
Everything But a Seder: Five Other Ways to Program this Passover
1. Celebrate Mimouna

- Prep your guests beforehand about Mimouna . It will be easy to get people excited, because the purpose of this celebration is to do exactly that: celebrate!
- Traditionally, Mimouna is celebrated as a community, with neighbors opening up their homes to one another and sharing food. Your MHWOW programs might usually be invite-only, so consider making this one an open invite!
- Cook the traditional Mimouna foods – don’t forget the mufleta, the first leavened food served after Passover symbolizing sweetness, happiness and prosperity.
- Set your table – this looks like so much fun:
- Mimouna recipes
- The origins and traditions of Mimouna
- Lady Luck: A deeper look into the origins and traditions of the holiday
- Ten things you didn’t know about Mimouna
2. Set Yourself Free

- Keeping the conversation confidential
- Speaking from the “I,” (meaning from your own experiences rather than on behalf of another person, group, etc)
- Allowing each person to speak without interruption
3. Eat! But also think.

- What does “keeping Passover” look like to you? Your family?
- Are we planning to “keep Passover?” Why or why not? You can tell your friends, this is a no guilt program! You will not be judged if you’re not keeping Passover! Let’s talk about it!
- What are we doing to acknowledge the meaning of Passover?
- What Jewish traditions do we hold sacred and why?
4. Welcome the Stranger
Passover is a great opportunity to reflect on those in our society that are still not free and what can we do to help. Gather your friends to discuss the issues they care about the most, and decide together what you’ll do. This will create the buy-in necessary for a sustainable volunteer project! Contextualize your discussion with this Source Sheet on Welcoming the Stranger from Sefaria. Huge thank you to Molly Cram, Moishe House’s Senior Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager for putting together tons of resources to give back in this Tikkun Olam Guidebook – look at the very last page for Passover-specific resources. I especially like Repair the Worl’s printable resources for your tables to spark conversations about social justice. Remember, MHWOW funding can be used for printing! MHWOW hosts like Anna Bobrow (Charlottesville, VA), Amy Krigsman (Boynton Beach, FL), and Diane Grayson (New York City, NY) have printed Shabbat and Havdallah blessings, siddurim, and more from the MHWOW Resources folder.5. Tell Your Story
This one’s inspired by MHWOW host Nina Gordon Kirsch’s program, “Desert Wanderings of Adolescence!” “This program will be a story telling about Passover, followed by folks coming up to share their own stories of wandering through the deserts of their personal history and making it to the promised land. In a cultural society that hardly recognizes the immense transition from adolescence to adulthood (let’s be real – bar and bat mitzvahs no longer initiate us into adulthood), this event will give people in their 20s and 30s a time to be witnessed in their storytelling of their wanderings in the desert of adolescence and how far they’ve come into the promised land of adulthood now. My goals for the program are to first re-enact the Pesach story, then have at least 8 people share their personal stories of the hardships of adolescence in a comical fashion – to read journal entries or act out their middle school self, and be grateful for where they came from because it made them who they are today.” In order to make your Passover storytelling program the most meaningful it can be, ask the people who you think would be great storytellers before the program to give them enough time to prepare. If they’re nervous to speak in front of a group, let them know they can pair up with someone else. Suggest that their stories/skits stay between 3-5 minutes so that everyone has a chance to participate. Let them know it’s fine to bring their stories/skits on paper, and bonus points if they dress in costume!