It seems fitting that the same weekend that we celebrate Passover, commemorating the Hebrews' Exodus from Egypt, Tufts experiences an exodus of its own: the exodus of Jews from campus.
Some of us stuck around, however, and made our own seder right here at Tufts.
In a bittersweet turn of events, Charlotte could not join us this weekend for Passover. She was playing hostess to her father, who returned to Boston for his second Marathon. So our friend Jessie and I hosted a seder on campus for 19 of our friends.
Now, this wasn't the first time that Jessie and I had orchestrated a massive seder in a college environment. Last year, we pulled one off for 19 people using only college dorm kitchens and two of my pocketknives. Try peeling bundles of apples and potatoes with a Swiss Army knife - it's not easy.
This year, we continued the seder tradition, but we weren't exactly roughing it. We went into the city and cooked in my apartment alongside my mom. We had normal knives, a refrigerator, mixing bowls, spices that we didn't have to steal from Dewick and (most importantly) a stereo system. It was glorious.
We started by going to Shaw's to get ingredients. Let me set the scene: three blonde people wandering around the aisles mumbling the names of Jewish foods and spending an extra long time in front of the Manischewitz display. To the rest of the Shaw's shoppers that day, we must have looked like three Christians who just really liked Matzos.
Since Jessie's family's recipes had gone over so well last year, we decided to go two for two and do them again. So, other than the traditional seder parts we made baked chicken, vegetable kugel, a strawberry, goat cheese and walnut salad and flourless chocolate cake for dessert.
Once everything was done, we trucked it up to Tufts and got ready for the seder. We'd reserved the South Hall common room, so we dropped everything off in the kitchen there to be reheated.
It was an interesting mix of Jews and non-Jews, a ratio of about 8 to 13, which was still better than last year when we had one of 3 to 16. Some people had been to a seder before, and some had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
Once we began, there were definitely some people who were surprised that we were actually holding the full service part of the meal.
If you've never been to a seder before, there are some parts that are hard to explain. The dipping of parsley into salt water is one. Some people weren't really sure what to do when we passed around these leafy greens. Some ate theirs immediately, while others didn't at all, even with the salt water.
Gefilte fish is also one of those mystery components in a seder. Last year Jessie and I made it from scratch and forced it upon our dinner guests. This year, we almost didn't even include it until one of our friends confessed that she secretly loves it. To appease her, and for tradition's sake, we bought a jar of gefilte fish for the table.
During the seder, Jessie and I realized that we would both be abroad for next year's seder. Rather than break the tradition, two of our friends stepped up and said they'd host Passover in 2009. It's too bad we'll be missing out, but you never know, maybe we'll meet next year in Jerusalem (if you're not Jewish, ask your Jewish friends).
Winston Berkman is a sophomore majoring in international relations; Charlotte Bourdillon is a sophomore who has not declared a major. They can be reached at Winston.Berkman@tufts.edu and Charlotte.Bourdillon@tufts.edu, respectively.
