ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997 TAG: 9704220043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: The Back Pew
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
This is one of the times of year when I'm a bit envious of my Jewish friends.
The ritual associated with Passover, which begins at sundown Monday, makes it one of the most moving religious experiences I know of.
Symbolically, the participants in the Seder meal tangibly connect with thousands of years of history, touching every generation back to the day their ancestors were freed from slavery in the Egyptian desert.
Every generation is taught to look on that experience of liberation as if it were happening to themselves.
It is through participation in this kind of observance - and a bit of divine intervention, many would argue - that Judaism has survived all these thousands of years.
Jews have always been only a tiny percentage of the world's population, yet throughout history "the chosen" have had to overcome the oppression that comes along with being God's favorites.
It's not been an easy history.
Passover isn't Easter
The misunderstandings continue.
The kind of virulent anti-Semitism that drove the pharaoh to enslave and then attempt to kill the fleeing Israelites is not dead.
A hatred strong enough to have spawned the Holocaust unfortunately doesn't just die in the dust left after the defeat of the Nazi regime. It festers in the hearts of a few misbegotten creatures who somehow make it survive. It is a hearty virus.
Fortunately, it is diminished, however.
The greater problem here and now may be simply getting some basic knowledge about Jews and Judaism into the dominant Christian culture.
A telling example - at the same time funny and a little sad - involved grocery stores stocking items for Passover this year.
Managers of at least one store in Roanoke and another in Blacksburg were baffled that their stocks of Passover goodies weren't moving last month.
1997 happened to be one of those years when Passover and Easter were separated by several weeks. Because the two are associated - in the minds of Christians, at least, who recall that Christ's crucifixion followed a Passover observance - those responsible for getting Passover food in the stores assumed they are observed at the same time.
Passover, in a sense, was being "Christianized."
Still seeking understanding
The grocery store isn't the only place that happens.
Unintentionally, I suspect, the TV networks have contributed to the confusion.
Every spring, Cecil B. DeMille's extravagant "The Ten Commandments" - with the decidedly non-Semitic Charlton Heston as Moses - visits our televisions. It is almost always on Easter weekend.
The idea, I suspect, is to get a biblical story on the air, but not to offend anyone. After all, Christians revere Moses almost as deeply as Jews do. He is a messianic figure. And ABC doesn't run the risk of offending anyone who doesn't worship Christ as the Son of God.
This year, of course, that meant the most famous cinematic depiction of the Passover aired on Easter weekend. No wonder some of us are confused.
Fortunately, though Heston and company had long since finished their unleavened bread, area store managers kept their Passover supplies on the shelves long enough to find out that they've got some Jewish customers who will celebrate one of the world's oldest religious observances this week.
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