Board of Trustees
Events @ PSJC
Welcome to the PSJC Events Page! Here you can find a listing of all of the classes, religious services, social and special events that are coming up at PSJC.
Events @ PSJC
Welcome to the PSJC Events Page! Here you can find a listing of all of the classes, religious services, social and special events that are coming up at PSJC.
.png){kind=logo}
Dear PSJC,
Even as we are finishing off our Hamentaschen from a powerful Purim celebration, we know one thing for sure: Pesach (Passover) is just around the corner! Pesach is our great holiday of freedom and possibility, of moving through “the narrow places” of our lives.
But this year, when Israel, America and the world as a whole continues to feel stuck in so many narrow places, how do we enter this Festival of our Freedom? How can we celebrate our freedom when 59 people remain captive in Gaza? How do we dare imagine a future redemption when we sit with the trauma of October 7th, with so much fear and so many deaths from the ongoing war in Gaza, the increase in antisemitism around the world, and the threats to democracy in our own nation? How do we say: “Let all who are hungry come and eat”, when Palestinians in Gaza are hungry? When the hostages are being denied food? When the supports for those in need in our country are being attacked? In this age of rising antisemitism and feelings of isolation, how do we take this holiday of Spring and Hope, and allow it to speak to us today, this year, in this moment?
This is our challenge, and it is one we will face together.
This year, the first Seder begins Saturday night, April 12, 2025. May it carry with it the hope of Spring, the inspiration of liberation, and the conviction that can come by connecting to our past, engaging with the challenges of the present, and collectively imagining our future.
We are excited to announce that, once again, PSJC is hosting a second-night seder on Sunday night, April 13, 2025. To join us, click here.
As we approach Passover again this year, in the midst of these difficult days, may we find the courage to engage with these ancient stories in our Haggadah. And may they help us to face the very real challenges of this moment in our collective history.
It is our hope that these resources will help you have a meaningful, sweet Passover, no matter what challenges we may be facing as a nation, as a people, as a world. We will continue to add to these resources, so check back often.
Zissen Pesach (A Sweet and Meaningful Passover)
—Rabbi Carie Carter & Rabbi Hayley Goldstein
Sale of Chametz
To sell your chametz, you may use our online form. It gives Rabbi Carie permission to sell your chametz to a non-Jewish person for the duration of Passover. Just put your leftover chametz in a sealed cabinet/separate location in your home and allow me to sell it for you. Please fill out our online Chametz Sale form by Thursday, April 10, 2025.*
*Note: The chametz that is sold will not be available to you from the time of sale (Friday morning) until 1 hour after the end of Passover.
Rabbinical Assembly
Passover Guide
What can I eat? How do I prepare? Here is a helpful guide to help navigate food and
preparations for Pesach 2025. If you have any questions/concerns, please contact Rabbi Carter.
Feed Your Body as Well as Your Soul
Revisit PSJC's first-ever progressive Passover cooking lesson! Learn from our community’s creative cooks how to make halek (Indian charoset), special matzo balls, Pesach rolls and more. Get inspiration for your own sedarim and the days that follow.
An Addition to the Passover Plate
As you are considering additions to your seder plate along with the orange (for inclusion), olives (for peace in the Middle East), tomatoes (for workers' rights), and ginger (anti-Asian hate) of years past, I want to invite you to consider sunflower seeds (if you are comfortable with Kitniyot)
or a sunflower for the people of Ukraine. Consider for yourself what might be a good symbolic item for the struggles in Israel, Israel’s war against Hamas, the hostages who have remained in captivity for too many days, hunger in Gaza, anti-semitism here and around the world, and so many other challenges we are facing today. Some have suggested leaving a yahrzeit candle for those who have died in this war or an empty setting at the table for the hostages who remain in Gaza and for their families who sit at their seder tables with an empty chair.
Keep an eye on our website as we will be adding links to various resources to help you find readings, rituals, and images that might help add to your seder experience as each of us “sees ourselves as if we too are going forth from Egypt.”
Resources for Families with Young Children
Still looking for a Haggadah to meet the needs of your whole family? Check out the PJ Library Haggadah. You can download it or order hard copies. Plus you can check out all of the resources from PJ Library on how to host a seder, crafts, and more.
The PJ Library Podcast, Have I Got a Story for You, offers an audio version of the Passover Story, or you can check out their Steps of the Seder video.
Concerned about a "I only eat plain pasta" kid and Passover? Check out these recipes from PJ Library. If all else fails, milkshakes, with or without nut butter, make a great fall back. It's only a week!
Kveller has put together a great list of Passover crafts. If you're looking to try something new for Seder this year, check out K'ilu Kit for a truly interactive experience. Remember that Passover is about telling the story of the Exodus from one generation to another. Everything else is commentary!
Passover Songs
Passover is filled with wonderful songs—both old and new. Here is a collection of PSJC favorites.
Pesach Dates
Pesach is such an involved, central holiday of the Jewish year, it can not be entered without preparation. This includes physically cleaning our homes and emotionally trying to rid ourselves of internal chametz (that which puffs us up). It is a time of trying to clearly identify our own “narrow places” and to find the courage (like the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds) to step through that narrow place and begin a new journey, one filled with unknowns but also with amazing possibility. So, even as you are filled with the efforts of cleaning and cooking for this Feast of Freedom, please don’t forget to find time for yourself, to prepare yourself and your soul for the journey ahead.
Here are some dates to keep in mind to help bring Pesach into your life and to share it with the PSJC Community.
