Jewish Family Service Helps Those in Need Celebrate Passover

For more than 30 years, Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles (JFS) has provided the warmth and joy of a community Passover celebration for the neediest and most isolated members of our community. Over 100,000 Jews in Los Angeles live below the poverty line, struggling to meet basic needs. During the Passover seder, participants recite the Ha Lachma prayer, which includes the passage, “All who are hungry, let them enter and eat.” Thanks to generous contributions from throughout the Los Angeles area, JFS is able to host community seders, deliver Kosher for Passover meals to the frail and homebound and distribute holiday groceries to families in need.

The week of April 4, JFS hosted the 32nd Annual Clarence Gerber Memorial Passover Seders open to the community at locations in the Los Angeles area, including the San Fernando Valley. Over 150 volunteers made the day a roaring success for 500 participants which included groups from JFS Café Europa Holocaust Survivors, JFS homeless and domestic abuse shelters, assisted living facilities and beyond. Monies raised also allowed several thousand other individuals living in poverty in Los Angeles County to receive Passover meals through our Senior Nutrition Program, JFS {SOVA Community Food & Resource Centers and neighborhood social recreational centers.

In addition to newly arrived immigrants, the events were attended by many others in need including those who are alone – old and young, students with no local family, Holocaust survivors and the elderly and infirm who were able to share, sing and celebrate together.