Histadrut to Present Third Seder; ‘freedom Seders’ Scheduled in Three Cities

Yosef Tekoah, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, will be principal speaker at the Histadrut Third Seder on Saturday evening, April 25th, at the Waldorf-Astoria. The Passover fete will pay tribute to Histadrut, the Israel labor federation, on the occasion of its Golden Jubilee. A highlight of the Third Seder program will be a special Haggadah, “Voice of Jubilee,” based on traditional and contemporary sources, that combines the story of the Exodus from Egypt with the twentieth century return of the Jews to the land of Israel. Shlomo Kaplan, head of the Histadrut Music Department in Tel. Aviv, has come to New York especially to supervise the musical phases of the program, which are based on a Golden Jubilee festival staged in Jerusalem last January.

(“Freedom Seders” in at least three major cities and related projects in four others and in Canada and Israel are scheduled to coincide with next week’s Passover observances. The ad hoc New York Jewish Organizing Project will stage a Freedom Seder on Sunday morning in New York Battery Park and in the afternoon at Chase Manhattan Plaza–“in the shadow cast by the collective edifice of the American (sic) pharaohs.” The group has singled out Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and his brother David, president of the Chase Manhattan Bank, as symbols of “the large corporate powers in America” that “create racism, poverty and despair.” A chief factor in the protest according to organizers is Chase Manhattan’s dealings in South Africa and in Arab oil. Services will be based on the “Freedom Haggadah” which includes statements by the anti-Semitic Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther leader-in-exile in Algeria. Similar gatherings are scheduled for April 25 in Washington, D.C., co-sponsored by Jews for Urban Justice, a new left group, and the Jewish Students’ Bund of George Washington University; for the same day in Philadelphia, sponsored by Na’aseh, the Radical Jewish Fellowship for Action; and for Sunday in Boston, coordinated by the ad hoc Concerned Jewish Youth.)

In San Francisco, the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry is rallying congregations, organizations and individuals to send Passover cards to some 50 Soviet Jewish families who have declared their desire to emigrate to Israel; urging world Jewry to display red posters during Passover in support of Soviet Jewry and calling on persons with postage meters to affix plates reading “Help Soviet Jews!” The Council said “The aim is to give these (Soviet) families moral support, and to let them know that Jews in America know of their plight, and that we will not forget them.” In Canada, the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has ruled out examinations during the first two days of Passover, and will avoid scheduling exams during the last two days of the holiday in subjects taken by those who may not write on those days. The school’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering has also cancelled exams during the first two and last two days of Passover. In Israel, matzoth factories will supply 120 tons of unleavened bread to Eastern European countries. It will be sent to Rumania, the only country in the area maintaining ties with Israel, from where it will be distributed to Jewish communities in neighboring lands. Israel expects that this year’s matzoth exports will total $300,000, compared with $180,000 last year.