{"id":54713,"date":"2020-04-15T17:57:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T23:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=54713"},"modified":"2021-03-05T09:14:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T15:14:53","slug":"celebrity-studded-saturday-night-seder-yields-1m-viewers-2-6m-for-charity-and-4-big-insights-about-the-jewish-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/celebrity-studded-saturday-night-seder-yields-1m-viewers-2-6m-for-charity-and-4-big-insights-about-the-jewish-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity-studded Saturday Night Seder yields 1M viewers, $2.6M for charity and 4 big insights about the Jewish people"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RON KAMPEAS<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 With its glittering assembly of stars, jokes that worked and attendees who could, well, sing, it was the Zoom Seder you wished you had.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54714\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54714\" class=\"wp-image-54714 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-300x169.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder.png 1080w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54714\" class=\"wp-image-54714 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-300x169.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/04-14-2020-Saturday-Night-Seder.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54714\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jason Alexander, upper right, invites non-Jews Josh Groban, upper left, Darren Criss, lower left and Rachel Brosnahan to join in a virtual Seder webcast on YouTube, April 11, 2020. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Saturday Night Passover Seder that aired on YouTube over the weekend brought together dozens of celebrities and raised $2.6 million for the CDC Foundation, the nonprofit wing of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the government agency guiding America through the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The broadcast, which drew more than 1 million viewers, had a distinctive liberal coastal Jewish outlook, informed by entertainment biz sensibilities, which was natural enough: No one on the webcast claimed to speak for all Jews, or all American Jews, or for Jews in any frame.<\/p>\n<p>Still, as a coming together of the Jewish community\u2019s most visible Jews, the event offered insights about where American Jews are in the national thinking, or perhaps more precisely, where a lot of American Jews want to believe they are. Here are four messages conveyed by the Saturday Night Seder.<br \/>\nAnyone can be Jewish, or play at it<\/p>\n<p>Jason Alexander, best known for his turn as George Costanza on \u201cSeinfeld,\u201d launches the proceedings with an upbeat ditty called \u201cDayenu\u201d and welcomes co-choristers Darren Criss, Josh Groban and Rachel Brosnahan.<\/p>\n<p>After Groban does a cantorial turn, Alexander praises him as \u201cthe greatest Jewish voice since Zero Mostel,\u201d and Groban has to explain that no, he is not Jewish. Neither is Criss or Brosnahan. Is that a problem? Brosnahan asks.<\/p>\n<p>Not at all, Alexander responds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTonight it doesn\u2019t matter if you are or aren\u2019t a Jew,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the concept of cultural appropriation complicates matters. Should the abled play people with disabilities? Should cisgender people be cast in transgender roles?<\/p>\n<p>Criss is a straight man whose best-known role, Blaine Anderson on \u201cGlee,\u201d was gay. It\u2019s been an issue for non-Jewish actors who play Jews as well \u2014 as Brosnahan, an Irish American whose signature role is \u201cThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\u201d well knows.<\/p>\n<p>Groban especially is a complicated story: His father is a Jew who converted to Christianity when he married Groban\u2019s mother. (Groban and Criss played Tevye in high school productions of \u201cFiddler on the Roof.\u201d)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54715\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54715\" class=\"wp-image-54715 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt.jpg 794w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/170;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54715\" class=\"wp-image-54715 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt-300x170.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Ben_Platt.jpg 794w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54715\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Award winner Ben Platt. (via screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The producers of the Saturday Night Seder seem to conclude that appropriation is something to celebrate, not condemn. It\u2019s not exactly a new phenomenon: Jews in the 1970s cheered Valerie Harper\u2019s portrayal on TV of Rhoda Morgenstern, even though Harper was not Jewish, because the role was so positive. And if you\u2019re of a certain age, you\u2019ll remember dusty albums in your parents\u2019 collection of Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger singing Jewish songs.<\/p>\n<p>Belafonte and Seeger, notably, also were progressives, and their embrace of Jewish culture stems from a period when being Jewish was, at least in the public mind, identified with being on the left. Much of the Saturday Night Passover Seder includes nods to progressive politics. For the Hollywood Jews who put together this seder, the opening is a callback to a time, perhaps more imagined than real, when Jews had a clear political home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Being Jewish is unique<\/strong><br \/>\nSo anyone can play at being Jewish, but understand, the cumulative historical experience is unique \u2014 and also has universal meaning.<\/p>\n<p>Actors Richard Kind and Debra Messing, in recounting the story of the Exodus, note the ancientness of Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHating Jews wasn\u2019t a cliche then,\u201d Messing says.