Roadside Seder
A warm and inviting Passover story about coming together
Editor’s Note: We’ve all been on this car ride to nowhere. Roadside Seder, by Anna Levine, is an ‘only in Israel’ story about finding a silver lining and understanding that sometimes the trip isn’t about reaching your final destination. A diverse cast of characters find community in strangers. While I still would prefer my seder to be indoors, Levine has a created the very people that I would like to be stuck with. Roadside Seder is a wonderfully sweet and inclusive new addition to Passover kidlit collections.
Author’s Note: Naama Lahav, illustrator of Roadside Seder, lives in Tekoa. Na'ama dedicated Roadside Seder to her uncle Chaim Ben Arye, a busdriver (picture on page 5). On the night of October 7th, 2023 while the fighting was still raging, volunteers were needed to drive to Kibbutz Be'eri to rescue the children and families. Chaim selfishly volunteered.
The excerpt from Roadside Seder, by Anna Levine, illustrated by Naama Lahav, Apples & Honey Press (March 25, 2025), has been reproduced with the author’s permission.
Bio: Anna Levine is an award-winning author of children’s literature. Jodie's Hanukkah Dig, a Sydney Taylor notable, is the first book in an archaeological-themed picture book series. Scout’s Honor and the Cave of Courage, a middle-grade novel, was published by PJOurway, and her first YA novel, Running On Eggs, was on the NY Public Library’s list of best books for the teenage (2000). Freefall (Greenwillow/HarperCollins) won a Sydney Taylor Honor’s award. Roadside Seder has just been nominated for a Middle East Outreach Council award. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Anna grew up in Montreal, Quebec. She lived on a kibbutz for five years, and now lives in Mevasseret Zion, Israel with her family where, when she's not writing, she teaches English at the local Junior High School.
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5 Tiny Delights:
Figuring out mistranslations often found in Israeli menus. As in, starting the morning with “difficult eggs” after, I guess, a hard night?
The intoxicating aroma of citrus flowers from my neighbour’s pomelo tree.
Listening to my ninth grade students roll their ‘r’s as they learn to recite Shakespeare’s, “O Romeo, Romeo!”
Sitting with Shakespeare, my cat, purring beside me as I write.
The field of yellow mustard flowers that take over the mountain near my house every Spring.
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5 Tiny Jewish Delights:
Singing Dayenu with my family at the Seder. We bang on the table, clap our hands, and really get into making a ruckus.
The afternoon before erev shabbat when the whole world feels like it’s winding down.
Walking outside on Yom Kippur and seeing my neighbours out on the streets. No cars. No buses. Just the noises of kids on bikes. Parents with strollers. People hanging around and talking to each other as if technology hasn’t been invented or we’ve been transported into the past or far into the future.
Chicken soup, because it really is a cure-all.
My 150-year-old Hanukkah menorah that was my grandmother’s with hers and our decades of melted wax stuck to it.
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