Jewish students at the University of Oregon did not let social distancing prevent them from celebrating Passover this year. Oregon Hillel has embraced new ways to provide resources, such as a Passover DIY kit on the foundation’s website, to the Jewish community so they could continue to honor the holiday.
Before the university turned to remote classes, Oregon Hillel planned to host its Passover Seder at the Ford Alumni Center and was expecting a large number of students to attend. Some family members were planning to fly out to help prepare the Passover meals.
“We had all these grand plans and, you know, that goes out the window when life happens,” Andy Gitelson, the executive director of Oregon Hillel, said. “We just needed to pivot a little bit and think about what was most valuable and listen to our students about what they needed.”
Kaya Rubinstein, the engagement coordinator for Oregon Hillel, was going to be celebrating her first Passover in Eugene and was prepared to cook for over 100 students. “I help students and that’s really like my biggest concern is making sure that students that are here and even students that are back home feel like there’s community and they’re still able to celebrate one way or another,” she said.
Oregon Hillel is finding creative ways to adapt to the current circumstances. The center for Jewish life created a page on its website, Hillel@Home, where students can find ways to connect with socially distant community members and friends. Students who plan on hosting their own Passover Seder from home can also find several resources such as a Passover Seder checklist and a recipe book.
Leah Burian, a sophomore music history major and an intern for Oregon Hillel, helped put together the Passover DIY kit. “We’re making the best of the situation,” she said. “I was expecting to do it with a bunch of my friends at Hillel in Eugene, and now I’m going to be doing it with my parents, which is not bad, it’s just going to be different.”
Oregon Hillel delivered students, who couldn’t access transportation or other resources, last-minute items such as ingredients to prepare for their Passover Seder, Gitelson said.
Gitelson said he believes that the current crisis is pushing the Jewish student community to get creative with how it is celebrating Passover this year. “This is a moment like no other generation has lived through probably back to the early 1900s,” he said. “And so we think it’s a way that you can marry tradition with experience, and create something that’s meaningful for the students.”
The coronavirus pandemic forced Jewish students to keep their Passover Seders, which are often celebrated with extended family and friends around the dinner table, to intimate household gatherings.
“A very common tradition over Passover is that you are supposed to look out onto the streets and see if anyone doesn’t have a way to celebrate and invite people in,” said Maddie Schaeffer, the development associate for Oregon Hillel.
Worldwide, people are being warned not to invite people into their homes. As a result, Oregon Hillel shifted to celebrating the holiday online with a virtual seder over Zoom. Rabbi Meir Goldstein hosted the seder with his wife from their kitchen table. “I hope it brings a little bit of light to folks’ lives,” he said.
Passover, which commemorates the Jewish people’s journey to freedom from slavery in Egypt, lasts for up to eight days. “For the first night, we ask the question: ‘Why is this night different than all other nights?’” Goldstein said. “And underneath that we will be asking, ‘Why tonight is different than other seders?’”
The story of Passover also tells of a series of 10 plagues by which Jews were redeemed from slavery. Goldstein stated that this year would be different because the world is currently living through a plague.
“The question we’re asking ourselves is the question that all the world’s asking, which is, ‘When will we be redeemed from this plague?’” he said. “So in that way, this Passover is different than all other Passovers.”
Goldstein hopes celebrating Passover will give students a sense of compassion for themselves and others in a time of uncertainty.
“One thing that Passover teaches us is that we need to strive for and actively work towards achieving our redemption from slavery,” he said. “And one of the things that coronavirus is teaching us is that each one of our individual redemptions is all tied up in each other’s, so I hope that this holiday, as well as just this time in general, will be a rebirth of people’s commitment to each other and a sense of responsibility for each other and to approach each other with a greater sense of compassion.”
