Passover at the Oxford Chabad Society this year was one of the busiest ever outside term, serving well over a hundred students and community members at the Passover Seder nights at the Slager Jewish student and community centre, as well as over two hundred meals throughout the festival.
A Jewish student from Balliol who attended the first Seder with friends commented “Thanks for a very enjoyable Seder, I can say that it was one of the best.....”
In addition to serving hundreds of meals over the eight day festival, a well stocked Passover shop was at hand for the second year running at the Slager centre on George Street, from which about fifty students and community members benefited greatly. Many packages of hand baked Matzot were also made available for those who wanted.
With the growth of Jewish life in Oxford, for the first time a major high street supermarket, Sainsbury’s, opened almost right opposite the Chabad House on the Cowley Road an extensive range of Kosher products in time for Pesach at low price.
The Oxford Chabad Society is presently in discussion with the managers to increase the range to include meat and dairy products, and coordinate a Kosher awareness day with a sampling of a variety of Kosher foods during the summer university term to promote Kosher and highlight that keeping Kosher in Oxford does not have to be a difficult feat. This new Sainsbury’s range is in addition to the Kosher shop and café at the Chabad centre in town on George St that has been open for the last couple of years.
A further range of Kosher food is delivered to Oxford regularly by Gee’s from Birmingham and Just Kosher from London.
Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, commented “we are extremely delighted that the Cowley Road, where the Chabad House has been located in Oxford since 1988 and where the first Mikvah in Oxford in 800 years was built in 2008, has become the launch for this provision of Jewish life in the city and look forward to seeing even more awareness of Kosher in Oxford and growth of Jewish life in the years to come.”
For more information about Kosher food provisions in Oxford and Kosher catering, please email [email protected].
Estel wrote...