Seder Stories: Passover Thoughts on Food, Family, and Freedom

Nancy Rips
Cumberland House Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9781581826432
Reviewed by Norma Freimark for Reader Views (5/08)


“Seder Stories” by Nancy Rips is a square-shaped book.  It is a great book to read and it also makes a great Passover hostess gift if you are going to a Seder.  It is filled with 101 wonderful delightful short stories about Passover, preparing for Passover, and Passover Seders on 187 pages from actors, actresses, comedians, Rabbi’s, famous Jewish people and everyday people that celebrate Passover in a variety of ways.

The stories in “Seder Stories” represent a lot of different cultures and Passover Seders celebrated around the world.  These stories were written by young, middle-aged and senior citizens. The stories include memoirs of how people celebrated Passover stories, who they celebrated Passover with, the history of the Jewish people, and a few suggestions on how to celebrate for a Passover Seder.   Some of the stories are funny, while there are stories that are very thoughtful and touching.  There are stories from Seders in the army, Seders in jail, Seders on cruises, and Seders in homes. 

The famous quote “They tried to kill us.  We won. Let’s eat.” – Anonymous, begins the book and sets the mood of the fantastic short Passover stories.  The last three pages of the book include a glossary of the Jewish terms that someone not familiar with Jewish vocabulary will find very helpful. The glossary defines common Jewish words such as bubbe:  Grandmother, afikomen:  hidden piece of matzah, and matzah balls:  balls made out matzah meal and eggs and served in chicken soup to words that might be unfamiliar words such as mazon:  charity to help people who are hungry, Pirkeh Avot: collection of Rabbinical sayings and proverbs, tovu vavohu:  disorder, chaos. The stories ranged from being, funny, touching, and sincere.

 “Seder Stories” is written for adults of all ages and interests.  As someone who has celebrated Passover for many years, I thought this book was easy to read and very enjoyable.  I could relate with many of the stories, even if they were written from someone in a difficult country or culture.  The stories represented that Passover, although celebrated around the world and is celebrated by different cultures and levels of observant Jewish people, is actually all celebrated the same—teaching the Passover story, sharing the table with Jewish people and non-Jewish people and that most people have a relative that they think special about during Passover.   Of course, everyone has a special Passover story that they would like to share and reading the stories from “Seder Stories” truly represents that.   Future publications could include asking readers from this story to send in their Passover stories.  As a reader, of “Seder Stories” I would send in my story and definitely purchase the second book.   Thank you Nancy Rips for collecting all these Passover stories.

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