"About 800 Jews celebrate Passover at Chabad on Campus across the UK"
Chabad on Campus organised communal Passover sedarim this year for a record number of approximately 800 Jews in ten locations throughout the UK, despite Passover falling outside the university term.
In Bristol, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Nottingham and Oxford, Jewish students and young professionals, as well as many others from varied backgrounds, took the opportunity to attend Passover sedarim and Festival meals.
All the sedarim combined the traditional elements, such as the four cups of wine, matzos, bitter herbs, and charoset, with refreshing and lively songs and insights into the Passover story making it relevant to the experience of being a Jew today.
“We had a very international crowd, so we sang in Mah Nishtana in eight different languages - Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Spanish, Greek, Latin, Korean and Russian,” says Rabbi Reuven Leigh, director of Chabad of Cambridge who hosted 70 people.
Sedarim in London drew large numbers and were especially popular with the large number of international school students studying in the capital. On the first night, Chabad of Bloomsbury catered for over 140 people while Chabad of South Kensington hosted 90 people at Boston University’s London campus.
“My family live in Australia and going home wasn’t really an option this year,” says Emanuel Zelniker who attended the Chabad of Bloomsbury’s. “I really enjoyed the seder and was happy to have somewhere to go to celebrate the holiday with other students.”
Having expanded last year to incorporate campuses in Bristol, Edinburgh Nottingham, South Kensington and South London, more students than ever had the opportunity to attend a seder.
Oxford hosted a mix of students, academics and community with over 140 people attending the Seder nights, led by Rabbi Eli Brackman, Chairman of Chabad on Campus UK and director of the Oxford University Chabad Society.
Guy Noa, who attends Oxford Chabad, said "Oxford Chabad is an amazing enterprise and thank you for allowing us to enjoy some Jewish atmosphere in
In Scotland, Chabad of Edinburgh organised two communal sedarim catering for around 70 people. “The seder attracted British students as well as American exchange students, local community members, tourists and Israeli backpackers,” says Rabbi Pinchus Weinman who moved to Edinburgh in 2008 to work with Jewish students. “The sedarim went down really well and people were happy to have the opportunity to attend since this was the first time there had been communal sedarim of this kind in the city.”
Chabad at the University of Bristol hosted about 70 people for Seder nights. One attendant said, "it was inspiring to see such an eclectic crowd of Jews from very different backgrounds gathered to celebrate and relive the Pesach experience together."
On the south coast, over 50 people attended the Passover Seder at the Chabad House at Brighton and Sussex University, led by Rabbi Zalman Lewis.
As well as sedarim, Chabad on Campus representatives also distributed hundreds of packets of matza and kosher for Passover food and provided hospitality for yom tov and shabbos meals.