Idina Menzel and others to lead ‘Saturday Night Seder’ to raise funds for CDC

Jewish and non-Jewish celebs will seek to ‘channel creative energies and gather community’ through music and comedy in live broadcast

Idina Menzel attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., Feb. 9, 2020. (Karwai Tang/Getty Images via JTA)
Idina Menzel attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., Feb. 9, 2020. (Karwai Tang/Getty Images via JTA)

An all-star team of Jewish celebrities (and some non-Jewish ones) are putting on a virtual Passover Seder — which is sure to include plenty of music and comedy — on Saturday night to raise money for a Center for Disease Control fund for first responders working during the coronavirus outbreak.

The full list, seen here, includes names such as Idina Menzel, Mayim Bialik, Ben Platt, Ilana Glazer, Josh Groban, Debra Messing, Henry Winkler, Billy Eichner, Andy Cohen, Harvey Fierstein and Michael Solomonov. The non-Jewish Rachel Brosnahan, who plays the lead in the popular and very Jewish series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” will also participate.

The show will be free for viewers and streaming here through StoryCourse and on Buzzfeed’s Tasty brand YouTube channel. Those watching will be encouraged to donate throughout. It was produced in association with Reboot.

“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,” head writer Alex Edelman said in a news release. “We’re thrilled to be reinterpreting the timeless story of liberation and renewal while raising money for those on the front lines enduring — and fighting — an actual plague.”

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