2 for Seder
On Oct. 27, 2018, in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, a shooter killed 11 people who’d come to worship at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue building. One of them was 75-year-old
Joyce Fienberg.
Her Vienna, Virginia, daughter-in-law, Marnie Fienberg, recalls “having to do something,” not just with her grief but also with all the support her family and other Jewish people were getting from people of all faiths and backgrounds.
So the business consultant quit her job and started “2 for Seder.” It’s a program to have Jewish people invite two people of other faiths to their first Passover Seders to share the symbolic meal and the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt, to ask questions and make connections — as her group put it, to “push back against antisemitism with love and matzah.”
In the spring of 2019, more than 2,500 families across the United States and Canada participated and broke matzah, or unleavened bread, at people’s homes. After a pandemic pause, 2 for Seder also held its first community Seder in the spring of 2023, at a Northern Virginia Jewish community center, hosting 68 people of five faiths.
The second community Seder was on Sunday, April 14, at Temple Emanuel of South Hills in Mt. Lebanon.
That congregation’s program and volunteer coordinator, Sarah Mangan, learned about 2 for Seder and contacted Fienberg, who was delighted for the continuing effort to be picked up at the Bower Hill Road synagogue where she has good friends.
Fienberg even agreed to come out to help lead the Seder, on a Sunday afternoon a week before the eight-day Jewish holiday.
Mangan notes that they made a few other tweaks — substituting grape juice for wine, and appetizers for a full meal — but the Seder plates included all the symbolic items, and there was plenty of matzah, which reflects how the ancient Jews had to flee so fast to freedom that their bread didn’t have time to rise.
Mangan invited guests from some of the South Hills houses of worship with which it already had interfaith connections. She also invited some families of victims of the synagogue shooting, as well as first responders and others who were involved, including at last summer’s trial where a jury gave the shooter the death penalty.
At Temple Emanuel, about 80 people sat at eight tables, each of which also included a Jewish “table captain” to answer questions that might arise during the traditional reading of the Seder text called the Haggadah (telling). Temple Emanuel used a basic “plug-and-play” version supplied by 2 for Seder, with several personalized touches.
To help guests connect, Mangan adapted the part of the Seder where children search for a hidden half piece of matzah — the afikomen — to instead have guests search for fellow attendees who share their initial or birth month.
“It allowed people to come together and learn together,” says Mangan, a Mt. Lebanon High School graduate who lives in Castle Shannon. “I just remember a lot of warmth and I feel a lot of gratitude” toward Fienberg as well as Rabbi Aaron Meyer, Cantor Kalix Jacobson and others who helped make it happen.
Mangan describes the two-hour event, from the songs to the unleavened sweets, as “really wonderful” — useful for educating and for countering not only antisemitism, but also other biases and stereotypes.
That’s why Dan Paul, who lives in Peters, brought 21 people from his Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clair, where he leads a group learning how to be Jewish allies. It was the first Seder for most of that group.
“Most everyone I talked to was surprised at the impact — the emotional and spiritual impact — that dinner had on them,” he said, noting that the group is continuing to work with Mangan on future joint experiences.
Dormont’s Jan Littrell came from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, feeling very open to other faiths in part because she’d learned only in high school that her mother was Jewish. Later, her son married into the faith.
She says, “I jumped at the chance to go to this community Seder. … It’s just a great sense of going way back in history and tapping into what I feel is my cultural birthright that I didn’t know about.”
Since then, she’s watched Friday services on Facebook. Previously, she would have been afraid to, but “I feel very free to go in and talk to Rabbi Aaron or attend a service.”
That’s the kind of positive echoes that Fienberg hopes to create. She says of Mangan’s Seder, “She gave me faith that this can actually move forward.” She plans to continue 2 for Seder and the nonprofit Pittsburgh Interfaith Evolution, and this summer was in negotiations with other groups for how that might look.
“We need every bit we can do to fight antisemitism now.”
Mangan would like to be part of it as much as possible, as Temple Emanuel continues its own interfaith work.
“It’s been a really hard time for Jews,” Mangan says, “so something like this feels very optimistic.”
*This story was edited on Wednesday, September 25 to correct Dan Paul’s first name. We regret the error.
