Passover’s popularity largely due to its fun, participatory nature

NEW YORK -- Rachel Chernick often feels alienated in synagogue, but she is a big fan of Passover seders with her extended family.

"I have a very positive Jewish feeling when I celebrate Jewish rituals with my family. I particularly love Passover because it's such a do-it-yourself holiday," said Chernick, 35, a social worker in Brooklyn.

"You don't need a rabbi to guide you through the Haggadah. You set your own tone. You can do as much or as little of it as you want."

Many American Jews seem to share Chernick's special fondness for Passover. Demographic studies consistently show that Passover -- closely followed by Chanukah -- is the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday in the United States.

While fewer than half of American Jews are synagogue members or light Shabbat candles, 86 percent of households in which all family members were Jewish and 62 percent of interfaith households participate in Passover seders, according to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey.

So why is this holiday different from all other Jewish holidays?

"By definition it's a participatory event, not an audience experience," said Rabbi Joy Levitt, co-author of "A Night of Questions," the Reconstructionist movement's Haggadah.

Dru Greenwood, director of outreach and synagogue affiliation at the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said Passover is "celebrated in the home and everyone can do it," even if they're not affiliated with a synagogue.

Kerry Olitzky, executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute and author of "Preparing Your Heart For Passover," said Passover is accessible to interfaith and unaffiliated families because "there are no institutional barriers."

"Unlike most aspects of Jewish life, the rituals are clearly explained while we are doing them," he said.

Levitt, also the associate executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, noted that Passover's message of liberation is an accessible one, yet open to a range of interpretations and traditions.

"You can see on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. There are not only haggadot like ours, but Yiddish folk ones, women's, all the denominational haggadot, freedom and vegetarian ones. The structure just lends itself to a very, very creative and dynamic way into the tradition."

Many Jews -- and non-Jews -- find the Passover story particularly applicable to modern life.

"Everyone has been enslaved in one way or another, and everyone has somewhat miraculously been taken out," Greenwood said.

Amy Tobin, artistic director of the Hub, a cultural center for people in their 20s and 30s at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, said, "We see oppressed people today and slavery was a reality in our country not that long ago.

"The ideas in Passover are not very remote. People can relate to them."

For Susan Berrin, editor of Sh'ma, a monthly Jewish journal, Passover has a lot of educational potential.

"There's a possibility to use the seder as a teaching experience but in a really fun and creative way," she said.

Berrin livens up her family's seders by having each guest "take a different section of the Haggadah and do something creative with it."

Last year her brother-in-law and his partner staged a phony news broadcast with some of the children at the seder, reporting on the 10 plagues.

Berrin and her youngest daughter put together a Jeopardy-style game with questions about the tradition of eating matzah.

Passover can also be a springboard for broader discussions about social justice, Tobin said.

"For me, my greatest connection to Passover is it's great that we're free -- but a lot of people still aren't. I don't feel like we can completely recline and celebrate because some people are still suffering around us."

For those concerned with social issues, another perk of Passover is that it is relatively immune from commercialism.

"It's refreshing to have a holiday not based on gifts, not based on buying anything, not based on dressing up to go to shul," Chernick said. "It's about eating dinner and reading from a book."