“Little Things”—A Reminder about Kitniyot
The question of whether or not to eat kitniyot (legumes) during Passover has challenged Ashkenazi Jews for generations. Here is a teshuvah addressing that question —reminding us not to let “the little things” take on too much importance…in our eating and in our lives.
Shabbat Changes Everything
This year, Pesach begins on Saturday night, and that means that a lot of the Pre-Pesach preparation has to be adjusted just a bit:
The Siyum for the Fast of the Firstborn will be Thursday morning at 8:00AM instead of on Saturday, since we don’t fast on Shabbat.
Thursday evening is the time for Bedikat Hametz (for searching your home for hametz). Because this is done a day earlier than we might have thought, we are permitted to keep enough hametz for Shabbat meals if we would like. (If you do this, don’t recite the passage Kol Hamira when you burn/dispose of your hametz—you wouldn’t want to negate the food that you are still planning to consume).
Friday morning is the time for Biyur Hametz (Burning/or destroying the hametz you collected the night before as mentioned above). Even if you have food set aside for Shabbat, your stove should now be ready for Pesach. And all cooking done from this point forward should be done in your Pesach pots and only Pesach utensils used.
How do I eat meals on Shabbat leading into Passover night?
There are two traditional practices that make this question complicated: 1) It is customary to abstain from Matzah the day before Pesach; 2) We are told to eat three meals on Shabbat, two of them with Hamotzi.
Two options have developed to address this dilemma:
Option 1) We save two small hallot, and keep them on a special Hametz dish that will serve as a hallah crumb catcher. These hallot are eaten at Friday night dinner and Shabbat lunch. Then, anything left over is thrown out and the Kol Hamira formula—including the line “hametz that I know about”— is recited following this second meal.
Option 2) Remove all hametz earlier in the week, and serve Pesach-friendly meals over Shabbat, using Egg Matzah (Matzah Ashirah) for HaMotzi. Matzah Ashirah is kosher for Passover but it is not matzah that can be eaten to fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah at the Seder.
Seudah Shlishit (the third meal towards the end of Shabbat) should include neither hametz nor matzah ashirah so that you have a taste for matzah at the Seder.
Passover Justice Resources
Pesach is an important moment in the Jewish year in which we are encouraged to speak with family and friends about the very real needs of our world, the places where justice is lacking, where oppression abounds. Here are some great sites filled with readings and information to help those conversations and actions along.
**Please check back on this site as we will be updating it frequently in the weeks prior to Pesach.
Ha Lachma Anya—Di Achalu? “This bread of Affliction—Why do we eat it?—because
our ancestors were slaves in the Land of Egypt” How can we tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt with an eye towards the issues of our world today?
Repair the World and HIAS have developed special material for Seder night to help us respond to the current refugee crisis in our world through the eyes of our own story of escape from Egypt and wandering to freedom in the Promised Land.
Religious Action Center contains a huge array of material on social justice issues related to Passover including a series of themed haggadot (such as Invisible: The Story of Modern Slavery, A Social Justice Haggadah; a Hunger Seder Haggadah; an Earth Seder Haggadah). This site also shares the stories behind some of the new/modern additions to our seder plate including: potatoes, Miriam’s Cup, an orange, fair trade chocolate or cocoa beans, tomatoes. Take special note of their “Modern Day Plagues of Injustice and Inequality” and “There Are No Strangers Seder Supplement” addressing the issue of immigration in America. Hazon includes Resources for a Sustainable Pesach, a great resource for ways to protect our environment during Passover.
Kol Dichfin Yeitei v’yei-chul; Kol Ditzrich Yetei v’yifsach—Let all who are hungry comeand eat. Let all who are in need come and celebrate. The high cost of Passover supplies makes this a difficult time for many Jewish families. Donations to the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund at this season are used for Ma’ot Chittin to provide matzah and other Passover items for those in need.
Passover items for those in need. Food insecurity is ever-present in our Brooklyn community. Help PSJC support Camp Friendship, a local food pantry, by bringing dry goods to PSJC before Passover.
Leket Israel, the leading food rescue organization in Israel, provides hundreds of thousands of hot meals and tons of fresh fruits and vegetables to those deeply impacted by this war.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains overwhelming. It is essential that we feed the hungry and protect the vulnerable, including innocents in Gaza used as human shields by Hamas. Consider donating to Rabbis for World Central Kitchen to support efforts to feed the hungry in Gaza.
Hashata hacha, L’shanah haba’ah b’arah d’Yisrael.“ This year we are here, next year in the Land of Israel.” This year, support an organization that supports the vital work done for the well-being of Israel: Masorti Movement (Conservative movement in Israel), Magen David Adom, Israel Trauma Coalition (focusing on mental health support), Misdar (an Israeli non-profit offering psychological support to members of Sayeret Matkal—an elite unit in the IDF—who suffer from PTSD. Elad Bar Ilan, our former Shaliach, now works for Misdar and asked for our support). Consider also Givat Haviva, Standing Together, and other organizations that are dedicated to creating a “Shared Society” among Arab and Jewish Israelis.
Hashata Avdei, L’shanah haba’ah b’nai chorin. “This year we are slaves, next year, may we all be free.” Learn more about modern-day slavery at Free the Slaves.
See also Made by Survivors to learn how you might help support the victims of human trafficking.
T’ruah offers: The Other Side of the Sea: A Haggadah for Fighting Modern Slavery.
The Anti-Racism Committee of Rodfei Tzedek has been doing a good deal of work with the Jewish Coalition for Criminal Justice Reform. Consider these texts as a jumping off point for discussions around imprisonment and freedom.
May these and other resources help you bring Pesach’s message forward in deep and relevant ways this year.