The Orange on the Seder Plate

As researched by my Rabbi

In the early 1980s while speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel, a well known feminist scholar, was introduced to an early feminist haggadah [the book containing the story of Passover] that suggested adding a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians. Heschel felt that to put bread on the Seder plate would be to except that Jewish lesbians and gays violate Judaism like hametz [foods forbidden during the holiday] violates Passover.

So at her next Seder she chose an orange as the symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. Each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out--a gesture of spitting out the homophobia of Judaism. She writes:

"Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred. My idea of an orange and and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men was transformed. Now the story circulates that a man said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah [where the leader of Jewish services stands to lead the congregation in prayer] as an orange on the Seder plate. A woman's words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of of lesbians and gay men is erased. Isn't that precisely what's happened over the centuries to woman's ideas?"

Happy Passover everyone!