So last year we had the bright idea of asking the campaigns what their Passover plans were — based on the history that an improvised seder in Pennsylvania in 2008 led to a White House tradition.
Maybe, we thought, we’d uncover or even precipitate the Next Great Jewish White House Thang.
We got exactly one reply: From an intern for the Newt Gingrich campaign, Adam Savader. He spoke of joining three generations of his family in New York, sharing the tradition with Christian friends who "yearn to learn more" and repealing ObamaCare. (All during the Seder?)
Anyhoo.
A year after Candidate Obama attended a campaign seder in Pennsylvania, President Obama convened the first-ever White House seder.
And a year after Savader replied … he’s under arrest and charged with cyberstalking and blackmail.
From the New York Daily News:
He preyed on women from Michigan, Washington, D.C., and Long Island, prosecutors said, many of whom he knew from high school.
In one instance, the criminal complaint said, Savader threatened to send naked pictures of one of his victims to the Republican National Committee if she didn’t comply with his demands. She sometimes got as many as eight threatening texts a day, the document said.
So yes, I too wonder what exactly the RNC would have done upon receipt of these photos. "There’s empty space on the wall between the Priebus and Steele portraits, and they kind of hate one another anyway…"
And I also wonder what form the hunt for the Afikomen took at last year’s Savader seder.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
