2023 Ocean Grove seder table. Eileen Goldfinger goes all out even if there are just a few of us this year. 4/5/23. Blogfinger photo. The matzoh is hand made in Israel just for this event. In the background you can see our collection of 3 reclining ladies. (At Passover you are commanded to recline and eat–tough to do and a recipe for GERD.)
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net
I doubt that we are the first Grovers to have a seder in town, going back to 2002, but maybe we were one of the first. When we bought a weekend home here in 1998, I met Joseph Krimko, then the Jewish mayor of Neptune. “Joe” had been an OG cop, and he was a homeowner in the Grove.
I asked him if there were any other Jews in the Grove. He paused and then said, “Well maybe we could arrange a minion.” That would be 10 men for a service. Some years passed, and quite a few “members of the tribe” moved here, and that continues to be the case with our recent influx of New Yorkers.
In 2011 we wrote about a Grover who actually wrote a Haggadah. Here is a link:
Eileen’s large family seders in Chester were beloved by those who attended, but now, thanks to the American diaspora and generation turnover, we are currently down to 3 for this year’s seder. But Eileen always sets a beautiful table and she makes most of the special food items by hand. We’re trying to be good with our diet, so for the first time the menu doesn’t include the traditional pot roast, but I think she will make that again for another holiday. We also skipped dessert this time.
Some traditional foods remain including chicken soup with matzoh balls, chopped chicken liver, sweet wine, and gefilte fish with horse radish (definitely an acquired taste.) We are not supposed to eat leavened bead—thus matzoh. Our ancestors ate matzohs for 40 years in the dessert. Can. you imagine a burger on two pieces of matzoh?
Traditions provide glue for Jewish history. Just ask Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof. Below is the New Broadway Cast Recording
Eileen,
Rabbi Blass would smile.