Who: Alex Edelman, Judy Gold, Peter Yarrow, David Broza, Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., AC Lincoln, Terrance Floyd, Brad Lander, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, Laurie Anderson, Steven Bernstein, Jared Freed, Richard Kind, Nicki Richards, more
What: Downtown Seder 2024
Where: City Winery, 25 Eleventh Ave. at Fifteenth St.
When: Wednesday, April 17, $75-$180 (livestream free), 7:00
Why: For more than three decades, Michael Dorf has been hosting all-star seders to celebrate Passover, concentrating on freedom and justice. The latest iteration takes place on Wednesday, April 17, at City Winery, which Dorf opened on Varick St. in 2008 and moved to Hudson River Park’s Pier 57 in 2020. Attendees will be treated to a plant-based meal with four glasses of wine as they go through the Haggadah, the illustrated text that tells the story of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt. This year’s participants include multidisciplinary artist Laurie Anderson, musicians David Broza, AC Lincoln, Peter Yarrow, Steven Bernstein, and Nicki Richards, comedians Alex Edelman, Jared Freed, and Judy Gold, activist and author Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., activist Terrance Floyd, NYC comptroller Brad Lander, Rabbis Amichai Lau-Lavie and Tamar Manasseh, and actor extraordinaire Richard Kind. The setlist is likely to include “The Four Questions,” “Dayenu,” “Chad Gadya,” “Go Down Moses,” and “The Ten Plagues.” If you can’t make it to City Winery on April 17, you can follow the livestream for free here.
“Every year has local and international issues which resonate with the Passover story, and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict — which has historical connections — could not make this year’s seder conversations any more intense,” Dorf writes on the event website. “However, as José Andrés eloquently stated in his recent NYT op-ed, ‘Let People Eat,’ we all share a culture that values food as a powerful statement of humanity and hospitality — of our shared hope for a better tomorrow. City Winery’s seder takes these ancient symbols of life and hope and transcends the normal script using art, music, and humor to bring back some joy while inspiring and feeding our soul.”
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]