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passover
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2020-04-10
Social Holidays: celebrate together but apart
Pictured is a flower wreath which is titled, "Celebrate together but apart" against a pink background. -
2020-04-01
Jewish Melbourne: Rabbi Chaim Herzog of Chabad Melbourne distributes shmura matza during pandemic
In this photo Rabbi Chaim Herzog of Chabad of Melbourne is delivering shmura matzah to Claude Schwarz. In the period before Passover the custom is to receive hand baked shmura matza for the seder night. -
2020
Jewish Melbourne: SPECIAL KA GUIDELINES FOR PESACH 5780 - 2020 DUE TO COVID-19
"Rabbinic Administrator of The Kashrut Authority, Rabbi Moshe D. Gutnick, advises the community that due to the urgent situation for so many in relation to the impact of the coronavirus, COVID-19, The Kashrut Authority is issuing a unique set of guidelines to assist with this difficult situation." They provide an outline of the new guidelines and a list of items that are Kosher for Passover, even if they do not have a hechsher, given the limits of the moment. They also provide guidelines for adequate Passover cleaning. -
2020-03-27
Jewish Melbourne: 'COVID-90 special KA guidelines for Pesach 5780 – 2020'
Guidelines provided by Rabbinic Administrator of The Kashrut Authority, Rabbi Moshe D. Gutnick -
2020-03-23
Jewish Melbourne: 'COVID-19: ABC’s Dr Norman Swan with a special message for the Australian Jewish community'
Produced by Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), this is a video of ABC's Dr Norman Swan with "a special message for the Australian Jewish community about social distancing – particularly with regard to Pesach." -
2020-04-02
Jewish Melbourne: 'Spirits high in Melbourne for Passover under self isolation'
newspaper article in the Herald Sun by Brianna Travers, that explains how Jews in Melbourne would be celebrating Pesach under lockdown -
2020-04-09
Jewish Melbourne: 'Australia's Jewish community is adapting Passover traditions in the time of coronavirus'
Article published on SBS News by Nadine Silva, with photos and a video, explaining the ways that different parts of the Jewish community adapted their Pesach to fit within Covid-safe guidelines -
2020-04-16
Lazer's Beam
The article is one person's anecdotes about the effect of COVID restrictions on religious and lifecycle events, separating family, and postponing weddings. -
April 6, 2020
Next Year in Person, a Zoom Passover
The Jewish side of my family gathered together on Zoom to celebrate Passover. It was disorganized, and chaotic. The grandmas had no clue what buttons to press, people kept muting themselves, my call crashed every 5 minutes. But in the end, it was about as chaotic as a normal Passover. However, the plagues were modified to include Corona and the final prayer ended “Next year in person” instead of the usual “Next year in Jerusalem.” -
2020-04-05
Pesach across three continents and four cities
First night seder of Pesach took place on zoom with ten different extended families from across the globe. Whilst it was chaos to the max, it was actually one of the most fun-filled interactive seders I have ever experienced. -
2020-04-07
Jewish Melbourne Passover 2020
Missing the Seder with friends...the story, songs, prayers, food and children squirming waiting for dinner. -
2020-04-05
A COVID LOVE LETTER
This time of year is usually buzzing with family and community. Passover is often referred to as a holiday of freedom, but this year it was for some people the furthest thing from that. As the Rabbi of an ever-growing synagogue and community centre, I host the Seders (traditional Passover feasts) at my home with community members and extend invitations to anyone willing to accept. However, this year there wasn’t anyone to invite. Leading up to this usually joyful holiday, I became quite dispirited as the calls started streaming in from community members that had lost their jobs, savings in the stock markets and now couldn’t even see their grandchildren. What’s ironic is that throughout the year I am the one chasing community members to bring them to the centre for events and prayer services. I also make calls, send WhatsApp and post on Facebook to catch their attention and attempt to entice them through the doors of the synagogue. Now I’m lamenting with them, trying unsuccessfully to find some reason as to why G-d is putting us through this test. The best I came up with was, “we are all in this together, we are all in the same boat”, none of us are unique in this corona-quarantining. Then a late-night call last week after the Sabbath really rocked me, a Holocaust survivor, 98 years old, had passed away and I was asked to officiate her funeral. Due to social distance regulations no more than 10 people were allowed to attend the funeral. This lady that I was laying to rest could’ve been my great-grandmother. I agonised about how I was to console this family that had just lost their matriarch. Who was I, some young rabbi, to give this family comfort and words of healing when they had had such a momentous loss, and their friends and extended family weren't even able to mourn together with them. This woman survived German slave labour camps during the Holocaust and now because of this silent killer was unable to have her grandchildren and great-grandchildren at her farewell. The reality of the situation is that COVID-19 has fundamentally changed my rabbinic role. As time goes on and this becomes our new normal, the constant calls from community members looking for support have been integrated into my schedule. My role has changed from preaching on a pulpit to one of reassurance and consolation during this time of social isolation and loneliness during the festive season of Passover. Whenever I am on the phone to a congregant I lighten the mood by facetiously