Chabad to help people prepare for extraordinary Passover

Rabbi Yosef Landa

By Ellen Futterman, Editor

As Passover approaches, and with all the safety restrictions being put in place to curtail the spread of COVID-19, many Jewish families throughout the St. Louis region may not be able to gather for a seder with family and friends as they have done in the past. Some may want to make a seder of their own, but don’t know how; others may decide to opt out and wait for next year’s seder.

With this in mind, Chabad of Greater St. Louis will soon be launching a region-wide initiative to ensure that every Jew in the St. Louis area wishing to host a Passover seder for the first time can easily do so, whether they are in quarantine or otherwise.

Collaborating with the organization’s five chapters in the region — the Morris & Ann Lazaroff Chabad Center in University City, Chabad on Campus, Chabad of Chesterfield, Chabad of the Central West End and the Chabad Jewish Center of St. Charles County – the organization will be offering free “seder-to-go” kits, which includes essential items needed to host and lead a seder (everything but the brisket, that is). Among these items are:

• Round shmurah matzah

• A bottle of kosher for Passover wine or grape juice

• Food for the seder plate, including the shank bone, egg, bitter herbs, charoset and vegetable

• A plastic silver kiddush cup

• A complete seder how-to guide

• A Hebrew/English annotated Haggadah

Chabad expects to launch its site, www.showmepassover.com by next week. It will also feature a plethora of Passover DIY tools and resources to help make the transition from “seder participant” to “seder host” that much more achievable and enjoyable.