Orange Jews Is Good for You

Here’s a seasonal tale that even those not of Jewish heritage will appreciate:

Rabbi Andrew Sacks, director of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, has shared an e-mail from Jewish scholar Susannah Heschel, in which she explained the relatively recent tradition of placing an orange on the Seder plate. She began the tradition “as a gesture of solidarity with Jewish lesbians and gay men, and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. . . . I felt that an orange was suggestive of something else: the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out—a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism.”

Take that, Anita Bryant.

Whether you’re celebrating Passover, Easter, or simply the coming of spring, I hope you and your families are enjoying the season. (My spouse and I come from different traditions, so I’ve been pushing for a multi-denominational celebration in which we eat chocolate bunnies for eight days. Maybe I’ll fashion them some little gumdrop yarmulkes.)