Jewish Oklahomans Prepare For Passover Amid Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Jewish Oklahomans are preparing for the first night of Passover Tuesday. However, the centuries old celebration will likely be different for many this year due to COVID-19.

“In some ways nothing changes. Passover still begins when the sun goes down tonight,” Temple B’mai Israel Rabbi Vered Harris said. “In some ways everything changes because most of us are used to this being a big gathering with guest at the table, with family coming in from all over.”

She said in the past, her family’s Passover Seder feast has drawn up to 24 people, however, this year they are expecting just five.

“My eldest daughter was supposed to come home from California for the holiday,” Vered said. “She took a week off work, but she's an essential worker and she won't be coming home so we'll have her propped up on FaceTime at the end of the table.”

With synagogue doors now closed and services being performed online, the Rabbi said they are getting back to the basics.

“There is a Jewish value called pikuach nefesh, and it means to save a life,” Vered said. “Judaism is a religion of boundaries and a religion of rules, most any of them can be broken if it's in order to save a life and we have to do everything we can to preserve human life because it's sacred.”

While this Passover is sure to be different than any before, Vered said the Jewish faith is stronger than one holiday.

“This is one Passover in a lifetime of celebrations and there is comfort in the traditions that we have spent our lives experiencing.”

At the end of the day, the Rabbi said we are all in this together.

“Prayer is essential, but our prayer space is not what's essential,” she said. “We love it, we can't wait to get back into it, but what's most important is that we go to every effort we can to keep people healthy.”