Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Rabbi Avi Schochet, left, performs a part of the Passover ceremony at South Peninsula Hebrew Day School with children from the pre-kindergarten classes.
Local school students celebrate Passover
By Scott Steinberg
To some Passover is the 'matzoh' holiday, which, like Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, for some odd reason is marked on the calendar. For others it's a collection of memories--a hagada stained with concord grape wine, a sleepy aunt letting in Elijah the prophet at the conclusion of the meal.
For students at South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale, this year's model Passover Seder, or ceremonial meal, was merely a review of the Israelite narrative of freedom, a story they learn as soon they can talk.
The school has been providing Jewish and general studies education to students pre-kindergarten through eighth grade for 30 years, 24 at its current site on Astoria Avenue. The school has approximately 300 students and pulls from across the Silicon Valley, ranging from San Jose to Palo Alto.
"A lot of the Passover story is told in song," said the school's early-education director, Barbara Goldstein, explaining why a group of 4-year-old students were having such an ecstatic time at a model Seder on March 20.
"Jews are obligated to tell the exodus story to their families, and so they try to make it exciting for their children," she added.
The result is a collection of folk songs as ingrained in a Jewish child's mind as American standards such as "This Land Is Your Land" and "The Whole World in My Hands" is in the all-American musical experience.
One example is "Ma nishtanah" a song that poses four questions, including why on Passover do Jews eat matzoh, the brittle flat bread? The corresponding answer is that the Jews had no time to let the bread rise before their hasty escape from enslavement in Egypt.
The appreciation of Jewish freedom is the essence of Passover, said Rabbi Avi Schochet, the school's headmaster.
"The holiday is a celebration of Jewish redemption, beginning with the exodus from Egypt, progressing through the seeing of the creation of law or the Ten Commandments, and culminating in the conquering of the Promised Land," he explained.
The slavery and exodus story is represented by various foods on the Seder plate--salt water for the tears of duress, bitter herbs to symbolize the sorrow of being slaves in Egypt, and so on.
These traditions, Schochet said, are learned from age 2 and up.
"Jews have practically learned Passover by osmosis," he said.
He admitted, however, that it could be very difficult for an outsider to quickly appreciate the precepts of the holiday. The nuance of suffering and joy, he said, creates a "holiday of contrasts. If one is not steeped in that, it might be difficult to understand."
But the 4-year-old Jewish students at SPHDS could be considered pros at this point, singing "Let My People Go" with resolve and pretending to cross a magically parted Red Sea fearlessly, like Moses eyeing Israel.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
