Your Seder Doesn’t Have to Be Boring

Hi GOLDA gang! I was in LA this week moderating a panel called “Writing Jewishly” at the AWP conference, a major gathering of the publishing industry. I did a lot of interviews for GOLDA while I was out there, one of which I’m sharing below. The rest will be coming to your inbox soon.

I have two events coming up next week in the New York area, and I’d love to see you there: 

On Monday I’ll be back at The Jewish Museum with the Jewish Book Council, moderating an Unpacking the Book conversation with authors Tova Mirvis and Dan Slater. Tickets are free; register here! You might remember Tova’s novel We Would Never was one of GOLDA’s 5 Books We’re Excited About in 2025. 

And then next Saturday I’ll be part of Zibby Media’s On Being Jewish Now: Live, at The Whitby Hotel. I’ll be moderating a conversation with Shoshanna Gruss, Vanessa Kroll Bennett, and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. I heard there will also be some shopping there from our friends Makers of Israel, Miss Goldie by Romi Gold, and more. Get your tickets here!

Now for the GOLDA goods:

Passover starts April 12, which means the first Seder is two weeks from today. That’s slightly terrifying, but the good news is that there’s still time to make this year different from all other years.

Today we’re highlighting two new additions to the Passover pantheon: an artsy new Seder plate and a surprisingly funny Haggadah inspired by The Office.

Marie Salomé is one of the chicest people I have ever met. She’s from Paris but spent the past decade in New York, which is where I met her. She’s an art world veteran and founded Hayom, where she collaborates with contemporary artists to reimagine Jewish objects. Hayom’s latest project is a Seder plate from French artist Joann Sfar. The ceramic plate features the ritual foods and other whimsical Passover vignettes. 

I chatted with Marie, who recently moved back to Paris with her family, about this latest project and her hopes for Hayom. 

Tell us about how this year’s Passover collaboration with French artist Joann Sfar came about.

I have known Joann since before I moved to New York 10 years ago. I wrote a book that he illustrated. So I felt like now that I'm coming back to France, it was a beautiful loop, personally, to make a new project with him as a welcome-to-Paris thing. And I was very glad and privileged to have his trust on this plate. 

Joann is a very culturally Jewish person. He grew up Jewish. His father was pretty religious, so he knows a lot about religion, but he's a very secular person. I felt it was an interesting balance. We're always looking for the story and what people have to say and their point of view. 

I love this plate for so many reasons, but one of them is that it really captures a beautiful, joyful holiday feast. The element of the little kid falling asleep on the seder plate–you feel like it’s his experience, you know?

Is that Sfar’s well-known character, The Rabbi’s Cat, I see on the plate? 

Yes, it’s The Rabbi’s Cat, from his series of comic books of the same name. There was also a movie made of it, and it's one of the most successful comic books in France. It's also been published in the US, in English. Everyone should read it.

The Rabbi’s Cat tells the story of a rabbi and his daughter and their cat. The cat is the wittiest, most spiritual character and most mischievous, as well. It's the kind of comic book that is very entertaining. All the kids love to read it, but it's very deep and smart and it teaches you a lot about history, religion, love, family, and the story of Sephardic Jews. It's really stunning.

These projects obviously take a while to conceive and produce, but I’m curious if you think this particular piece responds to this moment in time in any particular way.

This latest Seder plate is very meaningful to me, because Joann has become a very important voice against antisemitism. And what we're trying to do with Hayom is to channel Jewish joy. Judaism is about the joy of the ritual and the connection. And I think this plate is just that: joyful. 

It's the traditional plate with all the elements of the Seder, all the ritual foods, but also these little details that remind us of a good Seder. Right now, I don't want to be bringing any object to life that is too dark. I think we have so much darkness around us. We just want something beautiful and joyful.

What’s your dream Jewish ritual item to reimagine? 

We haven't made any tallit yet, so I would love to find the right artist to make a tallis. What we try to do is commission artists that are not doing Judaica. So it's a pretty small niche—contemporary artists that don't do Judaica but are open to doing Judaica. It's a very specific thing.

You can order Joann Sfar’s Plateau de Seder from Hayom.

And what else do you need for a Seder? A Haggadah. 

