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In LA, Passover comes with a different topping

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Fancy a takeaway matzah pizza? A week off email? Or a Seder in the wilderness? American Jews are finding more ways this year to push the boundaries of Passover, propelled by a desire to make it more spiritually meaningful — or just easier to fit into a busy life.

In Los Angeles, Fresh Brothers, a pizza chain, is offering “Matzah Pizzas”. Yes, mozzarella and sauce on matzah. But they are not koshering the whole pizzeria — they are selling them next to their (very chametz) ordinary pizzas.

Introduced when the pizza chain’s founder, Adam Goldberg, became frustrated with the limited options for eating out during Pesach, it is not for the Orthodox, but it does attract those Jewish Americans who are casually kosher.

Meanwhile, Romemu, a synagogue in Manhattan, is marking the liberation story of Pesach with a parallel liberation for its staff: emails will not be sent or received for the week (phones, however, will be used).

Equating being tethered to tech devices as a modern day form of enslavement, the community is urged to “De-email — and taste freedom.”

Elsewhere, as an alternative to Seders spent sitting endlessly in hard chairs, “Adventure Rabbis” Jamie Korngold and Rabbi Evon Yakar are leading a “Wilderness Seder” in Utah.

Preceded by two days of hiking and camping in the desert, the Seder includes singing, dancing and the Exodus story read directly from a “backpacking Torah”. The meal is spent reclining on cushions, under the stars.

It is a far cry from Stanmore, but perhaps this could be the start of Seders on Hampstead Heath? Or the Yorkshire moors?

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