Seder kits on the way to Iraq

Howard Perl, 48, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, never saw himself as much of a worship leader.

Then again, he never thought he would be shipped to Iraq after 30 uneventful years in the Army reserve, spend Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New year, under a rain of mortar fire, or lead Friday night worship in Camp Taji, an Army post 12 miles north of Baghdad, when there wasn’t a rabbi around to do the job.

In a year full of bizarre firsts, Perl says one stands out.

“It will be pretty cool to be able to celebrate Passover in Baghdad,” said Perl, an Army captain who trains members of the Iraqi army.

“Passover is one of the defining moments in Jewish history, when the Jewish people became a nation for the first time. I am sitting here in Baghdad celebrating Passover, and I think the parallels are remarkable.”

On Wednesday, when Jews around the world begin the eight-day holiday commemorating the Israelites’ liberation from slavery in Egypt 3,300 years ago, thousands of Jewish U.S. troops will mark the occasion with modest provisions in remote and dangerous locations.

Some will crack open military-issue kosher MREs (meals ready to eat) and mark the holiday quietly, alone. Some will pray with rabbis flown in from the United States.

Others will put together simple holiday meals with matzoh, wine, and shrink-wrapped plastic Seder plates shipped by Jewish outreach organizations, including some in South Florida.

RABBI’S VIEW

“It’s our duty to support people who are doing everything they can to uphold the principles of our country, freedom and democracy,” said Rabbi David Lapp, director of the Chaplains Council for the Jewish Welfare Board, an agency that serves the spiritual needs of Jewish military personnel.

By some estimates, 5,000 to 10,000 Jews serve in the U.S. military, accounting for about 1 percent of service members. Rabbis make up a small minority in the chaplaincy corps: out of 2,891 military chaplains, just 20 are rabbis.

Jewish outreach organizations, synagogues and Hebrew schools have stepped in to fill shortfalls in spiritual services, shipping tons of kosher food, Jewish texts and pamphlets explaining the holiday’s rituals and restrictions to remote military posts in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

The Aleph Institute, a Surfside-based nonprofit Jewish outreach group affiliated the Lubavitcher Hasidic movement, has shipped to U.S. troops more than 20 tons of gefilte fish, matzoh, macaroons, and Haggadahs, books that tell the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.

PLASTIC SEDER PLATES

This year, Aleph also sent 2,000 Jewish troops colorful plastic Seder plates — complete with a shrink-wrapped chicken neck that stands in for the traditional lamb shank, packets of horseradish or bitter herbs representing the bitterness of slavery, and apple sauce with nuts, a dish that represents the mortar used by the Jewish slaves.

Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Boynton Beach shipped to soldiers hundreds of pieces of shmurah matzoh or “the bread of protection” — a special type of matzoh observant Jews eat during Passover.

”This is not only a symbolic gesture,“ said Rabbi Sholom Ciment of Chabad of Greater Boynton Beach. ”According to the Torah, it is an inculcation of protection and faith and security.“

The Jewish Welfare Board sent U.S. soldiers about 1,000 Seder packages with phone cards, suede yarmulkes, matzoh, and cans of matzoh ball soup. The organization, which was formed in 1917 to support Jews in the military during World War I, also sent 11 Jewish chaplains to posts in Afghanistan, Europe, the Middle East and Asia to lead Passover services.

MORE SPIRITUALITY

”When a person is faced with those sorts of challenges, they automatically become more spiritually aware and conscious,“ said Rabbi Aaron Lipskar, director of project development at the Aleph Institute. ”For many of them, you’re talking about people who have been totally unaffiliated for most of their lives.“

In addition to Passover provisions, each package sent by the Aleph Institute includes a pocket-size book, Courage and Safety Through Faith and Trust in G-D — a Lubavitcher rabbi’s spiritual message for Jewish troops during World War II.

The U.S. military supplies Jewish soldiers eight days worth of kosher MREs for Passover and flies in rabbis to some remote locations to hold group Seders, said Chaplain Brett Oxman, a Jewish Air Force chaplain.

”You can be in the middle of Baghdad and have a perfectly meaningful Seder, perhaps more meaningful than one in the middle of Washington, D.C.,“ Oxman said.

CAN BE RISKY

Still, dozens of e-mails from Jewish troops to groups like Aleph underscore an inescapable reality: celebrating Passover in the military can be a solitary and even dangerous undertaking, especially in predominantly Muslim countries.

Recently, Aleph received this e-mail:

”Any suggestions for how to celebrate Pesach (Passover) in Iraq? I have no idea where in the country I’m going to be on that particular day, and could easily be shot at or at least targeted if seen carrying around a Haggadah, some matzoh, or anything identifiably Jewish. Thanks, David.”