Telling the Passover Story in the Shadow of the Pittsburgh Massacre

(RNS) — After losing her mother-in-law in last October’s Pittsburgh massacre, Marnie Fienberg quit her job.

A federal contractor in communications strategy who lives in northern Virginia, Fienberg couldn’t go back to work after the shiva, or seven days of Jewish mourning, were up.

Later she realized she couldn’t cook a Passover seder either.

For a dozen years before the shooting, Fienberg and her mother-in-law, Joyce, had prepared the meal at the heart of the holiday together. Joyce Fienberg was used to cooking the seder meal — a ritual reenactment of the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt — for as many as 25 guests. She always made matzoh ball soup, sometimes three different kinds — her regular recipe, a heartier whole-wheat version, and a gluten-free version.

That was typical Joyce. She doted on her guests and their dietary choices, wanting each and every person at her table to feel cared for and loved.

This year Marnie Fienberg will do Passover differently. She has envisioned an ambitious project called “2 for Seder” that has caught on as a way to overcome anti-Semitism by better acquainting non-Jews with the Passover story of the biblical flight from slavery to freedom.

Using her communications expertise, she partnered with trusted Jewish groups that liked the idea, from the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to the…