New Orthodox Jewish center hosts area’s first traditional Seder for Passover

Fort Collins – “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
The familiar question that Jewish children have been asking for more than 3,000 years during Passover took on added significance in Fort Collins this week.

Organizers of a community Passover Seder conducted Wednesday night say the ages-old traditional meal was brand-new for Northern Colorado.

The new Chabad Jewish Center of Northern Colorado sponsored the event, which Rabbi Yerachmiel Gorelik said was the first fully traditional community Seder in the area.

Passover, which Gorelik said “is the most ritualistic Jewish festival,” celebrates Jews’ freedom from slavery in Egypt almost 3,500 years ago.

The Seder — a meal usually shared by family and friends — begins after sundown the first evening of the eight-day Passover celebration. Each food consumed, each item used, each prayer recited carries millenniums-old significance.

“This is a full-on, traditional Seder,” Gorelik explained while setting up for the event at Colorado State University’s Ammons Hall. “Everything is authentic,” from the hand-baked unleavened matzo bread to the rituals prescribed in detail in the booklet.

Although the event was billed as the first traditional Seder in Fort Collins, members of Congregation Har Shalom, the city’s longtime unaffiliated synagogue, have been gathering to mark the feast for years. And Hillel, Colorado State’s Jewish student organization, sponsored its 12th annual community seder on campus this year.

Despite Gorelik’s efforts to adhere to tradition and specific ritual, the gathering was anything but exclusive. The intent, he said, was to draw in Jews of all backgrounds.

He said he expected some of Wednesday night’s 85 participants to be experiencing a Passover Seder for the first time, even though they are Jewish.

That outreach to Jews of all types lies at the heart of Gorelik’s mission. The native of Australia moved to Fort Collins last fall with his wife, Devorah, and young daughter to set up a Chabad Center.

The Chabad-Lubavitch organization that Gorelik represents is the world’s largest Jewish outreach movement and has more than 3,000 centers worldwide in areas without a strong Jewish presence. Chabad adherents are Orthodox Jews in the Hasidic tradition, and the 30-year-old Gorelik wears the trademark full beard, black hat and long black suit jacket.

In establishing the center in Fort Collins, the energetic, outgoing rabbi intends to serve as “an authority and expert on all areas of traditional Judaism.”

“I offer Judaism the way it always was,” Gorelik said.

Jessica Resnik of Fort Collins, a graduate student at Colorado State, said she attended Wednesday’s Seder partly out of curiosity. She grew up in a Conservative Jewish home, she said, and she wanted to see how an Orthodox Seder differed from her own family traditions.

Midway through the event, which lasted well over two hours, Resnik said she appreciated how Gorelik explained every step — “he’s very educational” — and the way “he makes it open to everyone of all backgrounds.”

The Seder had the feel of a huge family gathering rather than a formal religious ceremony.

Between the rabbi’s comments and instructions, Resnik chatted with the couple sitting next to her, who had driven down from Estes Park to participate.

Richard and Cathy Homeier, who said they come from a Christian background, have attended Seders in the past. “We are not Jewish, but we really appreciate them and want to learn from them,” Cathy Homeier said.

“We really enjoy the fellowship and friendship and appreciate the fact that they accept us,” she said. Her husband wore a black yarmulke skullcap provided to men who didn’t bring their own.

Fort Collins resident Jayne Fallik, a New Yorker who has lived in Colorado for 13 years, fits the description of the people Gorelik is hoping to reach. A Jew who “grew up not very religious,” Fallik said she was thrilled by the Seder and by Gorelik’s efforts in Fort Collins. “He’s inspiring,” she said.

She brought three of her four children to the Seder and plans to continue participating. “He’s bringing this to our family,” she said.