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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GerryM Folklore: Orange on a seder plate (6) Folklore: Orange on a seder plate 24 May 21


The seder plate is an important part of the celebration of the Jewish holiday of Passover. In recent times, some folks have taken to adding an orange to the more traditional contents of the seder plate. There is much folklore as to how this came to be. I think Wikipedia has it right:

Orange – Some Jews include an orange on the Seder plate.[15] The orange represents the fruitfulness for all Jews when marginalized Jews, particularly women and gay people, are allowed to become active and contribute to the Jewish community. A common, though incorrect, rumor says that the tradition began when a man told Susannah Heschel that a woman has as much business on the bimah in a synagogue as an orange does on the Seder plate. In fact, the tradition began when Heschel spoke at Hillel at Oberlin College, where she saw an early feminist haggadah that included Susan Fielding's short story about a young Jewish lesbian told by her Hasidic rebbe that "there is as much place for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for hametz at the seder table."[16] Heschel felt, as did those women at Oberlin, that putting bread on the Seder plate would mean accepting the idea that lesbian and gay Jews are as incompatible with Judaism as chametz is with Passover. At her next Seder, she used an orange as a symbol of inclusion for lesbians, gays, and others who are marginalized by the Jewish community. Participants eat a segment of the orange, spitting out the seeds as a symbol of rejecting homophobia.[17]

The links are
[15] https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/an-orange-on-the-seder-plate/

[16] https://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/background-background-orange-seder-plate-and-ritual-inclusion

[17] https://reformjudaism.org/learning/answers-jewish-questions/why-do-some-people-include-orange-seder-plate


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