Passover begins at sundown on Friday, April 15th
Passover is the most celebrated holiday on the Jewish Calendar. To enhance your Passover experience, we are sharing information others in the congregation have shared with us. Come back here as we update this page with holiday information you can use. Have something you would like to share? Email Beth Klareich or phone her at (619) 697-6001 ext. 108.
Getting Ready | Make Seder Special | Family-Friendly Seders
Find Your Perfect Haggadah | What's for Dinner?
Resources to Enhance Your Holiday
Whether your looking for interesting ways to teach children and grandchildren about Passover, or seeking resources to strengthen your holiday experience, we have some suggestions. An abundance of materials, gathered from our partner organizations, will support you in creating moments, making memories, and maybe even starting some new traditions. We are hopeful that you will find them helpful in bringing meaning to your holiday.
JTS Passover Resource Page | PJ Library Passover Resource Page | Jewish Grandparents Network Passover Resource Page
18 Doors Passover Resource Page (formerly Interfaith Family)
Getting the House Ready
The Rabbinical Assembly Passover Guide
This year’s Passover Kashrut guide is available here. An additional resource is the Rabbinical Assembly’s Kashrut Subcommittee Recommendations for Passover 5780 in Light of COVID-19.
Cleaning Help
We found two articles about cleaning for Passover and the meaning it has:
- Passover Cleaning: Year One, A Newlywed Finds the Scrubbing To Be Surprisingly Rewarding, Forward Magazine
- Cleaning the Cupboards for Passover, The New York Times
Sell Your Chametz
To arrange for the sale of all chametz in your possession to a non-Jew online click here. Your chametz will be sold in full accordance with Jewish laws. You will also have the opportunity to make a donation to help purchase Pesach food for the needy.
Making Room at the Table...
This year, you'll have two virtual options with TIS. Watch for details!
There's some shopping to be done
Sadly, our Traditions Gift Shop is closed due to COVID-19.
Make Seder Special
Jewish Woman, the magazine published by Jewish Women International, has lots of Passover information in its pages. We picked out these articles as a sample:
- Too Much on Your Plate: Passover Strategies for Women Who Do Too Much
- The Cleansing Power of ‘Dirty Laundry’: The Seder gives us each permission to tell our personal story of enslavement honestly and openly, taking an important step toward freedom.
- Catharsis in the Kitchen: 8 Ways to Prepare Spiritually for Passover
- 10 Revolutionary Ideas to Explore at Your Seder: There’s nothing stale about these insights and ideas that Jewish leaders take a contemporary spin on the core Passover story. The Seder is full of fresh insights and many great ideas with contemporary resonance that you and your family can explore.
Seder Source Material
Here are a variety of ideas to help create a unique Seder to meet the needs of those at your holiday table. We’ve selected a handful of ideas to share but encourage you to look at and, if you wish, incorporate into your Seder.
- Tips for a great Seder: Seder night is the family education experience par excellence, so here are a variety of ways to make it more meaningful for your family:
- The Matzah of Unity: To be recited during the Seder at Yachatz – when breaking the middle matzah: Click here
- Afikomen Treasure Hunt: Here is a fun activity to send home to families with educational value. It is especially good at getting all the kids, regardless of age, to cooperate in the search: Click here
- Avodah and AJWS: Award-winning performer Mandy Pantinkin created a Passover Essay encouraging Jews to ponder freedom for people around the world with a focus on Cambodia. Click here to learn more.
- Modern Passover Seder Songs: These songs have been gathered from far and near, insert them at a place that your Seder participants will enjoy and find meaningful: Click here.
Family-Friendly Seders
Some fun ideas to enhance a child’s (and everyone else’s) Seder experience…
Beth Klareich shared with us some of the ideas she used when hosting Seder for the first time in her own home...
A Thirty-Minute Seder?
It can be done and many families have really enjoyed it! Check it out here...
And Then There is the Two-Minute Seder...
Okay, it's just a little silliness but we enjoy it! Click here...
More for Children
- Sedering with Kids: Ira Sherbak recommended this article by Sharon Estroff...
