Liberating Your Passover Seder
Episode 18 · March 23rd, 2021 · 56 mins 56 secs
About this Episode
At 87, Rabbi Arthur Waskow still proudly calls himself a radical. His most revolutionary act may have taken place 52 years ago, when he wrote, published and organized the original Freedom Seder. Celebrated, debated and criticized, the Freedom Seder upended the contemporary seder by incorporating contemporary, non-Jewish liberation struggles. We talk about the origins of the Freedom Seder and what it means today. We explore Waskow’s life of activism, including his personal interactions with Rev. Martin Luther King Junior. And Waskow shares what keeps him turning out books and, at increasing risk to himself, taking to the streets and facing arrest. He also offers some practical advice on how to make a Zoom seder more compelling and how to take first steps as an activist. And we ask the burning question (no pun intended): is civilization as we know it headed for collapse?
Theme song, “Ilu Finu” by Rabbi Miriam Margles. Her album This is the Day is available for purchase at CDBaby: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/miriammarglesandthehadarensemb
Visit our home on the web — Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations: http://evolve.reconstructingjudaism.org
Subscribe by Email at http://subscribebyemail.com/evolve.fireside.fm/rss
Read these show notes on the web at https://evolve.fireside.fm/1
This podcast is produced by Reconstructing Judaism. Visit us at ReconstructingJudaism.org.
Support EvolveEpisode Links
- Liberating the Future: Passover and Beyond (Evolve)
- The Plagues of Exodus and Today: Facing Our Plagues in an Earth-Healing Activist Passover (Evolve)
- Original 1969 Freedom Seder | The Shalom Center
- Dancing in God's Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion (Amazon)
- Liberating Your Passover Seder - Beta 2021 Edition
- In Freedom Seder, Jews And African-Americans Built A Tradition Together (NPR's Code Switch podcast)
- At 87, activist rabbi Arthur Waskow is still protesting - and still getting arrested (JTA story)
- A Controversial and Beloved Figure Celebrates 80 (Jewish Exponent, by Bryan Schwartzman)
- Dick Gregory, 84, Dies; Found Humor in the Civil Rights Struggle (New York Times)
- Daniel J. Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism, Dies at 94 (New York Times)