On Decorating For Rosh Hashanah

     Page One Hundred Twenty-Two.
     Right now I'm sitting at my dining room table, writing this blog. Besides my computer, the other things on the table are many decorations for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is in a few weeks. The reason they're here is because I'll be using them in a couple days to decorate one window at the beauty salon which I manage. Decorating a window for Rosh Hashanah is mostly no big deal. But if you remember from a couple blogs ago (page #119) the salon is almost exclusively African-American. However, here's the thing: my boss, Alma, knew what she was getting herself into when she asked me to be the manager. She knew that my world view is a bit odd, overly embracing and quite rebellious.
     Last spring I decorated one window for the Jewish holiday of Purim and I decorated another one for St. Patrick's Day. Of all things, I didn't do one for Easter because one of our two windows was broken at the time and the other window was set with something that Alma and I both liked, though I don't now remember what it was. (Also, that was the week that I was hosting the Passover Seder at the church, and was cooking for 260 people. So, I took the entire week off from the salon anyhow.) Alma, the beauty salon and I are all in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, an unusually ecumenical and integrated community. If I can't get away with decorating a black beauty salon for all the Jewish holidays in this city, I can't do it anywhere. And I want to.
     It doesn't go unnoticed either. Last spring while the windows had their St. Pat's theme, some drunken bar hopping patrons who were staggering by, were overheard to say "why do those ni****s have their salon decorated for St. Patrick's Day?" (The salon is on a street heavily occupied by popular restaurants and bars.) But also, earlier this summer, I received word that my windows had been nominated for the best decorated windows in Cleveland Heights. So there you go.
     Actually the salon clients love it. Alma is a devout Christian as are many of her clients. They love the fact that I embrace and then talk about my Jewishness because Jesus was Jewish. So they're fascinated by our holidays. As far as I'm concerned, anything which keeps my creativity popping is good. And doing those windows for various holidays, Jewish and otherwise, definitely pops my creativity.

A Community Passover Seder At A Church?

     Page Fifty-Five.
     I'm getting this blog up late. Please forgive me, I've been tired lately. A couple of nights ago I had 260 people for dinner and it wore me out, but I'm feeling better now, so here we go. I'm sure that whenever you have 260 people for dinner it tires you a touch. How do you handle it? I'll take suggestions. The fact is, I got in over my head a bit.
     I'm very friendly with the senior minister of one of our very large churches here in Cleveland Heights, Church of the Saviour. This church is United Methodist and it's a very grand, beautiful, 1920's, French Gothic cathedral. They added an addition in 2007, so it really is massive now. It's a large, thriving congregation with five different services every Sunday. Probably a couple thousand people are members as 500-600 show up regularly each Sunday.
     About ten years ago I began conducting "community Passover Seders" at a church on Cleveland's West Side and I did that for three years in a row. My Seders were instructional and with all the food. (The "Seder" is the ceremonial dinner and formal retelling of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. The Seder takes place on the first two nights of Passover.) So in essence, my community Seders were a complete meal with a "Passover 101" lecture before, during and after eating. They were well received but not large. The first one was maybe 70 people with each of the following two under 50. I've been in the mood to do a Seder again during the last couple of years and the timing must've been right 'cause I approached my friend, Church of the Saviour's senior minister, a few months ago about doing one at his place and he was all for it.
     I just wasn't expecting 260 people to show up. Thankfully, the church has many wonderful volunteers and they even got a volunteer coordinator to oversee everything. There are also two fantastic kitchens, each one worthy of being in a white tablecloth restaurant. But everyday the office manager told me that the RSVP list had grown exponentially overnight. It was crazy. So there I am, trying to write a Haggadah (the booklet with the story of Passover) so that it's accessible to Christians, while planning an elaborate meal, while planning my oral presentation.
     It goes without saying that the reason Christians want to attend a Seder is that it was Jesus' last meal, but there, I said it anyhow. That link is a very valuable and vital association between the two religions; it's a relationship which cannot be overstated. Also, everybody has seen Charlton Heston and The Ten Commandments so everybody is sort of familiar with the story. Subsequently, many Christians want to experience a Passover Seder in real life. I'm glad to do it. The more people know about different religions, cultures and races, the more people are exposed to others who think or act differently, then the less people will exhibit bigotry, fear and hatred. This isn't rocket science.
     So... anyhow, I've been tired the last few days. But I am slowly feeling stronger. But, I think that the next time I have 260 people for dinner I'm going to get McDonald's.