Some find Passover freedom from tradition with alternative seders

Idan Rossman, 29 from Tel Aviv, plans to spend this Seder with five friends at the Be'erotaim caravanserai near the Azoz village in the Negev. Idan and a diverse bunch of five friends - one former kibbutznik, three formerly religious girls hailing from the ideological settlement of Kedumim and two religious boys from Jerusalem - will pass what is a traditionally strictly familial night by the campfire, reading the Haggadah, singing and playing their guitars.

"One of my girlfriend's friends brought up this idea of a seder in the desert - in the middle of nowhere - and I really liked it," Rossman said. "It's very interesting. I've been doing the seder at my kibbutz for 27 years, it's pretty boring and repetitive. So it's an interesting situation now, and it's going to be a religious seder, which I've never tried before."

Rossman goes on to say that the alternative seder night him and his friends created will include Passover songs, kosher catering and that they'll stay in tents and rooms around the site.

Rossman is also not worried about what his parents might think.

"They took it pretty easy," he said, "because my brothers are not doing seders at home anymore anyway. They'll be spending it at my brother's girlfriend's place."

One doesn't need to go as far as the Negev to find an alternative seder night. Tel Aviv has some too.

One such seder is celebrated by Rina, a local 33-year-old, along with four girlfriends and their partners for the fifth year now.

"We are five single friends, with partners but with no kids, and four years ago we've realized that seders stress us out with gifts, leaving town, irritating aunt interrogations and such stuff," she said. "It started out as our private alternative for leaving Tel Aviv, and then we just kept it up."

She added that "instead of saying 'and you told your son', we're going to say, 'and you told your girlfriends.'

The Haggadah isn't read, and the location changes from year to year and there aren't always matzot, but they try to keep the table clear from chametz.

"It's a festive girls' night - something symbolic," she said.

And the parents? "They got used to it," she said. "We compensate them during the holiday week by going to see them outside Tel Aviv."