While I was in LA, I met up with my friend Dan Lerman, co-author with Dave Cowen of a fun new Haggadah inspired by The Office. I’m usually skeptical of things like this, but these guys did a great job. Here’s the premise of The Office Haggadah: 

To save his people from downsizing and destruction, Michael has The Office host a Scranton Seder to pitch Dunder Mifflin as the exclusive paper supplier for Maxwell House and their Haggadahs…

Here’s an edited version of my conversation with Dan:

How did The Office Haggadah come about? 

I grew up going to my Grandma Clara's house, and we did the Maxwell House Haggadah, and it was so boring and painful. It was so nice to see everyone for the first 10 minutes, and then we got into the “Rabbi Gamliel says…” part, and it was just torture. I remember thinking I was envious of Israelis, because they only did one Seder, and we had to do two.  

So Dave Cowen and I wrote this to try and make it more fun. I love The Office. I love throwing a good party. Night 2 of Passover for a few years now, we’ve gotten around 30 comedy people together in my backyard, and we do a table read. Up until this year, we’ve done The Yada Yada Haggadah, the Seinfeld Haggadah by my co-author Dave, who’s done a bunch of parody Haggadahs. 

We dole out parts. People read them. They bring their accents. It’s like a party. It’s what I think our ancestors really wanted: We get together, we tell stories, we laugh, and we actually have a great time. 

What’s the ‘Disclaimer’ you have here at the beginning?

Dave put this in so we don't get sued. “The book is written as a parody of The Office television show and as a teaching tool for Judaism. It is not authorized or endorsed…”

And the ‘Exclaimer’ below it? 

“Because this book is written like an episode of The Office, it’s meant to be read out loud like a table read with your Seder guests taking the roles. Take turns reading the parts and don’t forget to read the stage directions and most importantly have fun!”

Is the idea that this is in place of your Maxwell House—like, you can actually do a full Seder with this?  

The main beats are all here. Writing this, I learned a fair amount about things like the Miriam cup. Do you know about the Miriam cup? 

Yes! Who’s Miriam in this version? 

It's Pam, obviously. 

Amazing. So walk me through the rest of the Haggadah. 

It starts with an official memo from Dunder Mifflin:

We find ourselves at the end of Season Three of The Office. Jim is still dating Karen. Pam is still dating Roy. Jan is still working for corporate. Toby is still the worst.

Then there’s a talking head from Michael Scott: “Today is an important day for the people of Dunder Mifflin. The job of my girlfriend and vice president of corporate sales, Jan Levinson-Gould, may be passed over to someone else. 

Jan's on the phone: “This is not good, Michael. Major, major, major fakakta. If we can't find the money, David Wallace is gonna fire me and he will let your people go.”

Michael comes up with an idea to save Dunder Mifflin: to call up Maxwell House and become the exclusive paper supplier for the Maxwell House Haggadah.

OK, that’s good. I’m actually in at this point.

So, the four questions. Ryan asks the first question, “Why is this deal different from all other deals?” And then Michael says, “Because this deal is gonna save our branch, the job of my super hot girlfriend, and it may even save the Jewish people. Next question, please.”

At one point, to make the deal go through, Michael offers to convert to Judaism. But—and this is my favorite part—he thinks converting to Judaism means getting a circumcision. 

So what is your goal, or at least your hope, for this project?

The goal is for people to leave having had a really good time, and I actually think there's an element of depth to it, as well. To have a moment where people realize, Oh, this is a tradition that's been going on for thousands of years. This was done in concentration camps. This is important—this gathering and reminding yourself who you are. I'd love for people to feel that for a moment, under the guise of having a fun night together.

This new Haggadah drops into the world at an interesting moment, when there's a lot of people who feel newly activated by their Jewish identity, but also a little nervous about the moment we’re in. Is this project a response to that in any way?

My central struggle of the last five or ten years of my life has been community. I’m always looking for it and haven’t quite been able to find it. And moving to LA from New York, Judaism has been such a source of community. Through my daughter’s school, through events, it’s really spoken to my soul as a way of connecting with people in a large city. So I do hope people can view this silly book as a chance to connect and revisit the importance of these traditions and be reminded of the accessibility of something like the Seder, which I think is the premier Jewish event. Yom Kippur break-fast just doesn't have the same revelry.

You can find The Office Haggadah on Amazon or at parodyhaggadahs.com.

How are you making this Passover different? Reply or email hi@goldaguide with your tips and tricks, and we may include them in an upcoming email! 

Stay GOLDA,

Stephanie