Resources
- Lookstein Center Pesach Resources
- PJ Library Passover
- Hadar's Pesach Reader 5784
- Seder Resources on Sefaria
- Passover's Connection to Mental Health--Blue Dove Foundation
- Your Israel Connection for Passover
- Al Hatorah Haggadah Topic List
- Aleph Beta
- Pesach Lessons Plans from Misrad Hachinuch
- NCSY Passover Collection
- Jewish Education Project Passover Resources
- JTS Passover Learning
Haggadot
- Passover, Redemption and Religious Freedom, a Haggadah Supplement from the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks - Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University.
- The Five Women of Exodus: A Feminist Supplement to the Haggadah
- AJWS' social justice Haggadah.
- JGateways has an inclusive Haggadah and more resources.
- Haggadah for Young Children – This free, downloadable Haggadah from PJ Library features colorful images and clear instructions for younger students.
- Haggadah Text and Commentaries – A free online version of the traditional Haggadah text can be found on the Sefaria website, along with many commentaries on the text, for free online use or download.
- Basic Pesach Haggadah – A basic printable version of the Haggadah text.
- The Kveller Haggadah – This free, printable Haggadah from Kveller encourages curiosity in children and adults alike.
- Haggadah Companion – This printable companion to the traditional Haggadah from Aish UK adds commentary, insight and questions for reflection to enhance the Seder experience.
PesachSongs
- Ma Nishatana from the Maccabeats. Featuring interactive musical components.
- Ma Nishtana from Hop! A great way to teach the Ma Nishtana in Hebrew.
- The Four Questions. Bimbam provides easy sing-along instructions.
- Order of the Seder. This song by Zusha features a traditional tune.
- Avadim Hayinu. Debbie Friedman’s rendition.
- Dayenu. Ary the Lion teaches the song to young children with a sing-along using transliteration.
- Dayenu from The Maccabeats. This version pairs the classic tune with multiple musical genres.
- Vehi She’amda. A modern Israeli version by Yonatan Razel.
- Chad Gadya. This sing-along video from Bimbam teaches children the words and meaning to the song.
- Who Knows One? An English version of “Echad Mi Yodea” from Bimbam.
- Pesach Medley. An animated video by Micha Gamerman.
- Had Gadya by Rana Arab-Jewish women's choir
Ideas for Students
- WWYD, what would you do discussions: If you were a midwife, would you have stood up to pharaoh? Explain.
- Make a Dayenu list of gratefuls: Whom are you are grateful for?
- The four sons in art: Which son are you?
- The Lego challenge: What is wrong in this scene? Or whose perspective is this from? Or which part of the Haggadah is this scene depicting?
- Make your own Haggadah commentaries.
- Create a Passover game for your family and friends: TABOO, Life, or Monopoly, Passover edition.
- Watch the movie The Prince of Egypt and find mistakes! Discuss.
- Pesach padlet, from Lookstein.
- Create a tutorial video for how to run the Seder.
- Downloadable Passover activity pages from Jewish Boston
- Escape the room for Passover.
- Bechol Lashon offers a variety of home activities through its Passport for Peoplehood, including workshops, art projects and recipes recipes of Jewish communities throughout the world.
- For a retelling of the Passover story, you're unlikely to do better than "The Kids' Version" produced by the Schusterman Foundation.
- For Ashkenazi families, this video will teach your children to say the Fir Kashes (four questions) in Yiddish.
Ideas for Families
- Send email or letters to family members with the words of Torah you would want to have said at a particular point in the seder with instructions: Open me now.
- Teachers can send their classes notes ot be opened at the seder at a given time.
- Matzah olympics.
- Webinar on making charoset together, with recipe sent in advance.
- “Caption this” : post some Exodus style pictures/memes and have people send in their captions and share.
- When Pharaoh hardened his heart it was not good: Discuss when being stubborn is good and when it is a liability.
- Getting personal: Which question style are you? The power of questions choose the son you most identify with. What types of questions interest you?
- The Haggadah and Jewish Education
- Make a google doc with favorite recipes for families to share.
- Sensory station: Assign each person/ couple to a sense, with questions.
- Smells
- Tastes
- Feeling / touch
- Sounds
- Sights
- Shir Hashirim and the Haggadah make history come alive through sensory experiences - what does this sense make you appreciate? Why? What props on the table tonight remind us of this sense? If you were there that night, what would be your memories involving this sense?
- Seder night Passover prompts by Partnership of Pedagogy
* Scavenger Hunt, Passover theme
- (If they can go outside) Create a scavenger hunt of things found outside in your immediate neighborhood.
- Scavenger hunt at home.
- 3 styles: literal (find a pillow that is a weird shape); abstract (find something that shows the feeling of happy); the alphabet (find one item that begins with each letter of the alphabet).
- Bonus points if you play against another family and share on zoom when time is up.
Ideas for Communal Engagement
- Students create short clips of the seder, or of the Passover story. Teachers can then make it into a full movie to watch together.
- Students share pictures of themselves with their haggadah. Make into a montage.
- Families share short videos discussing their family traditions, then share with school on a movie.
- Sing Chad Gadya with animal sounds. Make posters for Echad Mi Yodeyah and have everyone hold up their’s for each number as you sing it.
- Collect stories from families of their journeys, especially immigrant families who escaped persecution, and share.
- Eliyahu’s cup: Instead of just filling the cup with grape juice or wine, pour a bit from every person’s cup with a blessing for the next year. This year, as you refill it with blessing-- collect the wishes of your school community in advance and read them out when you get to that part of the seder..
- Hide the imaginary “afikoman” somewhere in the school building and every day give another clue… and send pictures…. And a ransom note.
- Passover vs fourth of July debate