Acting Out: YESOD Theater Program Gives Hands-On Pesach Experience

Jews around the world conduct Pesach seders in order to personally relive the exodus from Egypt and the Jewish people’s redemption from slavery to freedom. To enhance their connections to ancient times, hundreds of Jewish parents and children in St. Petersburg, Russia, enjoyed an experiential learning opportunity at the "Fantastic Adventures in the Desert" program in advance of the seders.

Held as part of the weekly Interactive Theater program, this pre-Pesach event transformed the JDC-supported YESOD Jewish Community Home into a scene from ancient Egypt: a desert complete with pyramids, palm trees, and characters.

Participants were invited on an adventure in search of pages of a lost Haggadah, learned about slavery and the ten plagues, and even crossed the Red Sea. Retracing the steps of Jewish people thousands of years ago, participants also gathered in the YESOD atrium to experience the annual matzah baking program. Children and their parents worked together to roll and shape the dough, take it to the ovens, and taste it freshly baked.

"I'm a regular visitor of the Sunday Interactive Theater program and I enjoy it every time," remarked Svetlana, a 29-year-old PR professional. "I also found the matzah baking to be especially interesting for both my daughter and me," she said, "because we got to actively perform a historical Jewish tradition together that I had never seen before!"

Among its many Passover activities, YESOD also hosted "Ancestors," a program for teens from Jewish and public schools that uses a specially created Pesach movie as a basis for discussion. The film aims to familiarize the students with the Pesach story and encourages them to learn about their own family history and ancestry. Following each screening and discussion, participants also had a chance to bake their own matzah.

April 2008