Passover begins at sundown on Monday, April 18th.
For more Calendar information, click here…

Passover is the most celebrated holiday on the Jewish Calendar. To enhance your Passover experience, we are sharing information others in the congregation have shared with us. Come back here as we update this page with holiday information you can use. Have something you would like to share? Email Beth Klareich or phone her at (619) 697-6001 ext. 108.

Getting Ready |  Make Seder Special |  Family-Friendly Seders
Find Your Perfect Haggadah |  What’s for Dinner?

Getting the House Ready

The Rabbinical Assembly Passover Guide

Every year, the Rabbinical Assembly publishes their guidelines for kashering your home for Passover. Click here to download the Passover Guide for 5771.

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism

USCJ offers a lot of information about Passover observance. They offer this “plan of action” for getting the kitchen ready.

Cleaning Help

Orange Restoration, a cleaning service, is offering to make a donation to Tifereth Israel Synagogue for any member who uses their services and mentions our synagogue. We think their slogan is fun: “Our staff is so good that we will find your afikomen from last year.” Visit their website or call them at (800) 434-4614.

We found two articles about cleaning for Passover and the meaning it has:

• Passover Cleaning: Year One, A Newlywed Finds the Scrubbing To Be Surprisingly Rewarding, Forward Magazine
• Cleaning the Cupboards for Passover, The New York Times

Sell Your Chametz

To arrange for the sale of all chametz in your possession to a non-Jew online click here or contact the office at (619) 697-6001. Your chametz will be sold in full accordance with Jewish laws. You will also have the opportunity to make a donation to help purchase Pesach food for the needy.

Making Room at the Table…

If you are in need of some home hospitality for a seder or if you could be so kind as to share your seder with others, please contact Beth Klareich, Program Director (program@tiferethisrael.com) or by phone at 619 697-6001 ext. 108).

There’s some shopping to be done

Don’t forget to drop by Sisterhood’s Traditions Gift Shop and see all the lovely new merchandise. In addition to a terrific selection of children’s books, there are a lot of fun things to make Passover special for the littlest ones. Be sure to take advantage of their Passover Sale running through April 14th!

Last year, Whole Foods blogged about their efforts to find kosher-for-passover products that fit in with their other products. Read “Celebrate Passover… Naturally” to learn more.

Make Seder Special

Jewish Woman, the magazine published by Jewish Women International, has lots of Passover information in its pages. We picked out these articles as a sample:

• D.I.Y. Seder (Do It Yourself): Choosing – or creating – a haggadah that will speak to you and your guests.
• Secret Customs
• 4 Questions and Beyond: The Seder encourages an inquiring spirit that can illuminate the direction of our lives.
• Creating New Seder Traditions
• Eight Ways to Prepare for Passover

Seder Source Material from USCJ

10 Tips for a great Seder: Seder night is the family education experience par excellence, so here are 10 ways to make it more meaningful for your family: http://www.uscj.org/Ten_Tips_for_A_Great5814.html

The Matzah of Unity: To be recited during the Seder at Yachatz – when breaking the middle matzah: http://www.uscj.org/The_Matzah_Of_Unity6328.html

Afikomen Treasure Hunt: Here is a fun activity to send home to families with educational value. It is especially good at getting all the kids, regardless of age, to cooperate in the search: http://www.uscj.org/Afikomen_Treasure_Hu6103.html

Avodah and AJWS: Exodus and Revolution Sourcebook, a comprehensive teaching guide to Exodus and Revolution, Michael Walzer’s book on the Exodus narrative and its enduring impact on Jewish contemporary life and global politics: http://www.ajws.org/who_we_are/news/archives/press_releases/ajws_and_avodah_launch_passover_sourcebook.html

A Creative Festival: This website uses the technology of the Internet to enable each individual, family and institution and school to customize the their own Seder: http://www.jewishfreeware.org/downloads/folder.2006-01-07.0640323187/

Modern Passover Seder Songs: These songs have been gathered from far and near, insert them at a place that your Seder participants will enjoy and find meaningful: http://www.uscj.org/Modern_Songs_for_You6102.html

Family-Friendly Seders

Some fun ideas to enhance a child’s (and everyone else’s) Seder experience…

Beth Klareich shared with us some of the ideas she used when hosting Seder for the first time in her own home…

A Thirty-Minute Seder?

It can be done and many families have really enjoyed it! Check it out here…

And Then There is the Two-Minute Seder…

Okay, it’s just a little silliness but we enjoy it! Click here…

More for Children

Sedering with Kids: Ira Sherbak recommended this article by Sharon Estroff…

Torah Tots: Enjoy the magic and wonder with explanations and activities for young children: http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/pesach/pesseder.htm

Passover Song Parodies plus this website will provide you with an extensive variety of information on the Passover holiday: http://kosher4passover.com/parodies.htm

Celebrating Pesach with your Grandchildren: http://www.acaje.org/assets/pdf/parents/FamiLink4-05.pdf

Find Your Perfect Haggadah

Ever want to make your own haggadah? Well, you can. Behrman House Publishing is offering to help you do make a personalized haggadah.  You have plenty of time before 2011 delivery!

If you want to make your own haggadah from scratch but need some help, you can go to Davka Software. They offer a number of products, including a downloadable program to create the Hebrew and English text you need.

The Schechter Haggadah: Art, History and Commentary, edited by Rabbi David Golinkin in collaboration with Dr. Joshua Kulp who traces the historical development of the seder’s liturgy for the last two millennium. Rabbi Golinkin, who was our 2009 Scholar-in-Residence, contributed the illustrations from his own private collection of haggadot and from the Frank-Lovell and Morris & Beverly Baker Haggadah Collections in the Schechter Insitute Library.

“Frank, my non-Jewish husband, has attended many seders and it wasn’t until he read A Different Night, The Family Participation Haggadah by David Dishon and Noam Zion, that he felt a haggadah gave him the full meaning of the seder.”

from a member

What’s for dinner?

We are collecting everyone’s favorite recipes here… but don’t forget to send your own special recipe to us!

And recipes and menus we found online were getting too big to keep on this page. Click here for our great internet finds…

Food and Traditions

Almost every family has particular dishes they share on special occassions. The truth is that we love the idea of those foods sometimes more than the foods themselves. Click here and go to My Jewish Learning to read how Leah Koenig turned the kosher-for-passover macaroons that she so disliked as a child into a delicacy she shares year round.

Itta Werdiger-Roth now makes gefilte fish from scratch and the result is a delicious, fresh alternative to the store bought version. Are you up to the challenge?

What are your food traditions — good or bad?

Passover Leftovers? Donate Them!

If you have leftover, unopened, non-perishable food products from Passover bring them to the synagogue and put them in our Hand Up Youth Food Pantry bin. San Diego Jewish Family Service will take your leftovers and be sure a family has food on their table. Feel free to bring along any other food items you might have as well.

Have Tips and Help to Share?

Email Beth Klareich, Program Director, and we will post it here!