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54716\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54716\" class=\"wp-image-54716 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler.jpg 798w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/169;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54716\" class=\"wp-image-54716 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Bette_MIdler.jpg 798w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54716\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bette Midler portrays Elijah. (via screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Actor Judith Light casts the composition of \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow\u201d by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg as a deeply political repudiation of fascism, a yearning by American Jews for better times as Nazism cast its shadow over Europe. Spliced amid Ben Platt\u2019s rendition of the song, Light calls the lyrics \u201cnear prophetic\u201d and notes that the quintessential American movie it frames, \u201cThe Wizard of Oz,\u201d opened on screens just two months after the Kristallnacht massacres in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHear the lyrics in this context and suddenly the words are no longer about wizards and Oz, but about Jewish survival,\u201d Light says.<\/p>\n<p>She quotes Harburg to make the point that the particularism of Jewish suffering has infused the American sensibility, at least as it is understood by the folks writing and performing this Seder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Passover Seder is devoted entirely to the fight for freedom,\u201d Harburg said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIts allegorical significance transcends the Abrahamic faiths,\u201d Reza Aslan, the Muslim scholar of religions, says of the Seder. \u201cThe story of Exodus is the story of the movement from oppression to freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jewish is also community<\/strong><br \/>\nThe price of admission for the celebrity content is a series of mini-sermons by congregational rabbis interspersed throughout.<\/p>\n<p>OK, the mini-sermons are compelling and easy to digest (insert matzah joke here). What their presence at this Seder conveys, however, is that doing Jewish isn\u2019t just a gestalt, a cultural outlook for everyone to enjoy. It\u2019s a communal affair. It\u2019s why having to do a virtual Seder is so heartbreaking, even as doing so opens new opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Sharon Brous of the IKAR congregation in Los Angeles describes the commandment to hold the Seder every year as creating \u201cthe muscle memory for hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That especially is brought home when Rabbi Dana Benson of Temple Beth Am in Seattle sings a medley of Passover parody songs including \u201cGoodbye, goodbye, Mitzraim,\u201d to the tune of \u201cTo Life,\u201d and \u201cEverything\u2019s Coming Up Moses.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54717\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54717\" class=\"wp-image-54717 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2.jpg 801w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/168;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54717\" class=\"wp-image-54717 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2-768x431.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Idina_Menzel2.jpg 801w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54717\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Award winner Idina Menzel sings &#8220;The Four Questions.&#8221; (via screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The gentle humor is familiar to anyone who has ever sat through an American Seder, but it was especially familiar to Barbara Sarshik, a congregant at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia, who composed the lyrics and then posted them as part of her ongoing Passover song parody project. (She contacted the Saturday Night Seder organizers, who updated their website with credit.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt creates so much joy and togetherness to have people sing these words to familiar melodies,\u201d a fan on Sarshik\u2019s website says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next year, where?<\/strong><br \/>\nIsrael features throughout this Seder, well, delicately. Benson says her favorite song is \u201cBaShana Habaa\u201d and she sings a bar or two, but does not mention that the song of longing for peace was written by Nurit Hirsh and Ehud Manor after the 1967 Six-Day War, resonating with Israelis who were relieved from what they perceived from a threat of extinction and longed for peace with their neighbors. She does not mention that it is Israeli at all.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli flags crop up now and then behind a few of the young people who join in chorus for Ma Nishtanah, but they are not acknowledged. Israel\u2019s biggest role comes during a monologue by Harvey Fierstein explaining why as a child he was nonplussed by the Seder\u2019s conclusion, \u201cNext Year in Jerusalem,\u201d that amounts to a kaleidoscope of American Jewish anxieties and longings about Israel. In Fierstein\u2019s telling, Israel is simultaneously a necessity, a source of longing that can even be sexual, and an arid badland tainted by its association with President Donald Trump and his family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s hot, you\u2019re surrounded by a vast majority of anti-Semites and all the cute soldiers in uniform are girls,\u201d the playwright and performer says. \u201cIt made no sense to me that Jews would wanna go to Israel.\u201d<br \/>\nBut Fierstein says he has come to understand Jerusalem as a metaphor: \u201cNext year we will be in a world that is caring and supportive of its inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That leads into an original song, \u201cNext Year,\u201d which concludes that phrase opening with a number of wishes (\u201cWe\u2019ll breathe in the sky,\u201d \u201cThe world will break open\u201d) but with \u201cJerusalem\u201d mentioned only once. Movingly, a number of Jewish medical professionals working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic describe their longing for Seders with family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So is Israel forgotten? Not quite.<\/strong><br \/>\nThe final words are left to Alexander, who has previously expressed an emphatic if critical affection for Israel: \u201cGood night everybody, stay safe, stay healthy, stay inside, next year in Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Celebrity-studded%20Saturday%20Night%20Seder%20yields%201M%20viewers%2C%20%242.6M%20for%20charity%20and%204%20big%20insights%20about%20the%20Jewish%20people\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8382],"tags":[8790,8795,8788,2175],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54718,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54713\/revisions\/54718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}