A recent model seder at Congregation Sinai didn’t just include the Four Questions and a rousing chorus of the Passover hymn “Dayenu” complete with open-handed drumming on the tabletops.
It also included Spanish/English translators, a first-hand account of detention by Immigration and Customs officials and a singing of the classic Cuban song “Guantanamera.”
About 80 people attended this “Interfaith Immigrant Seder” on April 12, the day after the last day of Passover.
It was held in partnership with the New Sanctuary Movement of Voces de la Frontera, Miklat: A Jewish Response to Displacement, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Attendees were asked to bring something from their own immigration experience to share — a photo, a story or other artifact. Sinai congregant Edith Gilman brought a picture and a story about how “My own family had trouble immigrating to this country.”
The photo was of her mother and siblings as children, wearing clothing sewn from scraps of material their mother had saved up from her job in the garment district.
The story was of her aunt, Bessie, who failed the medical exam at Ellis Island. Because of an earache, Gilman said, Bessie wasn’t allowed to enter the country. The family had to make a choice about whether to return to Europe together or send the girl back alone.
“They sent her back in the company of a woman they met in steerage. She spent a year in England, then came over later,” Gilman said. “She never talked about it. My aunt Yetti told (me) the story.”
“We share a history [and] a story,” said Gilman, “and I’m very concerned for the new immigrants.”
For many of the Jewish attendees, the immigrants in their families were parents and grandparents. That wasn’t the case for Mexican American Sinai member Ramona Tenorio.
She is an applied medical anthropologist who is assistant professor of clinical and translational science at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She is also involved with Voces de la Frontera.
“I love that [the seder] is bringing together my two communities,” Tenorio said. She added that her husband is a new immigrant from Mexico and that her daughter also works with Voces.
Rabbi David Cohen led the seder, with Tenorio and her daughter Celia, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, serving as interpreters into Spanish.
Said Cohen: “Most important is to remember what it was like back then to be in slavery and then be free in order to identify people today who experience slavery and help them become free.”
Cohen also cited Torah in pointing out problems with the current legal system as it applies to immigration policy.
“The Torah says that when you set up a legal system, it should be the same for residents and people who are not from there,” he said, “and the problem we have now is that it simply doesn’t work that way.”
Shana Harvey, another congregant, led the singing of “Guantanamera” and “Manana Voy Caminando” (“Tomorrow I Go Walking”), a song about immigration by The Mockingbirds, a California-based Hispanic folk band.
Chips and tortillas were served along with the traditional Passover matzah, charoset, eggs, horseradish and parsley.
Patrocino Martinez-Murquio, originally of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, gave a first-hand account of what it was like nearly to be deported from the U.S.
“I thank God for all the workers of Voces,” he told the group through an interpreter. “They have helped me and my deportation is stopped now. The movement is strong. They were very strong to stop my deportation. Now I want to be a part of that movement so I can support the others who are in [danger of] deportation.”
This event is part of a project titled “50 Years of Catholic-Jewish Relations: On the Road Together,” which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Vatican II “Nostra Aetate” (“In Our Time”) document that transformed Catholic-Jewish relations.
The endeavor is organized by Milwaukee’s Catholic-Jewish Conference, a project of the Archdiocese and the JCRC.
Amy Waldman is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer, retention alert coordinator at Milwaukee Area Technical College and winner of a Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism.
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