A Chapel Haven Passover

What is the meaning of the egg? What is the meaning of the sprig of parsley? Of the flat bread called matzah? What is a symbol?

In many ways the talky Passover seder — basically a Socratic-style seminar with friendly Q and A along with tasty food and drink — is the perfect activity for young people establishing and improving their social communication skills and exploring the nuances of language and metaphor.

That’s why, of all the different kinds of Passover seders, among the most inspiring to this reporter is the one that unfolded Wednesday night at Chapel Haven Schleifer Center (CHSC), the transitional and residential campus in Westville for people over 18 with disabilities.

A seder is the ritual retelling of the Biblical exodus of ancient Hebrew slaves from Egypt. There are the ​“official” seders mandated for the first two nights of the holiday usually with nuclear and extended family, and then all kinds of others — college kids gathering far from home, seders at military bases, seders in prisons, Christian seders, and even political seders held now and then at the White House.

Now in its second year, and a program of CHSC’s Judaism Club, Wednesday’s seder was organized by the club’s coordinator, Rachel McEachern, and convened in the attractive community center building.

Around tables festively set with the traditional seder plate and symbolic foods, the event attracted 45 attendees (up from 30 at last year’s inaugural), mostly students in residence learning life and vocational skills, along with their beaming family members, and the CHSC staff.

“After you tell the story with the haggadah,” said Ally Cometz, ​“the best part of the seder is the people, talking to each other.”

Zoe Abrams and Hannah Kessler, along with McEachern, lit the candles and launched the seder with the traditional blessings and words of welcome.

McEachern, who is CHSC’s community outreach advisor & social recreation coordinator in the ASAT (Asperger Syndrome Adult Transition) program and a 14-year veteran staffer, helped create the Judaism Club. It meets monthly for residents who want to mark Jewish holidays and learn the traditions and who might not be able to go home on the holidays.

You could feel in the atmosphere the labor of love as readers took turns with the haggadah, which McEachern devised specifically for the occasion; it was color-illustrated with a text neither juvenile nor overly erudite and complex and with a healthy amount of Hebrew as well.

Sam Fischgrund, a New Yorker and in his seventh year at CHSC, agreed with Cometz about the pleasure of interaction with what he termed all the guests around the tables. And he said he also very much looked forward to reading the Hebrew texts as well.

Another attendee, Clare Shoup, said her delight was ​“seeing the comparisons between Judaism and Catholicism,” the religious tradition in which she grew up. 

The Judaism Club at CHSC is of course open to people of all faiths and marks the whole range of holidays with speakers, workshops, and other activities.

“The symbols are cool,” Shoup said at the far end of the table from beneath her jaunty baseball cap, noting that Easter’s Last Supper was after all a Passover meal.

And then it was time for the singing of a rousing ​“Dayenu,” a traditional Passover song, which to this reporter’s ears always sounds like a German beer-drinking song.

It was led by a 21-year-old who had just moved into CHSC in September and whose mom, who was helping out pouring wine and grape juice, said of her son since his arrival at CHSC, ​“He’s a totally different kid.” 

Dayenu reprises the range of achievements and even miracles in the long arc of Jewish history and declares any one of them would have been ​“dai,” or ​“enough.”