Pesakh Seder with Jewish children in Zaporozhye

On April, 13th the fund “People Who Care” invited for the Seder Jewish orphan children and those children one of whose parents was dead. Such Jewish families are not able to treat a child on a festive day with tasty food and give a child presents.
Besides orphan children, the fund PWC also invited children from the Jewish school “Alef”. One of those children’s parents is dead. Those children were brought to the Seder by the Principal of the school Dolina Shalmina. The Seder was conducted by the Director of Zaporozhye JAFI branch Aleksandr Mitnik.

Children were looking forward to the festive sacrament, and in order to cheer them up, we took a picture of them all before the beginning of the Seder.
Here are they all, the 10 Jewish children, who had a holiday on April, 13th, in their orphans’ lives:
- Mark Bely
- Lera Granovskaya
- Yan Tsvirko
- Vladislav Kurnitskiy
- Yevgeniy Zaytsev
- Natasha Levchenko
- Alik Afanasyevskiy
- Dmitriy Voznesenskiy
- Yuliya Kovtun
- Ivan Huhashvili

Of course, the children were looking forward to something special. Pesakh is usually celebrated with special luxury and festiveness. Thus Jewish people celebrate a great event in their history – Exodus, their outcome from Egypt and liberation from slavery. During the Seder, Haggadah is read, the Story of Exodus : regarding slavery in Egypt, liberation of Jewish people, regarding the ten plagues of Egypt, the miracles, regarding traditions and customs of Pesakh. The law obliges each Jew to know the History of their people since their childhood and in future transmit the knowledge to their children. That is why participation of children in the Seder is so important: they study their people’s history, its customs.

The Seder was conducted by Aleksandr Mitnik. He told the children the Haggadah and underlined that all the Jews ought to remember their liberation and the fact that the Lord led them out of Egypt. Children asked questions, and in compliance with the tradition, received answers from an elder person.

On the special plate, which was placed near the conductor of the Seder, there were:
zeroa – a loaf of meat with a bone,
beitza – a hard-boiled egg,
maror – bitter herbs,
haroset – mixture of grated apples, nuts and wine,
karpas – potatoes,
hazeret – horseradish.
The conductor of the Seder told the children about what each of those dishes symbolized in the history of Exodus.

Beside the plate, there was a marvellous silver goblet for Eliyagu a-Novi.
The main commandment of Pesakh obliges all the Jewish people to eat matzot – bread made of unleavened dough. There were three wafers of matzot interlaid with serviettes on a special plate.

During the Seder, the children were asked to remember the food the Jewish people had in the desert while searching for the Promised Land: matzot, bitter herbs washed with sweat and tears.

Children tasted all the ritual dishes after listening to their history and meaning.

But the thing they liked best of all was zeroa (a piece of a chicken’s leg).

Vanya Huhashvili was eating with such appetite!

In the beginning of the Seder the children were serious, feeling the drama of the history of Exodus.

But in the end of the Seder, zeroa, gefilte fish, fish balls and sweet haroset gave the children good mood and perceived them that the Promised Land was the best place on the Earth.

Vanya Huhashvili showed everybody the city of Holon on the map of Israel. Soon he will have a trip there and see his relatives in Israel.

Aleksandr Mitnik showed Lera Granovskaya the city of Haifa.
Lera is going to be there with her guardian granny on May, 14th. Lera is going to arrive at the school Yemin Orde near Haifa where she is probable to live and study.

In order to make this Seder memorable for the orphan Lera Granovskaya, she received tickets to Israel which were bought on our English donors’ money. We are so grateful to them!

In compliance with the tradition, children play a game: they are to find a hidden small piece of matzot (afikoman) and eat it. Children who found matzot received gifts as well.

And of course, all the children were meant to leave the Seder with gifts. Here are wonderful gifts the fund PWC prepared for each child: a box of matzot, a sweet box and a wonderful book “The Haggadah”.

It took the children a few minutes to take their gifts and, of course, they took their pleasure in posing for a picture

The fund PWC had a special gift for the Principal of the Jewish school “Alef” – the booklet “Stirring meetings in the Promised Land”. And it was not just a gift. There was a story of one of her students – Sergey Student.
Dolina was stirred by the fact that Sergey was so happy in Israel.

Aleksandr Mitnik, Director of Zaporozhye JAFI branch received the same booklet. Two of the orphan children from the booklet, Vera Chirka and Sergey Student, left for Israel in JAFI programs. Their stories and meeting them in Israel was described in the booklet.

In the end of the Seder everybody wished: “Next year – in Jerusalem!”