Jewish Community Celebrates First Day of Passover
While Christians are celebrating Good Friday, Montgomery’s Jewish community is celebrating the first evening of Passover.
The Friday evening service at Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem Synagogue was a special one, in that members of the temple came together to commemorate the Passover holiday.
“The basic idea of the holiday is about family,” says Rabbi Scott Kramer. “The main part of the holiday is done in the home. We have a feast called a seder, in which we tell our story to our children.”
Kramer has been Rabbi at the synagogue for the past eight years. He tells us Passover is a time when family and friends come together to discuss the Jewish faith. It stems from the book of Exodus in the Bible, when God freed the Israelites from slavery. For the eight day period, Jewish people will eat very particular foods.
“We abstain from leavened products,” Kramer explains. “We eat Matzah, which is an unleavened bread, which the Israelites ate in their haste of leaving Egypt.
Sarah Crystal is a member of the congregation and says she’ll be praying for peace this Passover.
“I wish you the best in the holidays, in Easter and the Passover and all holidays, and we all pray for peace in the world.”
Like Kramer, Crystal says the children are the main focus of the holiday.
“How we passover the old stuff. So we are passing it to the children. The children are our future so we’re looking into the future.”
Montgomery’s Jewish community is very small. It’s estimated to be less than 1000 people.
Tomorrow the synagogue will hold a seder, which is a feast, for the community at 6:30.
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