Seder diplomacy

April 14, 2011 - Four hundred diplomats and guests aren’t 600,000 Jews, the Pike isn’t the Red Sea, and a looming federal shutdown isn’t slavery, but moving the American Jewish Committee’s 12th annual Diplomats Seder two days before the event was itself a small miracle.

“Rahm Emmanuel said never waste a crisis, and we didn’t,” said Rob Leikind, executive director of AJC Boston.

The seder was originally scheduled to take place at the JFK Presidential Library. However, when congressional budget talks appeared headed toward an impasse last Friday, the event was moved to the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy. Still, come Sunday, everything went off without a hitch.

“This just goes to show how our community can come together,” Leikind said.

Fittingly enough, the evening’s theme was journeys – both ancient and modern. The seder featured speakers who had escaped Egypt and Iran, as well as written testimonies from women who fled persecution in Afghanistan and Rwanda.

Among the guests were consul generals from a dozen countries, including Israel, Germany, Japan and Turkey; honorary consuls from such countries as Pakistan, Guatemala and Finland; and leaders from AIPAC, J Street, the American Islamic Congress and the American Indian Forum (a Native American group).

The event provides an opportunity for diplomats to schmooze and network – while learning more about Jewish culture. “The seder is a chance to introduce the diplomats with whom we engage on a political level to the religious and moral traditions that shape our activism,” Leikind said.

Sunday’s seder was the first for several diplomats, including Giuseppe Pastorelli, the Italian consul general. Pastorelli said he was especially taken with the symbolism of the seder traditions, of the herbs and water and the 10 drops of wine for the 10 plagues.

“I believe that keeping tradition is very important, and it’s important to share our traditions,” Pastorelli said. “It’s only through common knowledge can we better understand each other and avoid misunderstandings.”

Michael Lonergan, the Irish consul general, said that even though this was his first seder, he recognized some of the traditions.

“Some of our Easter traditions are not hugely different. It reminds us all that despite all of the historic religious differences, there is a lot of common ground.”

The diplomats participated in the seder, giving readings and reciting prayers. The consuls general from Japan, Israel, Italy and Brazil each read one of the four questions in their own language.

Before asking why this night was different from all other nights, Takeshi Hikihara, the Japanese consul, thanked his fellow diplomats and community members for their support following the earthquake. Shai Bazak, the Israeli consul general asked the second question in Hebrew. “That was easy,” he joked.

The abbreviated seder was led by Rabbi Ronne Friedman and Cantor Roy Einhorn, both from Temple Israel in Boston. Temple Israel hosted the first diplomats seder in 1999. Friedman and Einhorn led the guests through the major prayers and songs, including

“Dayenu” and “Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu (Peace Will Come Upon Us.)”

In the evening’s haggadah, between “Go Down Moses” and the remembrance of the 10 plagues, were two stories of exodus. One was about Masuda Mohammad Yusuf, who escaped from Afghanistan after she and her family were targeted by the Taliban. Yusuf and her two daughters lived in Russia – where they also faced persecution – before arriving in Boston as refugees. But America was not the Promised Land she imagined. She and her daughter lived in homeless shelters for two years before moving into public housing with the help of the Jewish Vocational Services.

One speaker, Iranian poet [K],* told of being imprisoned and tortured before escaping Iran during the 1978 revolution. [K] tied his story to the uprisings in the Middle East today and to the Exodus millennia ago. “People are fighting for the same values, for the same freedoms,” he said.

[K] added that he hoped the Arab journey from oppression to freedom will be much shorter than it was for the Israelites.

“We are going to cross the desert much faster,” he said. “It won’t take 40 years.”

*Out concern for the security of [K] and his family, his name has been removed.