The Bay Area has a reputation for a culture of eccentricity, and it’s no surprise that this spirit extends to the Jewish community and its celebrations.
As Passover approaches, J.’s annual list of public seders grows longer and longer. This year we couldn’t help but notice a few, let’s say, nontraditional events for those seeking an outside-the-box experience this Pesach. Luckily for us all, there is a seat at a table somewhere for everyone, whether you’re a yogi, a Deadhead or something in between.
For practitioners of yoga, the Integral Yoga Institute’s Passover Seder won’t be a stretch. Led by yoga and meditation teacher Jackie Barshak and Integral Yoga Institute executive director Swami Ramananda, this community seder takes a unique approach by exploring the Passover story through a yogic lens.
Barshak is Jewish and spent time in Israel in the 1980s as part of the Transcendental Meditation movement. She said she created this event for anyone, regardless of their connections to Judaism, who is interested in the message of Passover and what the ritual retelling of the story inspires in them. The San Francisco-based Integral Yoga Institute is a nonprofit that welcomes people of all backgrounds and faiths for classes, workshops and events.
“There are some parallels between Passover and the yogic scriptures that we study, the ancient texts from which the yoga practices, as we know it in the West, have derived from,” Barshak said. “Those parallel ways of thinking are what I draw on for the readings for the haggadah during the Passover seder.”
Attendees at this seder on Saturday evening, April 20, can expect to taste the ritual Passover foods (though not a full meal), participate in the telling of the Exodus story as it connects to the eight limbs, or facets, of yoga and meditate on themes of resistance and liberation through chanting. The seder will not touch on politics or discuss Israel.
“We’re not Zionist, non-Zionist or anti-Zionist, and we’re not bringing current day politics or ideologies into this,” she said. “We’re talking about Passover being a metaphor for liberation, both external liberation and, most of all, internal liberation.”
If yoga isn’t your thing, perhaps the Let My People Pho! Vegan Passover Shabbat Dinner Experience will work for you. It’s organized by Value Culture, a nonprofit with a Jewish bent known for throwing big, over-the-top parties and social events that merge culture, spirituality, heritage and philanthropy.
The unconventional Passover celebration will offer a vegan and gluten-free meal at French-Vietnamese restaurant Le Colonial in San Francisco on Friday evening, April 26. Executive chef Geoffrey Deetz will create a plant-based menu featuring Vietnamese-inspired dishes such as fresh rolls and mushroom phở, a brothy soup dish with rice noodles.
We’re not bringing current day politics or ideologies into this. We’re talking about Passover being a metaphor for liberation.
Let My People Pho! is part of SF Climate Week, a series of events designed to encourage people to exchange ideas about solutions to climate change.
“This is not a traditional seder, but a fun Passover Shabbat celebration,” said Value Culture executive director and founder Adam Swig. “Veganism and a veggie diet is a great way to combat climate change.”
For fans of the Grateful Dead, The Deadhead Seder: Steal the Yeast Right Off Your Bread is a one-of-a-kind psychedelic rock Passover celebration that has morphed into an annual tradition. In addition to a full-course dinner and haggadah reading, there will be an acoustic concert followed by electric music and dancing featuring Jewish jam bands.
The seder itself merges the traditions of Passover with the culture of the Dead, with many references to the iconic Bay Area band’s extensive repertoire and lore. The event, now in its 11th year, was started by Grateful Dead member Phil Lesh at his San Rafael restaurant Terrapin Crossroads. Lesh closed Terrapin Crossroads in 2021, but the seder rocks on. It’s set for Sunday afternoon, April 28, at the Golden Gate Bistro in Richmond.
The seder is led by Jewish educator and Deadhead Wendy Garf-Lipp, who flies in from Massachusetts every year, along with local spiritual leaders who in the past have included Rabbi Shalom Bochner of B’nai Israel Jewish Center in Petaluma and Cantor Jeannette Ferber of Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley.
Every year the haggadah evolves, Garf-Lipp said. This year there will be several new songs, including “The Plagues,” which is a parody of “The Weight,” and a version of “Chad Gadya” performed to the tune of Jewish folk singer Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.”
“One of the things that we try to do with the seder is have it represent the connection between this rock and roll Grateful Dead community and our Jewish connections,” Garf-Lipp said. “It gives us an opportunity to take the mundane and make it spiritual, and to give meaning to a variety of different things that we surround ourselves with.”
If your idea of good Jewish music is a little less “Hell in a Bucket” and a little more “Hava Nagila,” perhaps Vegan Passover: Klezmer, Matzah and More on Sunday evening, April 28, is the seder for you.
It’s hosted by Philip Gelb, an Oakland chef and musician who has been operating what he calls an “underground vegan restaurant and house concert” in his loft once a week for 20 years.
“It’s basically an anarchist approach of organization from the ground up,” Gelb said. “It’s not about having corporate sponsors or corporate space. Everything is done by ourselves, so it’s very community focused.”
Attendees can expect to sit intimately at a 12-person communal table in the center of Gelb’s loft, where they will dine on a four-course Japanese- and Ashkenazi-inspired vegan meal and listen to a live concert by Baymele, a klezmer folk trio. There will be prayers and some traditional Passover songs, but no haggadah reading or formal structure to the evening.
“We’re going to let the musicians lead that if they want to,” said Gelb. “And a lot of it’s going to depend on who shows up and what they want — if people want to sing or say a prayer, that’s more than welcome.”
The menu includes homemade matzah; a plant-based seder plate; Eastern European-style cabbage soup; collard rolls stuffed with beans, mushrooms and walnuts; beets with horseradish; homemade pickles; and cherry cashew ice cream topped with strawberry sauce, maple pecans and caramelized bananas. Everything will be made from scratch by Gelb, who cooks during the event.
“It’s very easy to ask questions, to talk and have interaction between the musicians, the performers and with me,” he said. “The kitchen is in the same room as the dining room, so we really break down all those barriers. Most places when you go to a restaurant, you never see a kitchen, you never get to meet the chef or any of the cooks. So with this, it’s like everything is broken down and one little space where everybody is right next to each other.”