conservadox

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Oct 2 22:22:13 PDT 1999


On Sat, 2 Oct 1999, Doug Henwood wrote:


> This afternoon I overheard someone described as a "conservadox" Jew.

Just for comic relief, here's an article by Fran Lebowitz that was published in the midst of a flurry of articles about just how alternative seders had gotten -- seders to save Tibet, seders where everyone read from a different haggadah, lesbian feminist seders, etc. This was a pretty funny antidote. The orange, BTW, is a conservadox innovation.

April 10, 1998

Fran Lebowitz Gives Her Slant on Seders

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Related Article

'90s Seders Feature Cultural and Culinary Diversity

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T o learn more about the latest seder trends, The New York Times

called upon Fran Lebowitz, the New York writer and popular party

guest.

Q. It's a contradiction in terms, but what modern traditions are

people introducing to their seders this year?

A. I have no idea. I've gone to the same family seder for 47 years

and I still haven't gotten seated at the adult table yet. My little

cousins have to fight me for the Afikomen.

Q. Interesting new dishes?

A. No. It's entirely possible that in the early fifties, a very

large brisket was delivered to our family and we're still eating

it. We not only have the same food, we have the same conversation.

I don't go anywhere else for holidays but to my family. I went to

London for one holiday when I was in my 20s, and now it's mentioned

at Passover as a plague -- 'The Year Fran Went to London.' That's

the one between locusts and blood.

Q. So you've never heard of the new symbols, like the orange on the

seder plate?

A. What's that supposed to stand for -- Florida?

Q. So nothing changes in your family seder?

A. My cousins in Israel have different melodies -- the wrong ones.

They're the cheerier Jews. All Jewish melodies should be in a

mournful key. I mean, if you're going to be cheerful, you might as

well be Episcopalian.

Q. Do you ever have non-Jews at your seder?

A. Sometimes, but I don't like it because then the seder takes too

long. Everyone feels they have to explain.

Q. So there is nothing liberating for you about the seder?

A. How freeing can it be to have to get to Poughkeepsie by 6 p.m.?

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com



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