In Every Generation – Including today’s students
Dear Harvard Hillel community,
Passover begins tonight, and teaches us that forever, in every generation, each person must see themselves as if they personally went out of Egypt. Our people’s greatest story is one that we not only remember, it is one we re-live – and one which our children and students will come to make their own. Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten to watch this happen in real-time, before my eyes, here at Harvard Hillel. The students here aren’t just reading about freedom as an abstraction. They are living it: choosing, again and again, to show up for Jewish life on a campus where that is not always obvious or easy – and building the kind of community that makes showing up feel like a small taste of redemption. They are making the Exodus into their story.
We at Harvard Hillel have been in full Passover preparation mode all week. But before the seders begin, I need to ask for your help.
SUPPORT HARVARD HILLEL THIS PASSOVER
Tonight we’re hosting a large community seder, a graduate student seder, and a seder at the home of Dean Dunne. Tomorrow night brings a Quad seder in Currier House and a seder in Rav Jason’s house. Both nights, we sponsor small seders in dorm rooms across campus, where the students create life-long memories, together. I won’t be able to send you photos from these seders – we don’t do photos on Yom Tov. But I can tell you that many students will experience their very first seder ever tonight at Harvard, in the Hillel building or with close friends in their house’s common rooms. And for those looking for a taste of home far away on campus, they’ll find all the familiar notes and melodies, in a new place and time.
And in case you’re just tuning in – the past few weeks at Hillel have been extraordinary. Purim brought three simultaneous megillah readings to the Harvard Hillel building: Orthodox Student Minyan, Student Harvard Egalitarian Minyan and a women’s reading, followed by a party that filled the building. Our 3rd annual Hamantaschen Bake set a new record at 302. Our annual Latkes-Hamantaschen Debate came down decisively in favor of the humble Latke. Check out our never-before-seen Purim 2026 recap video for a taste of it all:
Last week, as you know by now, The People’s Plate stood in Science Center Plaza for four days. Hundreds of people stopped, read the stories behind each element, and stayed to talk. We hosted a Meet the Artist morning, an Ask the Rabbis drop-in, and, together with the Harvard Presidential Initiative on Interfaith Engagement, an Interfaith Seder. That seder, led by Rabbi Elisha Gechter, Rabbi Getzel Davis, and myself alongside Hillel student leaders and staff from across the university, brought together people of many backgrounds around a custom haggadah that participants helped shape. Tables were set with the symbols of Passover that some guests were seeing and tasting for the first time. Vice President and Deputy to the President Peggy Newell joined us, and the evening ended with a traditional meal.
If you haven’t yet, you can explore the full People’s Plate installation on our website.
This is what Harvard Hillel does, week after week, holiday after holiday. All of this programming – every seder, every megillah reading, every art installation and every meal in our dining hall is made possible by donors like you.
We need your support to keep doing this. Please make a gift today.
YES! I WANT TO SUPPORT JEWISH HARVARD STUDENTS THIS PASSOVER
Wishing you and yours a joyful and meaningful Pesach – one where you join today’s students, in again realizing that we ourselves went out of Egypt, as our children will, forever.
