing smell of the chicken soup simmering on my stove on this Good Friday and first night of Passover and all of the Facebook posts from Jews around the world might influence just a bit.
We always have room at our seder table for one more guest.
A zissin Pesach to all and Shabbat Shalom.
29 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Family, Holiday Tags: Bashana Haba'ah, charoset, chopped liver, Haggadah, Kapolei, Passover, seder
I guess the key words at this point are “Passed” and “Over,” because Passover pretty much is. I keep thinking of the phrase “Just passing through” as well.
I thought I was going to be more emotional when we had our seder at home this year. I anticipated that the things that usually made me feel connected to my mom who lived far away in Kansas City would make her absence from this present life too far away to bear. Making her chopped liver and taking out my parents’ seder plate from my childhood seemed like it would be empty and sad.
I was wrong (you won’t hear me saying that very often!)
It was as joyful as ever. I spent days preparing each dish with love and care: chicken soup, matzah balls, chopped liver, charoset and the rest. I pulled out my Great Aunt Tee’s china and the other sparkling serving dishes that we only use once a year for this very special occasion. And I was happy.
While we didn’t use them, I took out the Hagaddahs that my family read when I was a kid. I found them when we cleaned out my mother’s basement last spring. They are labeled in my her handwriting, “Martha, Betsy, Lorrie and Ted.” I wonder why there isn’t one that says “Gloria.”
My father’s copy is carefully marked in red pen so he could lead our seder (in his deep resonating voice) to dinner as efficiently as possible. He even wrote the word “Skip” in many places. Thank goodness. The Gershun family has always been short on seder and long on food! We definitely follow that tradition in this Gershun’s home to this day.
It wasn’t until I was putting away the seder plate and the china, a few days later, that I did feel sad. For a moment, my parents and relatives were passing through to be with us on this special holiday, singing Dayeinu and Had Gad Ya joyfully together (a bit off-key.)
And now I was putting them back in the cupboard, along with a part of me, to wait for the next time. Ba shanah haba’ah, in the year to come we will all return together–if not in Jerusalem–at least in Kapolei.
21 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Food, Holiday Tags: chicken soup, fresh dill, Passover, seder
This may not seem like a big deal to some, but for me it is huge. I used the fresh dill that grew in my very own yard in the chicken soup that I made in preparation for our seder.
Many of you are used to growing things and eating them. I am not. I do not have a green thumb. The only thing I have been able to grow successfully are a few children and a dog or two over the years. My track record in the plant department is appalling.
Every time a plant in our garden begins to thrive, something happens. We go on vacation and the house sitter forgets to water them. It rains so much that the plants drown. Or I just put them in the wrong spot.
I had a beautiful basil plant for a while and was able to serve its leaves on a few occasions. I’ve even had some limited success with green onions. That’s about it.
I planted the dill seeds a while ago because the package said they need direct sunlight. I only plant seeds that like direct sunlight. None of this indirect stuff for me. It is too unclear.
I’ve been wondering what to do with the dill. It keeps growing and growing and growing. We keep watering and watering and watering. I’ve moved it a few times to chase the sun. I am proud of our dill plant.
When I looked at a the chicken soup recipe for Passover and it said to use fresh dill I got excited. “I get to use the dill,” I reveled.
The chickens and carrots and celery I bought at the store. I had to go to several stores to find the parsnip. But the dill was right in my yard waiting to jump in the pot.
19 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Family, Food, Holiday Tags: Aloha Jewish Chapel, Hale Koa Hotel, musubi, Passover, seder, seder plate, ukulele
A seder in Hawaii is much like any seder around the world. We tell the story. We eat the traditional foods. And then there are a few special moments that highlight that we are celebrating in this particular place and possibly nowhere else.
Last night was no exception. The Aloha Jewish Chapel seder at the Hale Koa Hotel was a pleasure. The table was set with a beautiful seder plate and we told the story that Jews around the world had been telling all day long in different time zones.
This particular event has a personal story our family likes to tell. Every year when we attend, we remember that it was at this very seder, eight years ago, that my husband and I had our “Almost First Date.” We have been going every year since–except in 2005 when he was deployed in Iraq.
2006
2007
2011
The seder also has some local flavor, but not in the cooking.
How many seders have you been to where the guest list is a balance of names such as Watanabe, Fukuhara and Hashimoto?
And then there is the music. Rachel Haymer played the ukulele at my wedding, my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah and at most of our Temple events. The addition of her ukulele and her voice last night was a real treat.
Finally, comes my favorite, and the initial inspiration to write this particular blog entry. When we were singing the four questions, during the part that asks why on some nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we only recline: She b’chol haleilot anu ochlin bein yoshbin uvein m’subin. Halailah hazeh, kulanu m’subin., both my husband and older daughter changed the word m’subin-reclining- to musubi which is a spam and rice sushi snack that is so far from belonging at a seder that one can only laugh.
Try singing it.
Only in Hawaii.
Happy Passover.
18 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Holiday Tags: Aloha Jewish Chapel, gefilte fish, Hale Koa Hotel, horse raddish, matzah, matzah ball soup, Passover, Safeway Kapahulu, Safeway Kapolei, seder, Whole Foods
Preparing for Passover in Hawaii has gotten easier in the past few years, but it is still not completely convenient.
Most of the neighborhood Safeways have matzah and matzah meal. They bring it out for every Jewish holiday, thinking that we eat it all year round.
Now that I am a “Military Wife,” I have access to the commissary which dutifully puts out a table of items a few weeks before Passover, but it wasn’t as robust this year as the last few.
Whole Foods in Kahala (about 25 miles from my house and a good hour drive if there is traffic) had a good selection of macaroons and gluten free Passover items.
Only the Kapahulu Safeway had gefilte fish. My husband loves gefilte fish. I made the drive.
When I was at the commissary yesterday I asked for fresh horseradish and was told they only have the Chinese kind. I figured that would do for a bitter herb. I had no idea that Chinese horseradish was so big. I had to take a photo. Even my husband laughed.
While surfing the web, my younger daughter noticed that Party City has ready made plague bags, a new tradition at our seder ever since my oldest sister started sending them to my kids. We went to the Waikele Party City to check them out. When I asked the clerk where their Passover items are, she looked at me and said, “What’s Passover?” So much for buying plague bags there. We will make our own.
Despite the obstacles, we are ready. We will celebrate with the community tonight at the Aloha Jewish Chapel seder at the Hale Koa Hotel, organized by our good friends Val Hashimoto and Dan Bender.
And thank goodness for Good Friday. In Hawaii it is a State holiday. Since the kids won’t have school and my husband doesn’t have to work, we will have our own seder at home with a few friends. All of the items I have hunted and gathered from across the island will come together on our table as we celebrate our freedom and remember our journey together.
A Zeisen Pesach to all.
Being Jewish in Hawaii 