This Saturday, BuzzFeed’s culinary arm Tasty will bring together dozens of celebrities for a virtual Seder benefiting the CDC Foundation.
“In a time of confinement and uncertainty, a rag-tag team of Jews and non-Jewish Passover enthusiasts felt it was more important than ever to channel creative energies and gather community,” Alex Edelmen, a stand-up comedian and head writer for the event, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be reinterpreting the timeless story of liberation and renewal while raising money for those on the frontlines enduring–and fighting–an actual plague.”
Stars including Idina Menzel, Darren Criss, D’Arcy Carden, Josh Groban, and Tan France will all take part in the Seder by broadcasting from their homes, and the entire dinner will be shared as one livestream via a dedicated website, saturdaynightseder.com, and Tasty’s YouTube channel.
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Together, participants will “celebrate through music and comedy the original story of the Exodus,” per BuzzFeed. The Seder is being produced by StoryCourse, a New York City-based company that specializes in theatrical meals blending food and performance.
The livestream begins April 11 at 8 p.m. EST. It’s free to watch, but the goal is to ask viewers to contribute funds to the CDC Foundation’s Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund. The CDC Foundation is an independent nonprofit created by the U.S. Congress to raise money for the Centers for Disease Control. According to the foundation, donations to the emergency response fund go toward “mobiliz[ing] a response to quickly assist CDC with taking aggressive public health measures to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus.”
You can find out more about the fund here, and see a complete list of Saturday Night Seder’s celebrity guests here.
