In the early 1940s a tradition of seders began among immigrants from Germany. These immigrants included three Gerson siblings: Meta Gerson (Zanders), and Oscar and Arthur Gerson. As the years passed, families grew, as did the seder.
In the beginning not everyone was related, but German immigrants needed a venue to continue their traditions in the United States. It eventually evolved into a family seder and continued for more than 50 years, with sometimes as many as 100 people attending.
After being suspended for 23 years, a special reunion seder took place on Saturday, April 23, the day of the second Passover seder, at Oakwood Country Club. Eighty-four people attended from all over the country, including San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Arizona, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Denver and Boulder, Colorado.
There were even friends of family members who came from Germany and Mexico.
The idea of a reunion seder began with Jim Gerson, who thought of it three or four years ago. Then last year he began planning and putting it together, with the help of other family members, including John Isenberg, who is related to the Gersons by marriage, and Mike Zanders.
Isenberg helped get the word out about the reunion and also aided in tracking people down.
“The biggest challenge was where are all these people and how do we find them,” Isenberg says.
Zanders led the seder service.
“I thought it would be great to get the families together again,” says Gerson. “I was thinking about what we were losing, that we’ve lost a lot of the family members who we grew up with and who had organized it.”
Gerson was touched by so many family members coming together from Kansas City and elsewhere.
“What was very inspirational for me was how meaningful it was for our family and how much we really mean to each other,” he says. “So I think it was a nice tribute to our parents and grandparents.”
As a child, Gerson says, you don’t always love sitting down and reading and paying attention for a couple of hours. But as you get older, you learn to appreciate the tradition.
It was 1937 when Gerson’s grandfather and grandmother, Oscar and Antoinette “Toni” Gerson, came to Kansas City. When the seders began, Oscar Gerson led the service.
Irene Stiefel Starr’s parents came to Kansas City from Germany in early 1939. She says she loved the seder and looked forward to it every year. Her aunt was a cousin to the Gersons and also came to Kansas City from Germany.
“Maybe because it was an extended family event, but somehow it was almost the major event of the year — new clothing, everything about it was just very positive and cheerful and exciting,” she says. “And when you got there the family was all so glad to see you.”
Starr says she doesn’t remember exactly when she began attending the seders, but has a vague recollection of the first ones being held in the lower level of a restaurant in downtown Kansas City. By the time she became upper elementary school age, it had moved to the Bellerive Hotel. Then at some point the Gersons joined Oakwood Country Club and the seders were held there from then on.
“I just think it’s really special that so many members of the extended family are still in Kansas City and that those who have moved elsewhere came back (for the seder),” Starr says. “I think it says a lot about the closeness of the family.”
She says it makes her sad to realize that her cousin, Joan Stiefel Greenbaum, and she are the only ones who are in both the 1950 and 2016 photos. She believes there are a handful that are still living, but couldn’t attend this year.
Another relative, Ann Cole Baum, whose parents, Walter and Ilsa Cole, came to America in 1938, says she loved being part of a large extended family.
“The family seders were a wonderful part of my young life and I remember them vividly,” she says. “We were close with third and fourth cousins and celebrated birthdays, holidays, etc., together.
“The most wonderful part is the instant connection I still feel with all of those extended distant relatives. When I saw them at seder after many years, we instantly caught up and pledged to stay in touch.”
Although it has been 23 years since the last family seder, Gerson says it has been more than 30 years since it was “really supported and fully embraced by family. If you go back 40 or 50 years, the whole family attended. But as the kids got older, everyone started doing their own things. So the one 23 years ago didn’t have the same feel as it did when it was started.”
Zanders says, “As the Oscar generation faded out and their children, i.e. my parents and that generation, started to disperse around the country, it just faded away. We started doing the seders in our own homes.”
For Gerson, this year’s seder brought back the feel of the original seders.
“What was really interesting and what really impressed me is I knew that my age and older would be excited about (the seder), but I was pleasantly surprised at how meaningful it was to our kids’ generation, people who came in from the east and west coasts.”
According to Zanders, Oscar Gerson was the patriarch of the family and led the seders for many years. And although there were anywhere from 50 to 100 people present, they used a progressive haggadah, so the service went fairly quickly.
“It was very informal, very Reform,” says Zanders. “We went through a meaningful service, but the service was loose at best. The way it worked was that we had the leader run around the room asking everyone to contribute reading a passage. The youngest did the four questions, which was always fun.”
He says this year’s reunion seder “was great. It was a marvelous thing. Everybody universally had a great time. Nobody regretted a bit having flown in.”
Zanders believes there will be more reunion seders — just not every year.
Gerson praised Zanders as leader of the 2016 seder. “He was wonderful; he carried the room, he was terrific. He helped make it a very special night.”
In addition to reuniting with family, old movies had been digitized and were shown on a DVD player, which brought back many memories.
“Our kids who were there remembered it because they did the four questions as well — me in the ’50s and my kids in the ’80s,” Zanders says.
Everyone agrees the 2016 reunion seder was a huge success. As Gerson sums it up:
“We have family who live in Kansas City and even though they’re wonderful, they’re fun, they’re interesting, they’re a very diverse group, we don’t see each other very much,” he says. “So this was a very special opportunity to bring the family together.”
