Rather than having students sit in large groups to hear the Haggadah over a microphone, this year the N.C. Hillel is having students celebrate “Passover Your Way.”
Hillel, an on-campus Jewish center, is providing students with the training and food they need to turn the annual Jewish holiday into a more personal experience, often giving them a chance to lead it for the first time in their lives.
The “Passover Your Way” initiative marks an effort by Hillel to have students celebrate Passover as it is traditionally celebrated — with friends and family in the intimate setting of a home or apartment.
What is Passover?
-Passover celebrates theemancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt with an eight day festival held during the Hebrew month of Nissan.
-The central event of Passover is the two Seders held on the first two nights of the holiday.
-The Seders are feasts with matzah, bitter herbs and wine or grape juice.
-The story of the Exodus from Egypt is also told through a recitation of the Haggadah.
“The Seder is really a time for asking questions, conversation, reflection and telling stories,” said Ari Gauss, executive director of Hillel.
Celebrate Passover
Seder at N.C. Hillel
Time: 7 p.m. today and Tuesday
Location: 210 W. Cameron Ave.
Seder with Chabad
Time: 7 p.m. today and Tuesday
Location: The Franklin Hotel
Seder with Jewish Experience Movement of the South
Time: 7:45 p.m. today and Tuesday
Location: 213 Crest Drive
“Our thought was if we could recreate that here and let students own their own Passover experience, it’d be a richer and more meaningful experience.”
Gauss added that parents and grandparents normally lead a Seder, a meal that begins the eight-day Passover festival celebrating the Israelites’ escape from slavery in ancient Egypt.
Senior Jessie Stellini, the co-president of Hillel, said conducting the Seder meal with a microphone did not provide an ideal experience.
“This year, ‘Passover Your Way’ will hopefully have a more intimate setting,” she said.
Tonight, more than 100 students are set to attend the eight Hillel-sponsored Seder meals. Most will be held in students’ apartments, but there is limited space available for the two meals held at Hillel.
Some students haven chosen to center their Seder meals around a theme, such as women’s rights, Greek life or Israel and Palestine issues. Another meal focuses on music and theater.
In addition to the small, private celebrations, the Franklin Hotel will be hosting Chabad’s Passover ceremony, where the theme will be “The Unbroken Chain of Jewish Existence.”
With 300 people — mostly students from UNC and Duke University — expected to attend, it will be the largest Passover celebration in the Triangle.
The Seder will include traditional hand-baked Shmura Matzoh, four cups of wine and an exquisite five-course Passover meal.
Rabbi Zalman Bluming, the director of Chabad at Duke University who is leading the Seder, said he hopes to provide a meaningful experience to students who aren’t able to celebrate with their own families.
“We want to try to incorporate the customs and traditions from their family experiences,” he said. “We want to provide a home away from home.”
He said he will initiate conversation about changing bad habits, focusing and controlling your life and planning the future with a life in the present.
He said many students have helped to prepare the Seder meal.
“Students have been gaining a lot of culinary skills,” he said, adding that preparing the meal can be difficult.
“To feel the sensation of freedom you have to experience the pains of efforts and toil.”
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
