Passover Celebrations in Westchester County 2023

Passover is a major Jewish holiday that is celebrated in the spring. This year, Passover begins on the evening of April 5th and continues through the evening of April 13th.

This guide includes recipes and craft ideas from Macaroni KID publishers across the country that are also celebrating the Passover holiday with their families. In Westchester County, organizations across the area have special events and ways to celebrate together.

Westchester County Events

April 2nd

Passover | Jewish Family Festival Westchester | New York, Ridge Hill

April 5th

Community Pesach Seder, Chabad of Eastchester

Pesach Seder RSVP - JewishYonkers.com,

Chabad of Yonkers

Community Passover Seder - ChabadBriarcliff.com,

Chabad of Briarcliff-Ossining

Community Passover Seder - ChabadRT.org, Chabad of the Rivertowns in Dobbs Ferry

The Seder - chabadofscarsdale.com, Chabad of Scarsdale

April 8th

Passover Service, First Hebrew Congregation - Synagogue in Peekskill, NY

Passover for Kids

Passover is a holiday that celebrates freedom. Each spring, Jewish families gather to retell and reenact the Biblical story of the Exodus. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. Eventually, after years of suffering and the 10 Plagues were cast on the Egyptians by God thru Moses, the Egyptian Pharaoh agreed to let them go.

On Passover, families celebrate the ways they are now free and acknowledge the ways that themselves and others are still not free. They celebrate this with a special meal called a Seder.

WHAT IS A SEDER?

A Seder is a meal of symbolic foods eaten during Passover. The Seder plate is filled with foods such as:

A Roasted Shank Bone: represents the Pescah sacrifice
An Egg: represents Spring and the circle of life
Bitter Herbs: represents the bitterness of slavery
Haroset: represents the mortar used by the Jews in Egypt. Haroset is an applesauce-like mixture with wine, nuts & apples.
Karpas: represent Spring (Karpas are greens like lettuce or parsley)

You'll also find Matzah (the bread of affliction), a cracker-like unleavened bread, representing the food the Israelites took with them when they fled Egypt, along with red wine, as the Torah includes drinking four glasses of wine during Seder. But the main meal will depend on family tradition. Traditional seder dishes include matzo ball soup, gefilte fish, beef brisket, or chicken and potatoes.

The Seder is celebrated between once or twice in most families in the United States. During Passover, Jewish families will avoid eating breads and pastas.

WHAT IS THE HAGGADAH?

The Haggadah is a book read during Seder telling the story of Passover and explaining various Passover rituals. Families hand down their copies of the Haggadah from generation to generation. Typically everyone around the table is included in a section of reading, question asking, or singing — some of which can get silly! The youngest child at the table often asks the traditional questions:

Why is this night different from all other nights?
Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matza, but on this night we only eat matza?
Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of vegetables, but on this night we eat bitter herbs?
Why is it on all other nights we do not dip even once, but on this night we dip twice?
Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?

After the 4th cup of wine is served, children will open the door for Elijah the Prophet in the hope that the age of universal peace may soon be at hand.