Introducing Golda’s Passover Hotline

Hi GOLDA gang, 

The first time I ever hosted my own Passover Seder was in 2020. The pandemic had shut down our world, and it was the first time we couldn’t reflexively do what we always did for Passover. There were no flights home, no aunt’s matzo ball soup, no boisterous afikoman hunt. 

Instead, we all made do where we were, with whatever our local grocery had to offer. I remember running to Westside Market in search of horseradish root, and finding one left at the bottom of the produce section. It was nubby and gross, but I grabbed it like a prized possession and threw it in my cart. 

That night my husband and I, along with our cat, zoomed into a family Seder on a laptop propped up by cookbooks in our downtown New York City apartment. We cooked Alison Roman’s Passover menu and Molly Baz’s Matzo Ball Soup, which calls for chicken legs instead of a whole chicken. It was different, but we made it work.  

Dayenu, as we say. It would have been enough.

I thought a lot about how many more Seders there were that year, how many candles burning and glasses of wine gleaming, from apartment buildings and houses all around the world. We were unified in a wildly uncertain moment, reminded of the power of an ancient ritual to ground us and our modern lives. 

I’m hosting my first Seder since that night, but it’s going to look pretty different. For starters, it will start earlier: we’re welcoming the toddler set at our Upper West Side apartment. 

I’m really excited. I love making traditions my own and finding ways to personalize what can feel dense or inaccessible. For more on that, check out last week’s newsletter, Your Seder Doesn’t Have to Be Boring. But I also have a lot of questions! And whether you’re a seasoned host, first-time guest, or anything in between, I’m sure you do too.

Which is why we’re opening up the official GOLDA Passover Hotline. Ask us anything you want to know about how to host a Seder, what to bring to a Seder, how to keep your kids entertained, anything. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll turn to the experts, and share their responses here on GOLDA in the lead-up to the holiday. There’s no question too small or too silly.

Hit up the hotline here:

You can also direct your questions to [email protected] or reply directly to this email.

In the meantime, there’s still time to get your Passover gear. Here are some of my favorites.

GOLDA’s Passover Picks:

Jewish Museum "Horowitz Margareten Matzohs" Wood Tray

Hayom x Joann Sfar Seder Plate

The Office Haggadah: An Unofficial Scranton Seder

PEZuzah Mezuzah: Muppets Rare Kermit

Hand-painted Porcelain Seder Plate by SIND Studio, Exclusive to the Jewish Museum Shop

Some other fun news: 

I was a guest on the podcast People Jew Wanna Know. I had a great time talking to host Margarita Lyadova about creating GOLDA, my decade plus in Jewish media, and much more. You can listen here. 

This Saturday, April 5, I’ll be part of Zibby Media’s On Being Jewish Now: Live, at The Whitby Hotel in New York City. I’m moderating a conversation with the fabulous Shoshanna Gruss, Vanessa Kroll Bennett, and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and the full lineup for the day is fantastic. I’d love to see you there; get your tickets today!

And this is hot off the press: I’ll be interviewing Myriam Sandler of MotherCould, one of my favorite parenting resources, on Tuesday, May 13 at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. Get your tickets here! And if you’re not one of the 1.6 million people following her on Instagram, you should be. 

Before I go, one last reminder about our GOLDA Passover Hotline!

Stay GOLDA,

Stephanie