Forty supporters and members of the LGBTQ community gathered Sunday evening for the third annual LGBTQ Passover Seder at the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue in partnership with JQ International.
Cantor Marcelo Gindlin, who officiates the dinner, said that the Seder is inclusive.
“Not everybody who attends is gay or lesbian,” he explained. “It’s an embracing atmosphere.”
Every year at Passover Seders, the story of the Jewish people’s freedom from slavery and their exodus from Egypt is recounted.
However, the LGBTQ Seder has new customs, including displaying a second Seder plate that has alternatives to the traditional, featuring a coconut, an orange, sticks and stones, and flowers. There is also a fifth question asked about why the community has pride, and an additional 10 plagues faced by members of the LGBTQ community are recited.
“We want to have the queer and Jewish components of our identity equally integrated, equally valued,” Asher Gellis of JQ International said.
Cantor Gindlin says he wants members of the community to know, “They can have a loving god who can accept them for who they are.”