HOUSTON – Reserved Seder-to-Go kits can be picked up by individuals and volunteers in drive-thru fashion on Tuesday at multiple locations for Passover.
The Seder kit was created by Chabad Centers of Houston in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure people didn’t have to compromise their safety and one of the most important religious celebrations in Judaism.
The partnership comes while so many people are unable to leave their homes due to COVID-19, preventing them from having a Seder meal as a result.
The aim is to make sure families and households have access to all the necessary items for the Passover meals that mark the beginning of the festival, a spokesperson said.
The kits can be picked up at the Chabad of Uptown, located at 4311 Bettis Dr., at 11 a.m. - noon and at Chabad of West Houston, located at 12645 Whittington Dr., from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. The Chabad affiliated Aishel House (1955 University Blvd.) is still taking reservations for kits to deliver to Jewish patients at Texas Medical Center area hospitals.
With 12 Chabad centers throughout the Houston metropolitan area, a spokesperson said Chabad has been well-positioned to provide for the widespread Jewish community.
Each Seder-to-Go box contains an art Seder plate along with containers containing all the traditional items for the Seder plate, Matzah, a bottle of grape juice, a Kiddush cup and a unique and user-friendly Haggadah with English translation and instructions.
“These kits will help to ensure every Jewish person is able to celebrate the festival of our freedom in these uniquely challenging times,” Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff, the program director for Chabad Lubavitch of Texas said. “Not only do the kits provide essential supplies for people who cannot go out to shop for Passover provisions, they mean that vulnerable people who should be staying at home do not have to choose between their safety and having a Seder. For those in quarantine or self-isolation who have never conducted a Seder on their own, the included guide and Seder supplies will make that possible."
Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff helped distribute kits at the Chabad of Uptown Tuesday morning. He said that the gesture is a way to remind people that they aren’t alone.
“Although we may be distanced physically, we are together at heart," Rabbi Lazaroff said. “Usually the Seder is time when people come together as a family and this year of course people aren’t able to get together with family."
Rabbi Dovid Goldstein said that he distributed nearly 100 kits at the West Houston location.
“It brings unity because if everyone is doing the same thing around the same time, even though we aren’t physically together, we are spiritually together," Goldstein said.