In the midst of fighting the Nazis and the Japanese, Jews serving in the U.S. armed forces around the world organized Passover celebrations and meals. Marjorie Ingall explores an archival collection of programs, menus, and specially-produced haggadahs:
Some of these seder programs were informal, handwritten, mimeographed affairs riddled with spelling errors (“HorseRaddish”); some were beautifully printed on heavy, textured paper. Most were similar in content: a cover indicating the place and time—with the year of both the Gregorian (1944 or 1945) and Hebrew (5704 or 5705) calendar, and the time (always in military time, sometimes at the elegantly late 2200 hours). There were lists of the order of events (seder literally means “order”) and the dishes to be served, almost always concluding in “Afikomon.”
Many programs proudly told us who did what and who cooked what: at a seder in Accra in what later became Ghana, the Four Questions were recited in Hebrew by Pvt. Joseph L. Joldoff and in English by Pfc. Dorothy Steinberg—apparently the youngest soldiers present. A 1945 program from New Delhi, featuring “Bombay Matzos” and “Beef Strokanoff” credited the food to the glamorous-sounding “Madame Luba Ruperti.” . . .
The food at these seders was usually a mix of [traditional] East European Jewish and fancy French-ish; French meant cosmopolitan in those days. There was a lot of “compote.” A few menus showed the influence of the cultures the soldiers were stationed in: the seder at the Imperial Hotel in New Delhi featured “Beckti Farci a la Juife” (presumably that refers to bhekti, the Bengali word for barramundi; “a la Juife” probably refers to a preparation [resembling gefilte fish]).
Soldiers in Hawaii had fresh pineapple for dessert. Kashrut was a secondary concern: “For those observing the Dietary laws Tuna fish will be served in place of chicken,” a menu from Rome noted. One could see evidence of thrift: in New Delhi, you could have gefilte fish or matzah balls, but not both. And military comportment was expected; a menu from “liberated Italy” warned in small print: “Guests will kindly observe the regulation number of four cups of wine at the seder.”
Read more on Tablet: http://tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/189831/seders-in-uniform