Israelis build new traditions at L.A. seders

Nitzan and Shaul Barakan

Nitzan and Shaul Barakan had to come all the way from Israel to the United States to learn words like “afikoman” and “seder plate.”

The couple, both born and raised on Kibbutz Kinneret, didn’t have a clue that there is a haggadah that looks nothing like the one they used on the kibbutz.

“We had huge Passover seders every single year, with 1,000 participants in the kibbutz dinning hall” recalled Nitzan, a Hebrew teacher. “Every class performed a song, but those were not necessarily the songs from the haggadah, but spring songs. Even the songs from the original haggadah had a different melody. This holiday was all about nature, the beginning of spring and little to do with religion.”

The kibbutz, Nitzan admitted, never had much to do with religion. They were careful not to place a loaf of bread on the seder table, but bread was part of every meal in the days to follow.

It’s funny, they say, that they discovered their Jewish roots only after emigrating, but over the years, for the sake of their children and friends who came to their home to celebrate Passover, they have combined materials from the kibbutz haggadah with more traditional ones and created their own family version.

“We don’t have the traditional blessings, we created our own,” she said. “Our seder today is much more traditional than the one we had in our youth. We have the seder plate, and when the children were younger, we used to hide the afikoman.”

Another new discovery was the Elijah cup that is left on the table for the prophet.

“We decided to adopt this custom as well,” Nitzan said, “but instead of leaving the cup of wine and chair for Elijah, we leave it for our kidnapped soldier, Ron Arad, in the hope that one day soon, he’ll come back home.”

Shirly Brener

” border = 0 vspace = ‘8’ align = ‘right’ hspace = ‘8’ alt=””>non- Jewish friends that we invite to the seder, so they can learn about our tradition” said Nazarian, founder of CECI (Citizen Empowerment Center in Israel).

In Iran, the family often invited guests who didn’t have anywhere to celebrate the seder. Here, the Nazarian family keeps up tradition and will celebrate both nights of Passover with dozens of guests.

A well-loved Iranian tradition at the Nazarians’ house comes when they get to the part of “Dayenu” in the haggadah.