This year’s Passover begins on Monday night. The Jewish holiday commemorates the escape of the ancient Israelites from Egyptian slavery as detailed in the Torah.
Rabbi Levi Raskin, director of the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Traditions, said during “Model Matzah” that he used dough to make matzah prepared by first-year students at the Milton Gottesman Jewish School in the capital. playfully adding the flat discs to the oven. “Factory” Field Trip at Center in Rockville, Maryland, Thursday, April 18, 2024. To be kosher for the Passover holiday, which begins Monday night, the dough must be prepared and cooked all within 18 minutes and must not be proofed. . (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Rabbi Levi Raskin (right), wearing a kippah with a matzah pattern, gives first-year students at the capital’s Milton Gottesman Jewish School water from a well as part of a field trip to a “model matzah factory.” I’m showing you how to pump water. Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland, in advance of the Passover holiday, which begins next Monday night. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Making matzah during a field trip to the “Mazza Factory” at the J Craft Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland, Thursday, April 18, 2024, ahead of the Passover holiday. A first-year student at Milton Gottesman Jewish School. It starts next Monday evening. In order to be kosher for Passover, the dough must be prepared and cooked within 18 minutes and not leavened. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Ethan Pressberg, 6, a first-year student at Metropolitan Milton Gottesman Jewish School, during a tour of the “Mazza Factory” at the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland. , use a tool to make holes in the matzah dough. , Thursday, April 18, 2024, ahead of Passover, which begins next Monday evening. To be kosher for Passover, the dough must be prepared and cooked within 18 minutes and must not leaven. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Milton makes matzah during a “Mazza Factory” field trip at the J Craft Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland, Thursday, April 18, 2024, ahead of the Passover holiday. A first-year student at Gottesman Jewish School. It starts next Monday evening. In order to be kosher for Passover, the dough must be prepared and cooked within 18 minutes and not leavened. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Cooked by first-year students at Metropolitan Milton Gottesman Jewish School during a “Model Matzah Factory” event with Rabbi Levi Raskin at the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland. You can see freshly baked, handmade matzo. , Thursday, April 18, 2024, ahead of Passover, which begins next Monday evening. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
Charlotte Gleicher, a 7-year-old first-year student at Milton Gottesman Jewish School in the capital, wears a necklace with her name in Hebrew, as she approaches her teacher, Dafna Kifer, in a field at a matzah factory. With Mr. Stein’s help, I’m rolling out the matzah dough. Traveling ahead of the Passover holiday, Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland. To make it worthy of Passover, which begins next Monday night, the dough must be prepared and cooked all within 18 minutes and must not leaven. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin
A group of first-graders from the Washington, D.C., area had no time to waste. Mazzo make.
Students at the Milton Gottesman Jewish School in the capital had just 18 minutes to prepare and cook unleavened Passover staples like crackers if they wanted to make them kosher for the holiday. It was not allowed to rise.
The major Jewish holiday, which begins on the evening of April 22 this year, commemorates the exodus of the ancient Israelites from Egyptian slavery as detailed in the Torah.
Observant Jews avoid leavened grains. passover festival It reminds me of the unleavened bread that the Israelites ate when they quickly fled Egypt without having time to let the dough rise. Most breads, pasta, cakes, and cookies are off-limits, but matzoh (or matzah as some people translate it from Hebrew) is OK.
But the first-graders in paper hats and blue school T-shirts didn’t have to face time constraints on their own.
Wearing a chef’s hat atop a matzo-themed kipper, Rabbi Levi Raskin guided every step of the way during a field trip to a “model matzo factory” on Thursday. Children at schools in Washington, D.C., learned all about the history of how the festival is celebrated and the story of the exodus.
“As soon as you mix the flour and water, the 18-minute clock starts,” says Raskin, director of the JCrafts Center for Jewish Life and Traditions in Rockville, Maryland.
The center works with Chabad and also works with public schools. This demonstration includes a mini flour mill that grinds wheat grains, an example well, and a hot oven. Their dough takes about two minutes to cook, but at a real matzo factory, Raskin said, the oven is at 2,000 degrees and it’s done in seconds.
First-grade teacher Daphna Kiverstein also helped her students roll out dough during a field trip Thursday at JCrafts Center.
Charlotte Gleicher, 7, placed her hands on either side of the teacher’s hand and guided the rolling pin over it, causing the dough to spread.
Charlotte, who was wearing a necklace with her name in Hebrew, used a tool to make a small hole in the fabric, picked up the flattened disk, placed it next to the others, and poured it into matzo. It was waiting to be baked and finally eaten. Although Charlotte was disappointed that she couldn’t find her creation after it was baked, she loved his homemade matzo.
Passover typically lasts seven days in Israel and eight days elsewhere.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through The Associated Press collaboration Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. in collaboration with The Conversation US. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Copyright © 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
