When Jane Weiner first started the Jewish Recovery Network’s Freedom From Addiction Passover Seder, she knew that people in the recovery community needed a space to celebrate the holiday.
“Then as now, we recognize that people with addictions often are alienated from their families,” she said. “Even today, the people who attend it is the only Seder for many of them. They’re not comfortable in an atmosphere where people are drinking a lot of wine and they’re not. They often, over the time of active addiction, have been alienated from their families and often from the Jewish community. And yet, wanting to reconnect with their Judaism is so integral to who they are, that to have a Jewish setting that feels safe to experience a major holiday was very important.
“This Seder provides the only Seder for a vast majority of the people who attend.”
This year’s Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis/Jewish Recovery Network Freedom From Addiction Seder is taking place at Minnesota Hillel on Thursday, April 17, from 5-8 p.m. Rabbi Jill Avrin from YourJewish will be leading the Seder.
The Seder is the last remaining regular program from the JRN, which was founded in 1982 in response to the myth at the time that Jews don’t have addiction problems.
“We set it up to combat the feeling of uniqueness that was made recovery more difficult because people felt that there was something wrong with them, that they didn’t have a peer group, they were the only ones,” said Weiner, one of the founders of the JRN. “And so the idea of a network was to have a place where people could meet other people and go, ‘Oh, me too.’”
The Seder moved under the auspices of JFCS a little more than a decade ago. Last year’s Seder had 50 people in attendance with another handful on Zoom. This year’s Seder will only be in person but the move to a more central location should help draw more people who are looking for this type of option.
“We want to make sure that people have a way to be able to engage with their Judaism and practice some of the holidays without the challenges that might come for holidays that often have wine in them, or things that might be hard for someone who’s trying to maintain their sobriety,” said Kristi Murray, the director of education and learning at JFCS. “In these Seders, what we they often talk about is tying both the story about the freedom from slavery that people went through, and tying it to the freedom from their addictions that they’re experiencing in their recovery.”
The Seder is unique, according to Jennifer Fukuda, the addiction and recovery services program coordinator at JFCS. She said that there are a handful of others around the country, according to an informal survey done by JCFS in Chicago.
“Seders that are alcohol-free are hard to find,” Fukuda said. “What’s unique is that this is an opportunity for people, both in the Jewish community and in the recovery community, to come together.”
Fukuda said there isn’t an expectation of either being in recovery or being Jewish to attend, but that you might be supporting somebody in recovery.
“All of those things are very acceptable reasons to attend and be a part of the celebration,” she said. “The stigma behind [being in recovery] is huge, and that this is a place where people can come and they can celebrate and they don’t have this overarching umbrella of stigma that is just bearing down on them during a time that should be full of joy.”
Leah Persky, the manager of family life education & addiction and recovery services, said that the people who think addiction is a choice are mistaken.
“People still mistakenly think it’s laziness or something to be ashamed about. And they don’t necessarily think of it as a brain disease,” she said. “This is an actual disorder. People don’t choose to have this. It takes years and years and years for some people to be able to tell their loved ones about it, or to find the treatments that they need. To be in a room where you can celebrate your religion and feel safe from the stigma because you know that the other people in the room are supportive or have been through it, it’s unique and empowering.
For Weiner, the event and JRN continue to be important in her life.
“This is a heartfelt experience for me,” she said. “There are people who started the JRN who are no longer with us, and yet we keep the torch burning, because there’s still a need. The need hasn’t changed.”
