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What Made This Seder Different From Any Other Seder?

Answer: The presence of New York’s first Muslim mayor.

Zohran Mamdani on March 31, 2026.

One of the few genuine pleasures I can recall from the five years I attended three-day-a-week Hebrew school in Northeast Philadelphia was the model seders—child-friendly, radically slimmed-down versions of the annual Jewish celebration of our people’s deliverance from slavery and subsequent Exodus from Egypt. The food served during these events was lighter than my mother’s notoriously heavy cooking (even her matzoh balls were “sinkers”), while the presence of my school friends provided opportunities for horsing around undreamt of during the strict recitation of the entire Haggadah (in Hebrew) by my father and uncle.

Yet over time, the full-fat version of Passover I had once yearned to escape became my favorite Jewish holiday. Maybe it was my mother’s desserts—still not light, but very tasty—or the chance to hang out with my older cousins. Or our loud singing, both of traditional seder songs like “Dayenu” and “Chad Gadya” and also of the spiritual “Go Down Moses.” By the time we got invited to a model seder at Union Temple in Brooklyn, where my oldest son was in nursery school, I was happy to go.

But that was over 30 years ago, and although our family eventually developed its own set of rituals for the holiday—Sephardi lamb instead of Ashkenazi brisket, abridged versions of the Hebrew songs—and even our own Haggadah, I assumed my model seder days were in the past.

Until Monday, when I learned that Mayor Zohran Mamdani would be attending an adult version—a Downtown seder—at City Winery that evening and asked if I might come along. City Winery owner Michael Dorf, who has been a macher in New York’s arts scene since he founded the Knitting Factory in 1987, has been hosting these gatherings for over 30 years. The event was once described by The New York Times as “a cross between a Jewish summer camp in the Catskills and a progressive jazz concert.” Past incarnations have featured Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Lou Reed (cast as “the wise child” in the Hagaddah), and Peter Yarrow. The lineup this time included the indie rock trio Betty, David Broza, Jesse Malin, Meg Okura and Yola, economist and podcaster Stephen Dubner, and, in a video reprise of his in-person 2024 appearance, Al Franken singing “Go Down Moses.”

But it was the political performers who provided the draw for many of those present: Besides former CNN host Don Lemon (offering a riff on the Four Questions, which, as the 60-year-old YouTuber noted, is a task traditionally assigned to the youngest person present) and Mamdani, Council Speaker Julie Menin and former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander were also on the program.

Not everyone was thrilled to see the mayor.........

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