Ma Nishtana: Why Was This Passover Different From All Other Passovers at Georgetown?

We are delighted to report that this year nearly 300 undergraduate and graduate students celebrated Passover at FIVE Jewish Chaplaincy sponsored seders!

We welcomed dozens to a Pre-Passover Chocolate seder, nearly 150 undergrads to the First Night seder in Copley, about two minyans of undergrads to the Second Night seder, over 50 graduate students to the MSFS seder, and nearly 50 graduate students to the Business School’s Jewish Graduate Student Association seder. And we’ve heard told of at least three other seders that students organized on their own in their residence halls and apartments.

Highlights of the seders include:

· Catered kosher-for-Passover meals that were truly excellent
· The spirit at each seder which was warm, reflective and very engaged
· The earnestness with which students sang, read, asked questions, and shared personal reflections
· The sheer amount of Jewish students and their friends that came together to celebrate

For some students, Jewish and non, this was their very first seder. For others it was closer to their 21st. But we hope that all felt welcome. That’s certainly what we’ve been hearing. This excerpt from a note to the Rabbi reflects the general feedback we’ve received:

Thank you SO much for your help putting on the Passover event last week! Rabbi, you made such an impact on our classmates and we enjoyed having you lead our service, share knowledge, provoke discussion, and make sure everyone was well fed 🙂 We look forward to doing many more events together in the future! 

It would not have gone so well without the diligent help from Ari, the Interim Program Co-ordinator, so thank you for being incredibly on top of the set up and logistics. We appreciate that you made yourself available even during your holiday travels. 

We send our best wishes from our Passover community to yours and hope that you had a meaningful, powerful holy day.

Rabbi Rachel Gartner , Director for Jewish Life