From hospital patients and the homebound to travelers to remote destinations, tens of thousands of isolated Jews around the world will be able to conduct a Passover Seder wherever they are this year by means of their own personal Seder-in-a-Box—an initiative that began with a group of Chabad emissaries serving on various university campuses in 1995, and has become an annual worldwide project.
From hospital patients and the homebound to travelers to remote destinations, tens of thousands of isolated Jews around the world will be able to conduct a Passover Seder wherever they are this year by means of their own personal Seder-in-a-Box—an initiative that began with a group of Chabad emissaries serving on various university campuses in 1995, and has become an annual worldwide project.
The initiative began almost 30 years ago as the brainchild of Rabbi Aaron Slonim, director of Chabad of Binghamton. “We originally thought of the idea because Passover fell out on spring break when most students would be traveling and vacationing together,” Rabbi Slonim tells Chabad.org. “Without a campus-wide Seder available, many students would not be celebrating the holiday at all, and we wanted to create an easy way for students to celebrate on their own.”
Students received a free, travel-sized Seder box, with every single resource they would need to conduct their own Seder. Not only did each box come complete with a Haggadah and seder non-perishables, such as matzah, grape juice, and a maror, but with a ‘How-to’ guide as well, giving students a step-by-step explanation of how to supplement their seder plate, and lead a seder of their own.
“The feedback we received was incredible. A number of students shared that they had joined forces and made a seder together while on spring break,” Slonim recalls. “Others told of actually going home and leading a seder for their family, who otherwise would not have had a seder at all!”
At the time, Chabad on Campus was still in its early stages of development, with approximately forty centers across the country catering to the needs of Jewish university students. Yet, there were still hundreds of thousands of young students without any proper Jewish resources on their campus. Slonim recalls Rabbi Menachem Schmidt, today the president of Chabad on Campus International, working hard to collect funding for the initiative, while Rabbi Berel Goldman, today the director of the Chabad Center at UF at Gainesville with his wife Chanie, gathering a group of rabbinical students to pack and ship the boxes.
In its first year, the project—which was then called ‘Seder-to-Go’—was a resounding success, reaching thousands of young Jews scattered across the country. In a time when online communication was sparse, and social media was virtually non-existent, organizers connected with students through newspaper ads, radio spots, word of mouth, and many, many phone calls.
The initiative came less than a year after the passing of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, and was yet another way to concretize the Rebbe’s mandate to reach every Jew. “Passover is a significant holiday for the Jewish people. We were gifted our freedom and became a nation.” Slonim explains. “The Rebbe believed that every Jew should have the opportunity to commemorate this momentous occasion.”
Spreads to Hospitals and Worldwide Through Chabad-on-Call
Today, the boxes have transformed into high-quality kits under the aegis of Chabad on Call, an organization developed to help support the needs of Jewish hospital patients. Seven years ago, Chabad on Call began their own efforts in making deliverable Seder plates designed for patients who were spending Passover in a hospital bed. Eventually, the two initiatives joined forces, expanding the project beyond what each had ever imagined.
As Chabad emissaries all over began seeing the project’s success and ease, the Seder-in-a-Box initiative quickly spread well beyond hospital stays and campus life, creating an accessible and easy seder experience for any Jew looking to celebrate the holiday in their own way.
Chabad on Call now oversees the mass production of Seder-in-a-Boxes each year. As a project of Merkos Suite 302, it collaborates with Chabad emissaries across the country, and beyond, who distribute them to community members. ln addition, thousands of boxes are still distributed through the 200+ Chabad on Campuses across the country.
“Over the last few years, we have sent templates of our boxes to Chabad houses all over the world to recreate them in their own communities,” says Chani Goldberg, director of Chabad on Call. “The box comes with three sections: matzah, the seder plate components, and all of the reading materials and instructions needed to conduct a Seder. We have even recently added some games to help keep children engaged during the Seder!”
In recent years, when travel restrictions of the Coronavirus pandemic left many people stranded at home and unable to travel to family for the holidays, hundreds of thousands of Seders-in-a-Box were delivered around the world.
And yet, while accessibility was quickly ramped up during the pandemic to adapt to a shut down world, the Seder-in-a-Box has been around for decades, catering to the distinct needs of every single Jew. These boxes were not built in the face of a global pandemic, but years before, with deep intention and kindness, emulating the vision of the Rebbe.
“With today's advanced technologies and communication, we have the ability to reach more Jews than ever.” Rabbi Slonim shares, “The seder experience is one that unites Jews all over the world in celebrating a pivotal moment in our history, and it is a blessing to help be a part of that.”
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