Once again this year, KU Chabad welcomed more than 100 students to celebrate Passover together. Students experienced Passover Seder traditions complete with home-cooked holiday food.
“As a freshman celebrating my first Passover away from home, I was so concerned about how I would manage,” said Jacob Abowitz, a freshman from St. Louis, Missouri. “Turns out that I never left home — Passover at Chabad feels just like home. I always leave feeling very uplifted and part of the family.”
In addition to the Seders, KU Chabad offered a full week of kosher-for-Passover meals, making it easy for students to keep the holiday without having to survive on just pre-made foods such as macaroons and matzah.
KU Chabad also expanded its impact through its annual Matzah Campaign with the mission of ensuring that every Jew in Northeast Kansas could celebrate the Festival of Freedom. A team of dedicated rabbinical students traveled across the region, personally delivering Shmurah matzah and other Passover supplies to Jewish homes and families in the region.
They also travelled to Kansas State University, where they met Jewish students, and even to Fort Riley Army Base to ensure Jewish soldiers could experience Passover.
At KU, hundreds of matzah boxes and holiday packages were distributed directly to students living in fraternities, sororities and dormitories.
One recipient, Sharon Brown from Topeka, Kansas, said, “When I opened the door and saw someone standing there with matzah just for me, I got emotional. It meant so much to know that someone out there cares about me and my Judaism.”
Throughout the holiday week, celebrations continued across campus. ZBT fraternity hosted “Zeta Beta Seder”; AEPI fraternity featured a Passover Pizza Night; and there was a “Macaroon Fiesta” at Wescoe Beach.
KU Chabad thanks the many donors from the Kansas City Jewish community and the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City for their support of its Passover programming.