This Year in Jerusalem! AKA Passover

I know I’m long overdue for a new post. I’m going to attempt to knock out a post every day or 2 in order to leave out as little as possible and to catch up to the present day.

Being in Israel and celebrating Jewish holidays is a very unique and special experience. Having been here a few months now and celebrating my fair share (I'm pretty sure there's a holiday once a week here in addition to Shabbat), I’m realizing that being in Israel doesn’t necessarily make the holiday itself more special. In fact, sometimes the way its celebrated in Israel is different enough that the familiarity and lack of family I’m used to make it feel like a whole other celebration, but it is a wonderful experience to see how Jews around the world celebrate it, and to still feel that it is familiar and see how many similarities you have with people you’ve never met before.

Liz and I at the seder

My favorite thing about being in Israel during Passover is that when people tell you “Chag Sameach” (Happy Holidays) at the grocery store or anywhere else, there’s something very nice about hearing it and actually celebrating the holidays they’re referring to. Around Christmas time in America, everywhere you go people say happy holidays, and as a Jew you say thank you and move on knowing well and good they mostly mean Merry Christmas (and just partially New Years).

For the first night of Passover I had the opportunity to go with my friends Rachel and Liz to Rachel’s extended family’s seder up in Haifa. Her family was so warm and welcoming of us. In Israel, for the most part, if you’re not “religious” (i.e. Orthodox), you’re considered secular (this is something the progressive movements- Reform, Conservative, etc. are working on bringing into more mainstream Israel- to bring a religious option to people who want to practice their Judaism, but not be Orthodox). The seder was absolutely the shortest I’ve ever attended. We read a few key parts in the Haggadah for maybe 30 minutes, and then we moved on to dinner and never came back to “finish” the Haggadah after dinner. The food was delicious. I ate so much I thought I was going to pop. For the most part I have no idea what I ate either- some delicious cabbage dishes, matzah ball soup (though slightly different than the version I’m familiar with), and tons more.

Liz, Rachel, and I on the beach near Haifa. This is on a Moshav (village) that we visited with Rachel's family the 2nd day we were there.