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Reinventing the Passover Seder

Seder2015 is updating an ancient tradition for the digital generation

by
Stephanie Butnick
March 14, 2015
(Photoillustration Tablet Magazine)
(Photoillustration Tablet Magazine)

This year, a group of Jews has set out to change the way we think about Passover, specifically the seder. Seder2015, which launched online today, is the brainchild of Michael Hebb. the founder of Deathoverdinner.org and Drugsoverdinner.org, projects which prompt (and equip) dinner party guests to tackle difficult subject matter. Hebb teamed up with web designers and University of Washington professors to create what he describes as a “comprehensive digital platform to revitalize the Passover experience.” You can check it out here.

“I have spent the last 20 years creating dinner salons based on important global issues and the seder has always been the primary inspiration,” Hebb explains. “After the remarkable success of Deathoverdinner.org, which proved to us that a digital “product” can inspire transformational human gatherings, we decided it was time to help reframe Passover for the digital generation.”

The Seder2015 website will feature Passover playlists, redesigned Haggadot, modern Jewish recipes, and guides to hosting a 21st-century seder, all offered in partnership with various Jewish organizations. In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing audio anecdotes in concert with Seder2015, featuring everything from a story about a Bronx bubbe meeting Elijah to a rabbi’s explanation of the irony of “Dayenu.”

You can learn more about Seder2015 here.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.