MATZO IN SAN TELMO

Happy Passover! Chag Sameach! Happy Easter! Buona Pasqua! Qué pases buena pascua!

Uncanny resemblance to the Republic of Argentina

I am thrilled to spend tonight's first seder here in Providence with the family of my dear friend and colleague Edna. Tomorrow night...back to Western Mass for a second seder/Easter Sunday double-header. Labo-Wohl Family, remember those years of shuttling between Kutcher's and Plainview, NY, in the same weekend? Matzo one night, Italian-style Easter bread basket the next. Hyphenated ethnic identities can be complicated, ya know? And yummy.

Last year was a bit simpler. I celebrated Pesach only in the home of an Australian gentile friend surrounded by an Argentine, vegetarian U.S. ex-pats, and some very familiar faces from home. We might have been in Buenos Aires, but the Haggadah was the same (outdated) text translation from my childhood. Too funny!

Fun Fact: Buenos Aires has the 10th largest Jewish population in the world after Tel Aviv, New York, Haifa, Jerusalem, South Florida (ok, not a city), Paris, Philadelphia, and Chicago, in that order. Clearly, it's the largest in Latin America. Several porteños tried to tell me it was third largest Jewish city after New York and Paris, but wikipedia.org begs to differ. (Classic example of the self-aggrandization so common in B.A. I write that with total love and a smile.)
Plus, up to 60% of Argentina's population is of Italian descent. No wonder I felt so at home here!

Demián and Leslie handling some bread of affliction

Matzo ball soup!

Alex came all the way from New Jersey to prepare a seder for her brother Sam and his friends. Aw! Thanks, Frommers.

How Hayley enchanted Marty. He did all the dishes that night.

Love these folks

18 April 2011