Mitchell Price, Senior Grants & Program Specialist
Leilani Rasmussen, Vice President of Finance and Operations
Charlene Seidle, Executive Vice President
Jessica Kort, Director of Communications and Strategy
Why is this night different from all other nights? A member of our team suggested that it isn’t, that during this pandemic, no nights differentiate from the others. Yet, this might be the first night that many of us haven’t gathered with friends and family for Passover. For others, it may be the first night they are alone or the first night they don’t observe at all.
We took inspiration from the Four Questions and asked four of our team members to offer perspectives on new, timely answers.
Why on all other nights do we eat chametz and matzah, but on this night, we only eat matzah?
Mitch: On this night we eat matzah as a symbolic and sacred act of trust that dawn will come and darkness will be overcome. And we eat to be in community, leaning on each other to navigating the uncertainty before us.
Why on all other nights do we eat many vegetables, but on this night, only maror (bitter herb)?
Leilani: On this night, we eat maror to focus on the sorrow for those hospitalized who may not have anyone to advocate for them, and the sorrow in the possibility that they might take their last breaths alone.
Why on all other nights do we not dip vegetables event once, but on this night, we dip twice?
Charlene: On this night, we dip twice not only to ask for our family’s health but also to ask for the health and recovery of all who suffer illness and pain around the world.
Why on all other nights do we sit upright, but on this night, we all recline?
Jessica: On this night, when circumstances provide a chance to truly lounge, we recline in expression of gratitude and recognition of the many essential and frontline workers toiling around the clock to maintain livelihoods, health and the well-being of our community.
We also want to share this prayer for healing by Rabba Tamar, a friend of Leichtag Foundation, whose words uplift, inspire, and comfort us in this moment. Next year in Jerusalem, next year in health, next year gathered with loved ones. Chag pesach sameach, Happy Passover!
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.