As Passover begins, Jewish college students look forward to a time of unity

Weeklong Passover services start Saturday at sunset, and for many Jewish college students on Long Island they will serve as an important moment to celebrate their faith — which they feel has sometimes been under fire on campus.

At Adelphi University, the Chabad house is providing free kosher dinners and lunches to students throughout the week, said Rabbi Yankel Lipsker. Last year’s event drew up to 70 students — the most ever — and he expects at least that many this year.

"The meals are a beautiful way of bringing people together," he said, adding that "in general students have been much more involved."

Pro-Palestinian protests that broke out on campuses including Stony Brook University, Adelphi and Hofstra University after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas have been unsettling for many Jewish students, according to Lipsker, other rabbis and Jewish students. But in recent months the climate seems to have calmed to a degree, they said.

"I feel like now it’s cooled down for sure," said Hannah Gold, 20, a junior at Adelphi. "I wouldn’t say good; I would just say OK."

She added: "I’m focused on the positive and grateful that I do have a community there."

The Jewish community, Lipsker said, "has really stuck together in a very beautiful way. Yes, there are challenges out there, but the students are resilient."

Passover for many Jews will start with special seder dinners on Saturday and Sunday nights during which they will retell the story of the Jews’ historic exodus from slavery in Egypt 3,300 years ago. The religious holiday underscores messages of freedom, faith, defiance and hope, Jewish leaders say. Some students interviewed by Newsday said those themes hit home when they thought of their experience on campus.

Payge Sacher, 21, a senior at Adelphi from Oceanside, said that "because of what’s been going on I think more and more people have been involved and have been showing their Jewish pride and taking the initiative to take on big roles on our campus."

The shared meals at Adelphi "mean community, it means being with new faces," she said.

Ely Soumikh, 22, a senior at Stony Brook University, said he would use Passover as a time to reflect on his four years on campus and the challenges he faced. He grew up in a relatively insulated, heavily Jewish community in Great Neck, and was stunned by some of the attitudes he found at the university, especially in the last two years.

"We’ve learned in an environment that is volatile," he said. "I didn’t know how much hatred is in the world."

Breanna Alterescu, 17, a freshman at Stony Brook from Kings Park, said she, too, had found being Jewish difficult at times on campus and has refrained from wearing a necklace with her Hebrew name on it.

"It is hard especially ... to show my Jewish pride without having a fear that I’m going to get hurt," she said.

Beyond that, like many of the students interviewed, she is looking forward to spending time with her family during Passover and reconnecting with them and her faith, she said.

"Sitting down together and spending time together means a lot more now than it did before," she said.

Rabbi Shmuel Lieberman, who oversees the Chabad house at Hofstra University, said he hoped Jewish students could celebrate Passover and other holidays outside the framework of antisemitism.

"I like celebrating Judaism not as a response to antisemitism but as a response to who I am and what we are," he said. At Passover "every year we feel like ... we got our freedom."

He added: "As Jews we are so proud of who we are. It doesn’t have to be a response to how others treat us."