Bringing Social Action to the Passover Table

Produced by Areyvut

• Clean the houses of homebound people.
• Arrange a car wash in your synagogue's parking lot and donate the money to tzedakah.
• Educate people about Pesach in the weeks prior to the holiday by hosting a model seder.
• Develop a Hagaddah that involves chesed and tikkun olam.
• Discuss the Holocaust (Shoah) and modern day issues of slavery.
• Research your family history and learn about a story that involves religious freedom.
• If you're using Pesach cleaning to do some spring cleaning as well, donate items that you no longer need (i.e. clothes, fans, glasses, cell phones) to local charity. For contact information on a charity organization accepting such items visit: www.onlineorganizing.com/Home.asp.
• Instead of giving money or a present to those who find the afikoman, let them choose a charity to which they will donate the money or gift, or have them keep half and donate the rest to charity.
• Prior to the start of Pesach, donate the chametz you're removing from your house to a local food pantry.
• Adopt a family who has recently immigrated or has just moved to your area for the Seder.
• Organize a free seder in your synagogue.
• After reciting the Ma Nishtana, recite "Four More Questions" about the Israeli MIAs that can be found on www.azm.org/seder.shtml. To show your solidarity towards Israel, leave an empty seat at your seder table for the Israel MIA's, victims of terror and for all Jews suffering throughout the world
• If you are in the New York area, join Dorot the Sunday before Pesach, to make packages for the holiday and deliver them to the elderly. Contact Dorot at 212-769-2850 and ask for family and youth volunteer services. Pre-registration is required. Visit their website at www.dorotusa.org or email volunteers@dorotusa.org for more information. If you live outside the New York area, visit www.friendlyvisiting.org to find an organization in your area that promotes friendly visiting programs for the elderly that may have a program specific for the holiday.