KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Four glasses of wine or grape juice are required in the Jewish Passover meal, or Seder. Among the Jewish military personnel attending Wednesday's Seder at the Hale Koa Hotel were, from front left, Winnie Walmsley and Ya'el Oren; and from back left, Ken Aronowitz and wife Hinda Diamond, Troy Olshansky and wife Orit, and Troy's parents, Shane and Myra Olshansky.

Some 130 servicemen and women,
their families and military retirees
observe the tradition at the Hale Koa

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By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com

When 10-year-old Megan Wasserman asked the question that defines the celebration of Passover: "Why is this night different from all others?" it led everyone to remember when they were the youngest kid at the table and it was their turn to ask.

Some 130 military men and women from all branches of the service, their families and military retirees gathered at the Hale Koa Hotel on Wednesday for the Seder meal, sponsored by the Aloha Jewish Chapel of Pearl Harbor.

The tradition is to gather with family for the ritual meal that begins the eight-day holiday celebrating the deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt 3,000 years ago and their spiritual freedom, as well. Most of those gathered weren't related by family ties, but by a shared vocation.

Each item of food on the platter, each ritual, each song and each reading telling the story from Exodus was familiar to the participants whatever their hometown. Seder means "order" and the crowd followed along in the "Haggadah," the script for marking God's deliverance. God sent 10 plagues upon the Egyptians but told the Hebrews "I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you" -- thus the name of the holiday.

KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Jeffrey Cohen, 7, and sister Rachel Cohen, 10, ate special sandwiches during Wednesday's Jewish Passover meal at the Hale Koa Hotel.

Each Seder is familiar, yet different:

>> Drinking four glasses of wine has been prescribed ritual for centuries, but master of ceremonies Daniel Bender, a Reform Jewish educator, told the 21st Century crowd "If you're going to drink four glasses, be sure you have a designated driver." There was kosher grape juice as an alternative.

>> Cantor Ken Aronowitz, accompanying himself on an electronic keyboard, added a spiritual to the traditional Hebrew and Yiddish repertoire. "Let My People Go" got more group participation than any other song.

>> A special "prayer for a country at war" also roused a strong chorus: "Send your power from on high. May your right safeguard them. Return them to their lands, to their homes, and to their loved ones, rejoicing in the knowledge that tyranny has been removed and that doers of evil no longer hold sway." The contemporary composition by Rabbi David Gelfand said, "May it also be your will to protect our armies and all people from all manner of chemical, biological and nuclear warfare."

>> Marilyn Landis gestured to embrace the ballroom crowd, saying, "look at this ethnic mix! There's lots of mixed marriages, some converted Jews. At Aloha Chapel, you wouldn't know it's a synagogue by the faces in the group."

Landis and others at her table took turns holding 7-month-old Benjamin Doniger, at his first Seder although his parents, both in the Navy, are away -- father Michael on deployment and mother Luan on leave to visit him.

>> "Team Kosher" including Bender, Landis, Megan and her parents, gave the Hale Koa kitchen the same ritual cleansing as a Jewish family would do at home. Cooking pots and utensils were dipped in boiling water and all leavened products were removed.

>> Besides the ritual sampling of prescribed foods, that night's feast was a turkey dinner.

There's matzah in everyone's diet for the eight days, but the best bit of the unleavened bread is the "afikomen," which was wrapped in a napkin and hidden at the beginning. The youngsters search for it at the end of the evening and the winner gets a prize. "It can be anything," said Hinda Diamond, "One year I got a guinea pig. It's a way to keep the kids interested. A lot of Jewish tradition has something for kids."

KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Maj. Valerie Bertha and her daughter Naomi, 2, showed some of the dishes at Wednesday's Jewish Passover meal at the Hale Koa Hotel.

Navy Capt. Kevin Berry, a medical officer at Tripler Medical Center, said the story of the Hebrews setting forth into the desert for freedom had special meaning at his 1991 Seder meal. While serving in the Persian Gulf War "About 30 of us reclined in a tent in Saudi Arabia, carefully low key, not to offend the sensibilities of our hosts," he said. A Jewish agency flew in kosher food for Jewish troops.

"Here we were in a remote, unmarked desert, not that far from the Euphrates River ... it was a special Seder."

Orit Olshansky, who was born in Israel, remembered, "my great-grandma made gefilte fish from scratch. She saved the head and ate it for good luck."

She was surrounded by her new family. She and Army Capt. Victor Olshansky, of the 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Division, were married in September. They were joined by his parents Shane and Myra Olshansky of Philadelphia.

"It's a blessing to invite outsiders to your Seder," said Myra Olshansky, and their family table was usually surrounded by friends and co-workers. A special memory was their Passover celebration in 1980 when they hosted a family of recent Russian Jewish immigrants. "It was their first Seder ever because in Russia they couldn't observe their faith."

It was the third Hawaii Seder for Army Sgt. Troy Copple, of the 121st Infantry, and his wife Jolene, who brought their two young children. "There's lots of people here we see at services, so it is like being with family."

Seder food and symbolism >> Matzah: unleavened bread, the quick escape from Egypt gave no time to let bread rise. As "the bread of affliction," a reminder of the simple food of slaves. >> Maror: horseradish, the bitterness of slavery. >> Betzah: roasted egg, the continuing cycle of life. >> Karpas: parsley, spring and rebirth of the earth. >> MeiMelach: salt water, tears shed by the slaves. >> Z'roah: roasted shankbone, the original Passover sacrifice was lambs whose blood was smeared on Hebrew doorposts. >> Charoset: chopped apple, nuts and wine, mortar used in bricks in Egypt, the sweetness of freedom. >> Arba Kosot: four cups of wine or juice represents God's four promises of redemption.

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