Rapper Kosha Dillz has long impressed with his freestyle rapping skills.
Last week, he applied those same inventive abilities to organizing an unusual ritual-filled event: a Passover seder held on a New York City subway car.
The rolling seder—which started in Manhattan at Union Square and wrapped somewhere in the Bronx—featured Dillz, born Rami Matan Even-Esh, gathering nearly 100 participants for what he later called on Instagram the “third ever @subwayseders.” Partnering with the advocacy campaign Stand Up to Jewish Hate, Dillz set out to create “the most inclusive Seder of all time.”
He might’ve just succeeded. The April 1 pop-up, coinciding with the first night of Passover, drew notable attendees including Princess Superstar, a Jewish rapper, singer and DJ; New York City-based Rabbi Arielle Stein; and Yiddish singer Riki Rose.
Among the other seder-goers was a man who described himself as a “Dominican Jew,” which underscored the eclectic mix of identities drawn to the event. Additionally, there were longtime New Yorkers, curious tourists and commuters who had boarded expecting a routine ride and instead found themselves in the middle of an ancient Jewish ritual.
It was part flash mob, part street performance. Strangers became participants as the seder unfolded in abbreviated but recognizable form. There were tiny cups of grape juice passed carefully between riders, sheets of matzah cracked and shared and even containers of matzah ball soup sourced from Katz’s Delicatessen—a nod to old-world tradition in a contemporary setting.
At one point, Dillz, dressed in a backwards cap and a long tunic that Moses might’ve worn, shepherded his flock in a call-and-response chant that could’ve easily been happening inside a hip-hop club.
“When I say ‘subway,’ you say ‘seder!’”
“Subway!”
“Seder!”
“Subway!”
“Seder!”
Yes, this was a subway car—the six train, to be precise. At one point, a young participant stood and recited the Four Questions before others joined in. Passengers sang “Dayenu” in bursts, with Rose accompanying the group on acoustic guitar.
Dillz later posted video from the seder to his Instagram account, where it quickly gained traction, racking up nearly 2,000 likes as of press time. The footage captures a cross-section of the city—diverse, animated, chaotic—united for a moment in shared storytelling.
In a phone interview, Dillz was asked if he was granted city permission for the event. “Nope,” he said, “always just do it,” a mindset that explains his rare ability to get on the mic in public places and rap for strangers.
The idea for the subway seder was inspired by the “10 Minute Seder,” an abbreviated Haggadah created by Los Angeles-based Rabbi Yonah Bookstein. Originally designed for music festivals, where Bookstein incorporated it into “Shabbat Tent” programming that offered Jewish attendees a way to mark the holiday in unconventional environments, the rapid seder found new usage during pandemic-era Zoom seders.
The streamlined format distills the essentials: the symbolism of the seder plate, the blessings over the four cups, the Four Questions, the Four Children, the ten plagues and the central obligations of Passover—matzah, maror and the retelling of the Exodus story.
For Dillz, the subway was simply the next frontier.
Given the current charged climate of increasing antisemitism, the first year of the subway seder was met by a few commuters who responded to the highly visible event with chants of “Free Palestine.” The past two years, however, have gone off without incident, the rapper said.
The subway is not the first unusual environment that Dillz has transformed into a home for a seder. Years ago, when based in Los Angeles, he ventured out to the desert and hosted seders at the Coachella Music Festival, whenever the high-profile event overlapped with Pesach. Bringing together Jewish festivalgoers, he dubbed the program “Matzahchella.”
Now that Dillz is based in New York, he’s had to find a new home and creative expression for his freestyling abilities, passion for community and love of Judaism.
The subway seder was born.
