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Chocolate Seder for kids provides fun way to relate Passover story
By LINDA M. LINONIS
YOUNGSTown
A chocolate Seder offers a way “younger children can relate to the Passover story,” explained Emily Collins. “It’s fun and engaging.”
The PJ Library and youth and family program coordinator at the Jewish Community Center arranged a recent chocolate-oriented event at Congregation Rodef Sholom, 1119 Elm St.
On its website, PJ Library is described as a “Jewish family engagement program implemented on a local level.” Participating families with children from 6 months up to 8 years old receive Jewish literature and music for children on a monthly basis.
Passover begins at sundown tonight and ends at nightfall April 11. The observance remembers and celebrates the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt.
Collins started the chocolate Seder with a craft project of decorating Elijah’s cup, which represents hope when the Messianic age will bring universal peace. Children adhered colored stickers and others with designs to the plastic cups. Each one turned out unique.
“I hope by participating in the chocolate Seder, the children learn a little bit about Passover. This is a way to relate to the holiday and traditions,” Collins said. About 20 children attended with their families.
Many Jewish families will conduct Seders in their homes. Seders also will take place at Mahoning Valley synagogues. Seder means order, and all Seders include a ritual meal and telling the Passover story. At the chocolate Seder, chocolate milk replaced the usual wine and grape juice. And children dipped strawberries into sugar water, wetting the symbol of spring with water representing spring rain.
They also had matzah. Bittersweet chocolate stood in for the maror, bitter herbs. The children learned that the bittersweet chocolate referred to the bitter lives the Israelites led as slaves.
Rabbi Franklin Muller led the chocolate Seder, engaging the children and their families with songs as he accompanied himself on the guitar. He said he remembered Seders as a child with his grandfather leading.
Rabbi Muller kidded the gathering that they were “slaves to chocolate,” which wasn’t in short supply on the tables. He said the “Seder light” is a good way to introduce children to the observance. As they get older, they will be familiar with the ritual, he added.
Talia Hagler attended with her children, 4-year-old twins Abby and Jake, and Eli, 6. “There’s a small Jewish group in the Valley and not a lot of Jewish kids in school,” she said. “This provides a way to meet other Jewish children and families, and it’s good family time.”
Hagler said she believes these events “help build Jewish culture and a foundation.” She continued that by starting at a young age, Jewish practices “will become part of them.” “I want to give them that,” she said.
Lisa Long brought her children, Maddie, 6, and Henry, 3. “We like the PJ Library events,” she said. “It helps expand their understanding and heritage.”
By participating, her children will gain an “understanding of where they came from,” Long said.
For a Seder tonight at Congregation Rodef Sholom, Rabbi Muller said he will use a Haggadah — a text that sets the order of the Seder — that focuses on current topic of racial justice. About 100 people will attend.
The rabbi said traditionally the youngest child asks four questions; the fifth question tonight will focus on “how does society contribute to the enslavement of minorities?”
“Prejudice is seen as another form of slavery,” Rabbi Muller said, adding, “It keeps people oppressed.”
Because this is the 50th anniversary of the 1965 march to Montgomery, Ala., Rabbi Muller said he plans to use writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou and other civil-rights activists in the Seder. He said this Haggadah was written in the 1980s and is relevant to the topic today. It was compiled for a Seder for Jews and blacks.
“Recent incidents that have escalated racial tension remind us that we live in a society, sadly, where racial prejudice exists,” he said. “There are emotional scars as a result of racial intolerance.”