We revisit a memory from an earlier Baum-Schwerin family Seder in Peabody, Massachusetts, from Doris Schwerin’s memoir Diary of a Pigeon Watcher :

In the spring, Passover was one of the high points of the year, even for my own nonbelieving family. Uncle Harris gave the first-night Seder and Uncle Sam the second-night Seder…. For those two nights of celebration, Mama and Papa would throw off their atheism and become like the rest of the family—observants. A lot of Jews together in a room for the serious observance of Joy was loud and resonant and their prayers mesmerizing in their certainty. Even Papa sung the prayers of his childhood in a strident voice, marveling each year that he remembered them…. It was a magic table at which you rocked and let yourself go with the abandonment of a clan belonging. You nibbled, chin-high to the table, on tradition, like a glutton.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story