Rabbi Shlomie and Devorah Leah Chein are looking forward to Passover—their 12th on the University of California campus in Santa Cruz.
With the holiday beginning at the start of Shabbat this year—the two seders will take place (outside of Israel) after nightfall on Friday, April 3, and on Saturday, April 4—attendance will most likely be smaller since students in a nearby radius tend go home over the weekend. Still, it represents an opportunity to reach out to those they otherwise might not see, says the rabbi, who with his wife runs Chabad Student Center, S. Cruz.
“For those less inclined to go to a seder, it’s easier for them to come on a weekend night,” says the rabbi. They usually host 100 students the first night and maybe 75 on the second.
On nearly 230 college campuses the world over, Chabad emissaries and their children will make a concerted effort to include as many students as possible into their Passover plans, with seders, programs and meals during the week. They are also handing out boxes of shmurah matzah—round, handmade matzah made from flour kept under careful supervision so it does not come into contact with water or other moisture—prior to the start of Passover and trying to make it available to students during the holiday as well.
“The goal is to reach and include as many students as possible, wherever they are, from Michigan to Moscow, so they can join a seder, have access to kosher-for-Passover food, and overall, enjoy and experience the holiday with their peers,” explains Rabbi Yossy Gordon, executive vice president of Chabad on Campus International. “At college, they should feel like they are part of an extended family with strong Jewish traditions.”
The classic story, related modern context and hot holiday dinner are all part of the draw, made even more compelling by the fact with the first night falling on Friday, students can stay later and really relish the seder since they don’t have classes, homework or impending exams the next day. (The same goes for the second night’s seder on Saturday.)
The Chein family will put up a party tent in the backyard and provide 15 steps of the seder so that people can follow along. “I really want our students to be engaged in our seder,” says the rabbi, explaining that his goal is to make it entertaining, educational and relevant. “I want people to leave with a positive Jewish experience; they should feel proud—happy to have done something Jewish and to be Jewish.”
At the first night’s seder, students will read different sections in English and ask the “Four Questions” in different languages. The seder on the second night is more interactive, with students sharing customs they do in their own families, with small prizes going to those who volunteer. “It keeps it fun,” he says. “People laugh, it’s enjoyable, and instead of just sitting there and turning pages, the story becomes alive in its own way.”
The tent goes up just before Passover, but other preparations are already underway. They have created menus and placed orders to get ingredients in from Los Angeles and New York. Soon, they’ll start the cooking and freezing. “On the day of the seder, we’ll have a lot of help,” says the rabbi. “We always have students involved somehow.”
A Passover fundraiser has also started this week, where former students can sponsor current students’ seats at the meal.
‘Live the History’
Rabbi Zvi Yaakov Zwiebel, co-director of the Librescu Chabad House at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., with his wife, Chanie, expects to attract more students specifically because the seders fall on a weekend. “It’s a huge advantage,” he says. “When it happens on a weekend, there’s less distractions. Students don’t have to choose between school and the seder.”
With the seders starting late, it makes a big difference that the students don’t have to wake early for classes the next day.
They usually host about 100 students at their Chabad House the first night and about half that number on the second, says the rabbi. For the first seder, a special guest will join them and speak to those gathered round the table: Anita Weisbord, a Holocaust survivor from New York.
The holiday offerings attract a lot of new students, according to Zweibel.
“My favorite part is seeing them connect and relive the Pesach experience,” he says. “The whole year, students might not see the difference between them and other students on campus, but once a year when they come for a seder, they’re able to really live the history and the background, and translate what it means to them as a Jewish student on campus.”
Chabad at Virginia Tech additionally offers a kosher-for-Passover meal plan, which last year served up some 500 meals over the course of the eight-day holiday. Now in its fourth year, it offers lunch and dinner on a campus that otherwise has no kosher food.
‘Here for Those Who Stay’
Rabbi Yossi and Manya Lazaroff, co-directors of the Rohr Chabad Jewish Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, usually welcome anywhere from 60 to 100 students and community members for their seders, which are held in the Chabad center’s 2,400-square-foot social hall. While they encourage students to go home and spend Passover with their families, given the weekend timing of the holiday this year, “we’re here for those who stay.”
As part of making their seders interactive, they will have a box on the table filled with different objects—from sponges to children’s toys to spatulas, which students will then need to connect to the Passover experience. “We celebrate the fact that our seders are educational, fun and meaningful at the same time,” says Lazaroff.
“We always read from the same Haggadah, and we always tell the exact same story,” continues the rabbi. Building on that, they discuss the concepts of limitations, freedom and the realization that they can tap into their inner potential “and make a difference in the world, or just within ourselves, our families, our friends and our communities.”
When Jewish students return to campus on Monday, the Lazaroffs will provide a kosher dining program so students “can keep Passover while enjoying gourmet lunches and dinners.”
As they welcome students around their table for those meals, the Chabad couple wants them to feel welcome and like family: “We want it to be warm, inviting and accepting. Every single person at our table, we love them just like our own immediate children.”
Main Ingredient: Conversation
Rabbi Chalom Loeub, co-director of Chabad Student Jewish Centre-Vancouver in British Columbia with his wife, Esti, is expecting about 30 students at each seder this year. They also plan to bring kosher-for-Passover lunches to campus and hold dinners at their house during the week of the holiday.
It’s their second year there—they serve the Jewish student populations at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and local community colleges in that part of Canada—and they’re expecting more guests as their network has continued to expand.
“We’re offering them meals so they don’t have to run into town” to get all of the necessary items, explains the rabbi. “They can just stay in the comfort of their ‘home away from home.’ ”
The matzah has been purchased, their meat order is coming soon, and dessert ideas are in the works. But the main ingredient will be the conversations that are sure to pop up around the table, as lively and different as the participants themselves.
Most of all, said Loeub, “we always thank the students for making our house a home just by being here.”
For students in need of a seder or shmurah matzah, contact your local Chabad on Campus chapter at www.chabad.edu.
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