Matzah and Missiles: Chabad reps work around war-time restraints to celebrate Passover

Chabad community leaders across a country under constant missile attack are delivering handmade Shmurah matzah between rocket sirens. They are innovating as they prepare to host Seders in compliance with regulations to ensure safety amid the war.

Israel’s Home Front Command has restricted large gatherings to spaces that can be cleared in time. That means communal Seders will be limited — and held within moments of a shelter, when sirens sound warning of incoming missiles.

Despite the challenges, Chabad centers are working relentlessly to deliver holiday provisions to students, soldiers, longtime kibbutzniks and recent olim.

Faith Under Fire

In Metula, a Northern Israeli town near the Lebanese border, the war is up close and personal. Incessant Hezbollah rocket barrages strike the city with only seconds of warning — or often, no warning at all. 

“Thank G-d we have a shelter in our home. We have to go there — sometimes every few minutes, sometimes every few hours — but throughout the day we have to go in and out,” said Brocha Leah Sasonkin, who leads Chabad of Metula with her husband, Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin. “Every morning we try and go out, to give matzah to people, and we are often met by a siren as soon as we head out. In Metula, a siren means there is little to no time to find shelter — sometimes the rocket explodes before the siren goes off, sometimes we have a few seconds to seek shelter.”

Located meters away from Israeli border installations, the Chabad house trembles every time Israeli artillery fires toward the enemy. But the Sasonkins are determined to stay and serve their community. “After October 7, Northern Israeli border towns were subject to mandatory evacuation,” says Mrs Sassonkin. “But this time around residents are largely staying put — so we aren’t going anywhere either. People ask us, ‘Where are you?’ And when they hear that we are here, it gives them encouragement to carry on.”

But this year, they’ll be hosting a much smaller Seder in their home, instead of in a communal hall.

The Mother and Father of the Neighborhood 

In the month since the war began Chabad of Neve Shamir, led by Rabbi Danny Fordham and his wife Esther, has become an anchor in the neighborhood, with community members turning to the new Chabad reps for support and guidance. With schools shuttered amid ballistic missile strikes, the Fordhams hosted a series of model matzah bakeries, as shift after shift of local Jewish kids learned about the holiday. 

“The Fordhams are like the Av and Eim Bayit—the communal ‘mother’ and ‘father’—of Neve Shamir,” said Avi Schwartz, an American expatriate living in the town. They have opened a warm home where everyone is welcome.”

Parents drop off their children, but they don’t want to leave. “They want to hang out with other parents, to find a sense of normalcy.” Fordham said. 

The Fordhams are one of hundreds of Chabad reps who are bringing the observances and holiday joy of Passover to thousands of Israeli Jews across the country. They are improvising, adapting, and overcoming unprecedented challenges to ensure that every Jew has access to handmade shmurah matzah and to welcome those in need to community Seders. 

The Home Front

At least 500 students studying at the Braude College of Engineering in Karmiel have been called up to active duty, notes Chabad rabbi Nosson Rodin.

He and his wife Miriam, he explains, feel it’s their responsibility to look out for them, and have been working to provide them with much of their physical and spiritual needs.”

The Rodins arrange for everything from barbecues for soldiers about to enter combat in Lebanon to arranging the donation of drones to the units his students are in to distributing matzah to students on campus. 

Like hundreds of their colleagues, the Rodins, Fordhams, and Sasonkins are improvising and adapting to make this a joyful, memorable Pesach in the Land of Israel. 

“Look at the miracles,’” said Sasonkin. “We share the Rebbe’s teachings that the Land of Israel is the safest place in the world; it is the land that G-d is always watching.”