Pesaj Sameaj from Buenos Aires, Argentina! Spending a year in Argentina means having the chance to celebrate an entire year of Jewish holidays in another global Jewish community. While I wish I had been in Rochester, New York celebrating Passover with the rest of my family, I knew it would be interesting to experience Passover in another country. My favorite part of Passover is bringing together family and friends to celebrate, sing, and retell the story of the Exodus. For the first Seder this year I went to the house of my friend Yael, who is an artist and also the local coordinator for JDC Entwine trips in Argentina. My two friends Arielle and Becca were here from the US to celebrate so I wanted to make sure we went to a somewhat English-friendly Seder and as I knew from Rosh Hashanah, Yael's mother and grandmother are amazing cooks!
There is something amazing about Jews around the world. Although we come from completely different cultures and backgrounds, our Jewish values and grandmother's desires to stuff our faces with food are completely universal. Although my friends could not explain to our hosts in Spanish why this night is different from all others, my friend Arielle did sing Ma Nishtanah, the four questions, for everyone in Hebrew as she was the youngest at the Seder. Yael's mom at one point said something along the lines of "wow, I can't believe you guys came from the United States, know how to sing Dayeinu, and also eat gefilte fish during your Seders in the US…Jews really are the same everywhere". This sort of sums up my Passover experience in Buenos Aires. It doesn't matter what language the Haggadah is in or in what form the matzoh balls are served, celebrating a Jewish holiday with Jews from any part of the world brings a sense of comfort and familiarity that comes from our shared values and traditions.  |
| Although we didn't eat matzoh ball soup, we did have a delicious dish of matzoh balls with meat and carrots. #matzohballsareuniversal |
Fun fact: As you can see, in Argentina all the "ch" sounds that you find in words such as challah, pesach, and chanukah become "j"'s, resulting in jalá, pesaj, and janucá. That's why we say Pesaj Sameaj instead of Pesach Sameach.
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you are having a meaningful and wonderful Passover!
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