PICTURES: Shavei Israel communities celebrate Pesach
Pesach may be in the past (hopefully you didn’t pass over it – sorry, we couldn’t resist) but we have a few more pictures of Shavei Israel communities around the world celebrating the holiday that we wanted to share with you.
Warsaw
Shavei Israel’s emissary Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis led a Model Seder for Polish Jewish community members before the holiday. To keep the younger generation engaged, Rabbi Ellis took to the street to coach a Ten Plagues Relay Race featuring jumping frogs (in the black sacks) and a blindfold race to symbolize the plague of darkness.
Krakow
Meanwhile, in another part of Poland, Rabbi Avi Baumol kept the community busy with a class on Seder plate making, a session on the Hallel prayer said as part of the Haggadah, a schmooze with the Krakow JCC Senior’s Club, and finally a chametz party where participants attempted to finish all the leavened foods before the holiday began. Rabbi Baumol was compelled to drink that beer, lest its frothiness render Passover pasul (unfit for use according to Jewish Law).
Kaifeng Jews
The five Chinese Jewish women who Shavei Israel helped make aliyah earlier this year took to the Judean hills for a Passover hike. Here are Gao Yichen, Yue Ting, Li Jing, Li Yuan and Li Chengjin posing in the famous palm tree grove outside Moshav Matta, southwest of Jerusalem. (Photo credit: Tzipi Agrenat.)
Nigeria
Finally, the Igbo Jewish community of Nigeria got in the spirit of bidikat chametz – searching for any remaining bread before declaring it “null and void – on the night before the Seder. Bidikat chametz is traditionally done by candlelight. Officially chametz-free, the community then dressed up in their finest holiday clothes, laid out the table with wine and boxes of matzah, and prepared to welcome the holiday Friday night.
