Weird things Jewish activists put on Passover seder plates

The Strawberry, as mentioned in the 2025 “Next Year in Liberation” Jewish Voice for Peace Haggadah, represents Gaza.

Strawberries are a major fruit crop that is cultivated in the Gaza Strip, and as the Israel-Hamas war continues post-October 7 Massacre, the suffering of Gazans is at the forefront of many progressive anti-Zionist Jewish seders. The JVP Haggadah was dedicate to the people of Gaza, who face a supposed famine and genocide.

“Gaza! We will never forget you, we will never forsake you, we will never stop fighting for you until all of your people live safe and free,” the haggadah prompts as a blessing in the karpas section of the seder.

2. An olive – Palestinians

The olive was also featured at the Tuesday JVP protest and in the 2025 Haggadah, similarly to the strawberry representing “Palestine.”

According to the JVP Haggadah, Elliot Bat Tzedek created the tradition to include an olive on seder plates to represent “olive groves destroyed in Palestine.”

Olives and their oil have long been a staple of the Levant, and hold a special place in Palestinian culture.

“The olive is for Palestine, our dear beloved kin, how the peace that comes from justice, is how everybody wins,” explains a 2025 poem by Aurora Levins Morales featured in the JVP Haggadah called “The Evolving Seder Plate.”

3. Watermelon – Palestinian nationalism

In an Instagram post shared by Independent Jewish Voices and IfNotNow, a slice of watermelon could be seen illustrated next to an olive on a seder plate.

The addition of a watermelon slice was prominent during the campus encampment protests in 2024, with the watermelon emoji and imagery long used to signify support of the Palestinian national cause.

The watermelon has been used in this role because, unless one buys seedless, the fruit has the colors of a Palestinian flag — red flesh, green and white rind, and black seeds.

4. A spoon – sick, elderly, and disabled

Among the long list of items to place on the seder plate suggested by the JVP Haggadah is a spoon — and though the text doesn’t explain why, a link to a 2020 Jewish News of North California article explains the gesture.

According to the article, a spoon is a symbol of nourishment and care, and is placed by some on the seder plate to remember the sick, disabled, and elderly. The 2022 Garlic on the Seder plate Haggadah supplement noted that the introduction of the spoon was added amid the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

5. Orange – LGBTQ+

The orange, listed in the JVP Haggadah and the advertisement for the April 22 Western Washington University “anti-Zionist Passover seder,” is included by some progressive Jews to represent LGBTQ+ Jews.

According to My Jewish Learning, the orange was first introduced in the 1980s by Jewish feminist academic Susannah Heschel for the fruitfulness that LGBTQ+ Jews brought to Judaism. Seder guests were invited to spit out the seeds in repudiation of homophobia. An article on the subject detailed that the orange replaced the crust of bread, which is forbidden on Passover, supposedly recalling a story in which a rabbi said there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for bread at the seder.

“Glowing orange segments bless every kind of love and every shade of gender fills the world we’re dreaming of,” explained Morales’s poem in the JVP Haggadah.

6. Acorn – Native Americans

Another seder plate item listed in the JVP Haggadah is the acorn, and though there is no immediate explanation, it is expanded on in suggested Passover resources.

A 2020 pamphlet, titled “An Acorn on the seder plate,” explained that the acorn was included to acknowledge seders occurring on land originally belonging to Native Americans — particularly the Chochenyo Ohlone. The pamphlet acknowledges the problem that acorns usually fall in autumn, while the Passover holiday occurs in spring.

“To remember this land and how its First Peoples lived before the ravages of colonization. To remind ourselves that we are guests here and to honor our hosts. To open ourselves to the vastness of the miracles that are already possible in our time, just as the oak is already possible within the acorn,” reads a blessing created in the pamphlet.

7. Garlic – radical collective care

Little explanation was provided by the JVP Haggadah for the inclusion of garlic on the seder plate, leading one to assume it is supposed to ward off blood-sucking Zionist vampires, but the supplement helpfully called Garlic on the seder plate offered other explanations.

The supplement explains that the garlic bulb was added to “remember and honor ancestral expressions of collective care that offer radical possibilities to help us redefine ‘safety’ and ‘protection’ in the face of empire.”

Jews were long identified as eaters of garlic, the supplement expanded, included in antisemitic tropes, and valued for its medicinal benefits. This ancestral medicinal value supposedly teaches that there are other avenues for protection other than “policing, borders, militarism, and nationalism, violent practices based insettler colonialism.”

“At this seder table, we re-enliven traditions of protection rooted in presence, in real aliveness, in unapologetic stink,” a suggested blessing reads.

8. Lock and Key – Mass incarceration

While a review of this year’s Haggadot didn’t yield a lock and key as an item on the seder plate, the inedible item deserves a mention for having been included by some in the past.

The 2017 Truah Haggadah supplement “Crying Out Against Mass Incarceration” suggested the inclusion of a padlock to raise awareness about “a modern-day form of slavery in our midst, mass incarceration.”

The supplement describes mass incarceration in the United States as a racist endeavor fueled by the war on drugs that enforces a caste system.

“Many factors have increased the incarceration rate, including the War on Drugs, the imposition of mandatory minimum sentencing, and privatization of prisons, which creates financial incentives for keeping people in prison,” expanded an answer in response to a supplemented question to add to the traditional four questions.

9. Banana  – Refugees

Another modern item that has fallen out of favor in recent years is the Banana. While usually placed next to other items to demonstrate scale, the yellow fruit is meant to represent the Syrian refugee crisis.

A 2015 pamphlet predictably called “The Banana on the Seder Plate” explains that Syrian refugees were undergoing their own modern exodus.

The pamphlet noted the tragic death of the child Alan Kurdi, whose appearance on a Turkish beach after drowning in 2015 raised awareness to the plight of those fleeing the Syrian Civil War.

10. Artichoke – Interfaith marriage

Another uncommon item added by some movements is the artichoke, meant to represent interfaith marriages.

An 18Doors article called “Five Interfaith Passover Readings You Can Add to Your Haggadah” explained that the thistles of the artichoke are like the thorny issue of interfaith marriage.

“Let this artichoke on the seder plate tonight stand for the wisdom of God’s creation in making the Jewish people a population able to absorb many elements and cultures throughout the centuries–yet still remain Jewish. Let the thistles protecting our hearts soften so that we may notice the petals around us,” explained the article.