Passover in the Matzah Aisle

Passover – the Jews left Egypt, exiled for 40 years, saw blood, hail, lice, and frogs flood down on their Egyptian neighbors. The Jews fled after over 400 years of bondage, and took with them unleavened bread. Fast forward.

Now, 2011: The Passover experience is characterized by eight days of eating crackers, potato chips, and coke made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. We commemorate our history through a seder – literally translated as order, a seder is a meal that systematically and symbolically takes us through the exodus from Egypt – with bitter herbs and salt water, as well as four cups of wine. Some spend days and weeks cooking, cleaning, preparing, doing their best to get rid of the last piece of bread in their house before the first seder night. If Passover is not the most exhausting Jewish holiday, it’s pretty close to it!

We’ll be preparing for Passover this week and next in the aisles of Boulder’s King Soopers stores; so, if you need a breath of fresh air, to buy a few boxes of that prized matzah, or feel like sampling some macaroons, stop by King Soopers for “Passover in the Matzah Aisle” and say hi. Passover in the Matzah Aisle is a program developed by the Jewish Outreach Institute; this is the first year we’re running the program through the Boulder Jewish Community Center.

The event will take place on Sundays, April 10 and 17 from 1-5pm, and on Thursday, April 14 from 3-7pm. There will be a variety of Passover foods to sample including matzah, macaroons, and gefilte fish; as well as an activity for kids, drawings, trivia, and tried-and-true recipe cards that you can take home with you. We will also have information on our seder match up program, through which we are helping people who want a seder find the right one for them.

If Passover in the Matzah Aisle sounds like your thing and you’d like to volunteer, contact us and we can fit you in. Otherwise, we’d love to see you at King Soopers on 30th and Arapahoe or Broadway and Table Mesa.

For more information contact Jodi Fried at 303-998-5626 or connect@boulderjcc.org.