Hub Cap Seder Plate. Is it the first? What with all the upcycled hubcaps online, I’m surprised. I see bird baths, bird feeders, wall clocks, yard art, but no seder plates. Then again, a Venn diagram of Jewish + DIY + Automotive Enthusiast would not reveal much of an overlap. Thanks to a car-crazed (and Presbyterian) Dad, I’m somewhere in the intersection of the three sets. Witness my Distributor Cap Menorah which was a Google first, as well.
To truly honor my late father, I should present a Studebaker hub cap as the basis of this Passover prototype, but despite the temptations of eBay, I made do with what I already had. To make do with a Found Object is half the fun, anyway. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.
The other half of the fun:
My found Chrysler hub cap—technically, a “center cover” — is silver, round and still shiny: perfect for a Passover ke’ara (קערה, plate). Luckily, it is small enough not to crowd out a place setting from my already crowded LEGO table, I mean dining table.
I have just enough room for all 6 seder symbols, arranged as per Talmudic specifications. However, the mini, clay Zeroa (shankbone) and the plastic Easter egg Beitzah will not win any kosher awards.
And, I realize that the name “Chrysler” in the center of the plate, rather than the 3 Hebrew letters that spell Pesach, is likewise less than kosher. (Say the name slowly and emphasize the “s” sound.) My former Graduate School of Religion classmates would be quick to point out the irony, given that most of them are Christian, and that most of them celebrate a version of Passover where SOMEONE assumes the role of the Pesach lamb, but I can assure you that this Chrysler center cap was but a serendipitous find on the side of the road.
P.S. I dunno if Walter P. Chrysler, founder of the corporation, was Jewish or not, but the name supposedly comes from the German/Jewish surname Kreisel. This is the sort of thing I could waste an afternoon on, but I’m tearing myself away to go do something useful.
Bible Belt Balabusta 
