Published: 27 March 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THIS PESACH WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, says Lisa Goldberg, the Chief Pot Stirrer in the Monday Morning Cooking Club, a sisterhood of four Sydney women who for 15 years have been collecting recipes and stories of the Jewish community, and who have published four books, with the profits going to charities, both Jewish and other.
The silver lining for Goldberg in these difficult days is that the kids (her four adult children) are home, no longer ships in the night at work and out all the time. Which means that, especially now, home comforts are important, a view shared with the people she follows online, the cooks and bakers.
This will be the first time since moving to Sydney in 1988 that Goldberg hasn’t gone to her Melbourne family for a "huge seder" of about 50 people. Although not overly religious, they are traditional and every year the menu and service are identical, bar her mother’s chicken soup and matzah balls (“some years they’re fluffy and some like golf balls”).
Part of her is a little excited at having to run her own seder, choose the menu, and cook for it, and have her immediate family all to herself. Depending on various things, there will be between five and eight people, and she is lucky to have the space to seat everyone apart, as per social distancing recommendations, around a big table for 20-plus.
What do you do with your children - kick them out because they are at risk? Vet who they see? She is needed at the hospital; they need every doctor.
Her one daughter, a doctor, who still has to venture out into the world, will sit at the end. She’s worried about that daughter, an intern in emergency, and despite her resilience, “what she’s going to see in the next few months”?
She is also worried that her daughter may be at risk and put others in the family at risk. “What do you do with your children - kick them out because they are at risk? Vet who they see? She is needed at the hospital; they need every doctor.”
On the other side of the family equation, her 80-something father-in-law in Sydney will be on his own by choice. Goldberg and her sister-in-law will take Seder food to his house and leave it outside. “He’s independent, and he doesn’t want to see anybody.
“It’s an interesting question with regard to whose decision it is about older parents. They’re adults, and some will take the risk because they want to see their family and others don’t want to leave the house.”
It’s an interesting question with regard to whose decision it is about older parents. They’re adults, and some will take the risk because they want to see their family and others don’t want to leave the house - Lisa Goldberg
With phones and other technology, she’s hoping they’ll link up with everyone else, and be able to follow their tradition of loud and raucous singing, especially Echad Mi Yodea. Another highlight is when one of the older generation sings Chad Gadya: “But then, of course, there’s a concern that everyone will start crying, and I don’t want it to turn into that - it’ll be this one alone, this one not.
“All I can control is how delicious the food is.” Goldberg will be serving food with gloves on. Common dishes or buffet dishes for the middle of the table are out. “I will serve in the kitchen, I alone, so I am in control. There’ll be no hands in the salad bowl, the days of double dipping are over.”
As for the actual menu, “I love tradition… it depends what’s available, we don’t have matzah yet and horse radish could be a challenge. I don’t think we’re going to be able to get veal brisket, and what about gefilte fish - do I attempt it this year or skip it?
“It’s the first time I’ve thought about it, but what else have I got to do except make gefilte fish?”
Top of her list is charoset ice cream, with all the flavours - brown sugar, apples, dates, figs, sultanas, cinnamon. It will be the dessert, and can be frozen for any time during Pesach.
SEE RECIPE FOR CHAROSET ICE CREAM
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="34435"]
What won’t be in short supply will be things to talk about – the fires, the drought before, and the plague at the moment. “This is the first time I know in the world’s history that every nation and race and people are on the same page.
Common dishes or buffet dishes for the middle of the table are out. I will serve in the kitchen, I alone, so I am in control. There’ll be no hands in the salad bowl, the days of double dipping are over.
“It will be amazing if it can break down barriers, but when we look at supermarket fighting over toilet paper….
“This is happening, we need strength and resilience, to lead your family, and help whoever you can… I actually think of the Holocaust. If people can get through that, and survive and carry on and start new lives, anything is possible.” On the bright side, she says, people passing each other in the street seem friendlier than usual.
A SECOND MEMBER OF THE GROUP, Natanya Eskin, like many of us, is having “up days and down days”. With regard to Pesach, she thinks the more we can let go of the norm of how we do things, the better. “Maybe that will help a little. I really think this is a year where people have to let go of the should and do what works for them and their family.”
Eskin says she is very much a traditionalist. Pesach is about tradition and family, but this year the question might be added: “Why is this seder different to other seders?”, leading to some sort of meaningful discussion about what’s happening in the real world. That they won’t be sitting with family and friends will in itself “drive the mess home”.
“We don’t usually do that, but definitely on a global level there are such lessons to learn from this, and I would love it if we came out of it and the world came out of it and took those lessons, and consumerism went down, and we learnt to live without so many things,”
At her home, the Seder will be small - herself, her husband and probably their three children, 24, 22 and 16, all very on board about not socialising and following the rules. Her parents and mother-in-law, who are usually with them, won’t be there.
My parents are fit and healthy, but they’re 84 and 81 and every year is a milestone, and I’m very mindful of how many more I have with them. It will be difficult that they are not with us physically - Natanya Eskin
While they’re planning to use technology to connect, she finds the prospect heart-breaking: “My parents are fit and healthy, but they’re 84 and 81 and every year is a milestone, and I’m very mindful of how many more I have with them. It will be difficult that they are not with us physically.” Her mother-in-law, in her mid-70s, lives nearby and can walk past and wave.
Eskin is planning on doing most of the cooking for everyone, divvying it up and sending it round to the other houses. She’ll do the chicken soup and brisket, while her mother will make the gefilte fish, “like food parcels coming and going”. In her own home, though, she does not plan to use gloves for Pesach serving.
For the eight days of Pesach, Eskin’s advice is to avoid pre-prepared packaged food like Passover cakes or cereals, instead choosing cooked or carefully washed (with hot water) fresh fruit and vegetables. “This year, out of all years, give that a go. You can be making healthy meals every day, with a bit of matzah on the side. I always say at Pesach time, don’t rely so much on bought items.”
Instead of big cakes, and with everyone at home, she’ll be making “little slices, little biscuits” to package up and snack on. She anticipates everyone will be eating slightly more because they’ll be around all the time.
A favourite that will work for Pesach is the very simple brown sugar “nutties”, requiring only walnuts, brown sugar butter and one egg white, without any equipment.
SEE RECIPE FOR BROWN SUGAR NUTTIES
Is there an end in sight that she sees? Eskin thinks by the end of winter, by the end of July, things should be fine.
Here’s hoping.
READ MORE
No extended family at Passover seders, Health Ministry rules (Times of Israel)
Orthodox Sephardic rabbis greenlight video conference seders in stunning ruling (Haaretz)
London rabbinical court loosens Passover dietary rules amid coronavirus crisis (Times of Israel)
Orthodox leaders urge US Jews to limit Passover preparations in light of coronavirus (Haaretz)
Photo: The Monday Morning Cooking Club, from left: Merelyn Frank Chalmers, Lisa Goldberg, Natanya Eskin and Jacqui Israel (Alan Benson)
