Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
“For me, personally, [Passover is] a culture tradition. It’s about keeping culture alive,” said Naomi Muhlberg, president of UMaine’s B’Nai B’Rith Hillel Foundation.
Passover began last Wednesday and will continue until this Wednesday. Both the University of Maine Jewish community and the Bangor Jewish community are celebrating their shared cultural history.
Muhlberg and four other officers chair the Hillel Foundation, which is a student-run branch of the B’Nai B’Rith foundation – the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization.
In celebration of Passover, Hillel organized Jewish Experience Week from April 6 to April 10. A Bagelathon, Kosher Barbecue, Seder and a movie showing of “The Pianist” provided UMaine students a glimpse into Jewish culture and tradition in preparation for Passover.
Passover honors the sparing of Hebrews when God killed the first-born sons of Egypt. Also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover lasts for seven days and celebrates the emancipation of the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian tyranny.
The slaves’ exodus from Egypt was so hasty that the bread had not begun to rise. Subsequently, the symbol of Passover is unleavened bread, also called matzo.
Lasting for seven days, Passover’s first and last days are holy days, characterized by holiday meals, special prayer and absence from work. The five days in between the holy days are known as Chol HaMoed.
When speaking of an exam taken during Passover at UMaine, Muhlberg raised her eyebrow.
“A test on the second day of Passover would just never happen at home,” she said.
Muhlberg, a third-year food science student, is from Cherry Hill, N.J. She said approximately 60 percent of the city’s 80,000 population is Jewish.
Despite conflicting exam schedules, Muhlberg appreciates the efforts of Black Bear Dining Services in serving kosher food all week – “like matzo ball soup,” she said.
In addition to normal kosher requirements, Passover presents an additional set of restricted foods. A few common practices of kosher consumption, for example, include a separation of meat and dairy, consuming only animals that “chew the cud and are of cloven hoof” – therefore no pork and no gelatin. During Passover, the five grains – wheat, rye, oats, barley and emer – and kithiyot – rice, legumes and corn – are also prohibited.
In addition to organizing celebrations such as Jewish Experience Week, the Hillel Foundation’s main duties include providing Jewish students, faculty and staff members the means to network, organizing worship ceremonies and social activities revolving around Jewish life and linking the UMaine campus to the greater Bangor Jewish community.
Muhlberg and Hillel’s four other officers lead junior congregations in area synagogues every Saturday – including Congregation Beth Israel. She describes the Bangor synagogues and respective local Jewish community as being “very welcoming.”
Sidney Chaison is an active member of both Congregation Beth Israel and the Bangor Jewish community. He explained that a flurry of traditional cleaning precedes Passover in order to “symbolically remove leavened bread from the household.”
Hillel’s Muhlberg recounted the same custom.
“It’s our spring cleaning,” Muhlberg said.
She explained that she and her Jewish roommate “koshered their room this year.”
After a Passover service at Congre-gation Beth Israel, which he partially conducted, Chaison described his home as being “traditional kosher where the whole family participates.”
His children and grandchildren travel to Bangor for Passover from all over New England. Chaison, a Bangor native, has been a member of Congregation Beth Israel – a spacious, hardwood synagogue with stained glass windows – all his life. Chaison’s bar mitzvah was held in the synagogue, as well as his children’s bar and bat mitzvahs – his daughter was married at Congre-gation Beth Israel. In addition, Chaison served on the synagogue’s Board of Directors for more than 50 years.
With the oldest existing Jewish congregation in Maine, Congregation Beth Israel is Bangor’s only traditional conservative synagogue.
As he explained the significance of Passover, Chaison said “the oppression of the Jew has not been completely eradicated.”
He remains positive in his belief that “things are different now.”
Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Steven Schwarzman sees the importance of Passover in a similar light.
“We are not free until everyone is free,” he said.
Schwarzman said as emancipation is being honored during Passover, slavery still exists on many levels around the world.
He described an outward effect of Passover as being “[The] need to recognize that slavery exists in the world today . it’s a reminder of seeing ourselves.”
Joining Congregation Beth Israel in July of 2008, Schwarzman is new to both the synagogue and the rabbinical order. He previously worked in the software business. Then he decided he needed a more spiritually fulfilling career and proceeded with his rabbinical studies until his ordainment.
With a masters in modern Jewish history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – he lived in Israel for nine years – Schwarzman is hoping to teach Hebrew at UMaine and is working in conjunction with the modern languages and classics department to do so.
Back at the synagogue, Chaison reiterates the message of Passover.
“What’s important to remember are the hard times experienced at various stages of existence,” he said.
Schwarzman lists many common forms of entrapments, ranging from mortgages to relationships.
“With the inward psychological level of enslavement, the power to redeem yourself is often forgotten,” he said.
Whether on campus, in Bangor or on a global scale, Passover will be honored until the 21st day of Nisan in Gregorian terms or a week after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, according to the lunar calendar. In many places and ways, including here in Penobscot County, the significance, essence and history of Passover is being celebrated.
“It’s really about keeping the tradition alive,” Muhlberg said.
