For Jewish students on campus, today marks Passover, an event that symbolizes the Jewish People’s exodus from Egypt.
The holiday started Monday at sundown and will last until sundown of next Monday. Many Jewish students on campus are unable to spend the holiday at home, so Hillel, the on-campus Jewish organization, is bringing the celebration to students.
The group will be putting on a Seder meal on Wednesday. This meal is an annual event for Hillel, in which they eat traditional Passover foods, including unleavened bread, matzo ball soup, salad, fish and a vegetarian dish, all provided by dining services.
According to Rachel Rosenthal, treasurer of Hillel, matzo ball soup is a staple of Seder meals and said it is similar to chicken and dumpling soup.
“For Jewish people, you are used to being home during this time, but because it’s a weekday, you can’t really go home,” Rosenthal said. “So we want to provide a nice home away from home experience for people.”
The executive board of Hillel is trying to make the dinner a traditional Seder meal and spent approximately $500 of their budget on the dinner because of its significance to their faith, Rosenthal said.
Hillel is expecting 30 to 40 people to attend the event, said Dan Lubin, president of Hillel.
“Because of limited food and space, the event is kind of by invite only, but we also wanted to invite people of other faiths,” Lubin said. “So all the members of Hillel are invited, as well as some people from other religious organizations on campus.”
Ashley Berman, vice president of education and religion of Hillel, said the event would be beneficial of people of all faiths to attend.
“We’d really like it to be a learning experience for people to learn more about Jewish history,” Berman said.
Students who attend the event will get a different experience with their meal.
“During the dinner, we tell a story,” Rosenthal said. “You eat a specific thing and learn the symbolism of it. Everything is part of the story and you can’t eat something until you get that part of the story.”
The dinner will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Business Administration Building room 117. For more information, contact Ashley Berman at [email protected].