- Torah Tots: Enjoy the magic and wonder with explanations and activities for young children here.
- Passover Song Parodies will provide you with fun and interactive opportunities to retell the story and entertain your guests:
- Musical parodies: Beatles, Broadway, Country and more.
- Funny Passover Songs
- The Seder Rap
Find Your Perfect Haggadah
This year (2020 COVID-19) many of us will be choosing an electronic Haggadah in order to connect with family and friends throughout the world. Many thanks to Ellen Lorang for compiling a series of electronic options for you to choose from.
A Different Night - Classic Edition | A Different Night - Compact Edition
Jewish Boston - The Wandering is Over Haggadah - A Seder for Everyone
American Jewish World Service - Global Justice Haggadah | Jewish Federations of North America Passover Haggadah
Sephardic Heritage Foundation - Haggadah Shelom Yerushalayim | Seder Chaveirim Kol Yisraeil | Siddur Hallel V'Zimrah
Make Your Own Passover Haggadah
If you ever wish you could customize your haggadah to make it special for your family, you might want to check out Haggadot.com. Starting either with a traditional or liberal haggadah -- or even a blank book -- you can select from their library of sources to bring in readings, prayers, and songs to make the haggadah you have always wanted at your table.
Haggadot.com was just one of the haggadot that Rabbi Jason Miller reviewed in a recent article for the Huffington Post highlighting haggadot for the 21st century. Josh Fleet wrote about 18 different haggadot, both historic and contemporary, in a slide show sharing their beauty — and a little inspiration for you.
The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History and Commentary, edited by Rabbi David Golinkin in collaboration with Dr. Joshua Kulp who traces the historical development of the seder’s liturgy for the last two millennium. Rabbi Golinkin, who was our 2009 Scholar-in-Residence, contributed the illustrations from his own private collection of haggadot and from the Frank-Lovell and Morris & Beverly Baker Haggadah Collections in the Schechter Institute Library.
"Frank, my non-Jewish husband, has attended many seders and it wasn’t until he read A Different Night, The Family Participation Haggadah by David Dishon and Noam Zion, that he felt a haggadah gave him the full meaning of the seder."
from a member
There are numerous versions of the Haggadah now in print, each bringing a new perspective to the holiday of Passover. My Jewish Learning offers some suggested options as well as a comparison of some haggadot representing a variety of points-of-views.
Keshet, is a national organization that works for full LGBTQ equality and inclusion in Jewish Life. They are featuring a Haggdah that follows the traditional structure of the Passover Seder but contains readings and discussion questions pertaining to GLBT identity and life. Click here for the details.
What's for dinner?
We're collecting everyone's favorite recipes here... but don't forget to send your own special recipe to us!
And recipes and menus we found online were getting too big to keep on this page. Click here for our great internet finds...
Food and Traditions
Almost every family has particular dishes they share on special occasions. The truth is that we love the idea of those foods sometimes more than the foods themselves. Click here and go to My Jewish Learning to read how Leah Koenig turned the kosher-for-passover macaroons that she so disliked as a child into a delicacy she shares year round.
Itta Werdiger-Roth now makes gefilte fish from scratch and the result is a delicious, fresh alternative to the store bought version. Are you up to the challenge?
What are your food traditions -- good or bad?
Help Others Celebrate with Your Donations
Before the holiday begins, bring in an item or two to be donated to families who wish to celebrate the holiday but need our assistance. Let’s make sure all who are hungry may come and eat.
Passover Leftovers? Donate Them!
Following the holiday, remember that if you have leftover, unopened, non-perishable food products from Passover, you can bring them to the synagogue and put them in our Hand Up Youth Food Pantry bin. San Diego Jewish Family Service will take your leftovers and be sure a family has food on their table. Feel free to bring along any other food items you might have as well.
Have Tips and Help to Share?
Email Beth Klareich, Program Director, and we will post it here!
Special Thanks
We would like to thank Art Impressions, Inc. (the coolest rubber stamp company) for permission to use their character Madge in our banner.