Pesach Together

On Thursday evening, March 29th, an unprecedented Jewish community event took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Passover seders co-sponsored by JDC and the local Tzedaka Foundation in Argentina, originally meant to host 10,000 Jews to a holiday feast ended up seating 14,994 people.

The Seders were organized under the project name; “PESACH ‘BEIAJAD’" (in Hebrew – “Passover Together”). Meals and services were held at 49 different institutions and locations, ranging from JCC’s and synagogues (both Conservative, Orthodox, and Chabad), to Jewish schools and even a domed sports stadium. Seders were held in Buenos Aires and in 15 rural communities.

At the seder in Cordoba, the largest rural Jewish community, 1,100 people joined in and tents were needed to enlarge the main community hall and make enough room for those gathered. In smaller communities such as the historical Jewish immigration town of Moisesville, which hosted 250 participants, the Seders brought together families who are clients of the new welfare network and members of communities who can still afford to pay for their own tickets.

Despite torrential downpours and a transit strike which threatened to ruin the events, record numbers of Jews attended the seders which began at 8:30 pm. Rich and poor, old and young all celebrated the Passover holiday as a community.

The committee that coordinated the whole project was formed at the beginning of the year by JDC with the 49 local partner organizations. Committee members included Presidents, their staff, and community volunteers. Working together, they planned and fully coordinated the whole event. It was community building at its best.

Several kosher caterers worked overtime to provide food for all of the Seders. A special JDC-Tzedaka HAGGADA was produced in consultation with a committee of rabbis.

Other hurdles included the timely delivery of thousands of plastic dishes, cutlery and kosher wine. This, when the roads of Buenos Aires are not safe and truck hijackings occur on a daily basis.

Seders were also held at the Jewish home for the Aged. Elderly residents were involved in planning the evening and each senior received an invitation. Individuals were also allowed to invite their families. One older woman, an Auschwitz survivor in the Burzaco Old Age Home declared:

    "This was the first time in years that I was able to invite my family to Passover. I was inviting and not being invited". Others at the nursing home told of how much the JDC/Tzedaka seder meant to them.

Up to the last minute, in the collapsing country that is today’s Argentina, JDC staff had to surmount all kinds of problems including:

The 10 tons of Matzot sent as a present from the Jewish community of Ukraine, is still being held up in customs. Fortunately, JDC reserved a large number of matzot from the Argentinean Matzoh factory. When, on Tuesday it became clear that the imported matzot would probably not clear customs in time for the holiday, JDC acted.

On Wednesday at noon, just prior to the seders when the final payment to the kosher caterers was required, JDC had a problem when the caterers asked to be paid in cash rather than checks, because they needed to pay their providers in cash.

With the special bank situation in Buenos Aires (practically no paper bills [pesos] of Argentinean currency are circulating) JDC’s accounting department worked to collect Argentinean pesos mixed with all the other so-called currencies emitted by Argentinean provinces with names like LEPCOP, PATACONES, etc. to meet the caterers’ cash requirements in a matter of hours.

Wednesday night, each JDC staff member was given a list of Seders to visit across all the country. The JDC crews worked seders in Bet El conservative Synagogue for 650 people. They also worked the JCC’s; the Hebraica-Hacoach JCC, whose main gym hosted 550 people to seder, the Libertad Synagogue (where the Ariel Job center is located) where a large contingent of over one hundred Holocaust survivors attended the seder. Staff also helped out at some of the many orthodox Sephardim synagogues (250) and then they crossed Buenos Aires to a covered stadium lent by the local town authorities, where 750 people enjoyed seder.

Special mention must be made of the tireless efforts of the JDC staff in Buenos Aires, whose dedication brought this event to life and the dozens of other professionals and volunteers from different organizations who made the Seders possible.