joking “thank G-d crèche is an essential service!" With four children of my own under the age of five, or should I say with four babies under the age of five, I would have never been able to do anything if the government had pulled the plug on crèche. I was quietly praying together with my wife that they wouldn’t. I started dreading the upcoming school holidays, what am I going to do for two weeks locked in the house with my kids especially over Passover? Is my Passover Seder going to be 10 minutes because of nappy changes and bedtime will be in the middle of it? Incredibly without guests, my wife and I had the most wonderful two weeks locked up at home with our children. Our Seder was a lively event with re-enactments of the exodus of Egypt, as well as long speeches and songs from my 3-year-old who lively sang way past his bedtime. I even dressed up as Moses one night. I saw the silver lining in this turbulent time-I finally had time to be fully present with my children, no phone to disturb me, as on Jewish festivals we don’t use electronics, I had no sermon to fine-tune and I was finally able to spend the entire time with my family. My 4-year-old even learnt how to ride a bike without training wheels, an impressive feat that his grandmother told him over FaceTime “your daddy could only do it when he was 5”. Yes, the fridge has some scratches and dents that came about with children 2 and 3 trying to break into it for some milk. The curtains to their room have been ripped down and I am trying unsuccessfully to find a tradesman to come and fix it. But, I must say lockdown was a sort of blessing that I didn't know I wanted. Spending quality time with my kids without having to run to an urgent meeting or being required to write emails, was in a way an Exodus from real life I much needed (hopefully temporarily). But...I think my wife now needs a holiday. -
2020-04-10
Plague Journal, Day 28: Sirens, corpses, seder
I'm keeping a Covid-19 journal. Here's the latest entry, featuring sirens, 1,000 dead New Yorkers, real estate concerns, and a videoconference Passover seder. -
2020-04-27
Humans of Covid-19 AU: Gersh Lazarow
“Pretty early we shutdown the synagogue, and my family and I made the decision to go into isolation, as I am immune-compromised due to recovering from cancer. Since then we have been lucky to be able to launch a virtual congregation, and that’s been quite amazing. We have daily activities, prayer services and events. We are finding that people are engaging in our program now more than ever before because they are looking for content and, in isolation, are recognising the beauty that community brings to their lives. Things have been brought from the periphery to the centre of our consciousness, including the importance of relationships, value of community, sense of connectedness - many things that we take for granted until they are taken away. As a rabbi, my tradition is a great source of comfort to me, inspiring me to find paths to continue, rather than to stop Jewish life, just as past leaders have done over our long 4,000 year history. The synagogue may be shut, but our community never closes. We accept the need for social distancing but reject any possibility for social isolation. This year we added a paper clip to the Passover seder plate as a symbol of life right now. COVID-19 has required from us immense flexibility: the ability to bend and turn, but like the paper clip, the capacity to hold us together. The colour of the traditional paper clip, silver, is also symbolic, representing that even in this chaos there are silver linings, such as time, awakenings, valuable lessons, great blessings.” Instagram post on Gersh Lazarow, Rabbi, and his experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives. -
2020-04-13
Next Time in Person
An illustration of a piece of matzah, with the words "next year in person" inscribed on it. The Passover Seder traditionally ends with an expression of hope to celebrate "next year in Jerusalem," a hope related to aspirations for the ancient Jewish homeland, and for peace. This year, separated by stay-at-home practices, we simply hope to celebrate "next year in person." -
2020-03-22
Irony: The Passover Seder Is Canceled Due to a Plague.
This was, for many of us, the first Passover that we could not celebrate together, in person, as a family. Various rabbinical authorities even authorized that it was okay to celebrate Passover over Zoom, even though all electronics are normally off-limits during the first two nights/days of the holiday. Passover is, of course, a holiday which celebrates a story in which Ten Plagues brought down upon the Egyptian slavemasters by God, feature prominently. Many of us, particularly in the United States, have been privileged to never have to suffer from anything we might call a "plague." Most years, the Ten Plagues are a much more abstract concept - some families even joke around about the plagues, with a wide variety of children's toys available to help make the Passover Seder more tolerable / enjoyable for little ones. This year, I would imagine there was far less interest in making light of the Plagues. *From Creator: Cheryl Rosen (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1039073053139568&id=100011106495553) -
2020-03-26
In Amber
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2020-04-11
Passover in quarantine
Solitary Passover Seder in quarantine -
2020-04-05
Priests, ministers, rabbis and other religious leaders go online to connect with faithful, but miss the personal touch
Though nearly every religion has used online streaming to connect with their congregations during the pandemic, preachers and parishioners alike are missing the personal contact that comes with in-person services. -
2020-04-09
This Passover, the seders are virtual. The plague is real
Jewish communities celebrated the holiday of Passover at home.