By Rebekah Sherman
With finals around the corner, Western New England University students were able to take a break from studying and enjoy a time of fellowship while learning about and celebrating Pesach, or Passover. The Jewish Student Association (JSA) hosted a Pesach celebration on Thursday, April 17, 2027, from 12:20 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. in the St. Germain Campus Center mall. The JSA created a heartfelt and welcoming environment for students at this event, with music playing in the background.
Alongside the Jewish Student Association, this event was hosted by Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Torah, and Professor Paulette Kofsky, Western New England University’s Senior Laboratory Technician for Neuroscience and JSA’s faculty advisor. Rabbi Yaffe; Professor Kofsky, the JSA’s faculty advisor; JSA vice president Megan Spedaliere; JSA secretary Melissa Shanteler; and JSA treasurer Chris Cruze were also involved in the Pesach event. Pesach, also called Passover, is an important Jewish holiday, and JSA hosted its own Pesach event on Thursday, 17, 2025, from 12:20 p.m. to 1:40 p.m., which was located in the St. Germain Campus Center Mall.
During Passover, the Jewish people recall when God spared their ancestors’ firstborn sons during the tenth and final plague that God inflicted on the Egyptians. The holiday is called Passover because God instructed Moses and the Israelites to smear the blood from the Passover lamb over the doorframes of the Jewish people’s homes so the angel of the lord would “pass over” their homes and their firstborn sons’ lives would be spared. JSA created a heartfelt and welcoming environment for students, with music playing in the background.
Megan Spedaliere, JSA Vice President, said at the event, “Passover represents being liberated from the enslavement of the Egyptians… It’s not a good holiday, but it’s a time to remember what it felt like to be enslaved. Passover is a very reflective holiday. It would remind us of the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt, who were at that time referred to as Hebrews. It is an opportunity to eat bittersweet foods that you’re going to see an assortment of on the Seder table, mostly salty foods or bitter foods to remind us that it took us a lot of hard work, a lot of time, to get us to where we are which is being free from the Egyptians. It’s kind of a grounding experience to remind us that even though we are free now, it took us a long time to get here … and reminds us that we have a lot of duty to help others who are in similar situations.”
Thirteen students from the Western New England University community participated in the event. They made matzah sandwiches with lettuce, charoset (an apple, honey, and wine mixture), fish, cream cheese or a chocolate cocoa spread, and cake. Lemkin, Kofsky, Spedaliere, and Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe spoke during the event. Emily Ornberg also shared her own personal Passover experience.
Many attendees were enthusiastic about the event. Here are some of the campus’s reactions to the Pesach event.
Yosef Lemkin, president of the Jewish Student Association and Western New England University sophomore pharmacy major, talked about what the event meant to him.
Lemkin said, “The meaning of Passover represents…when our ancestors left Egypt thousands of years ago, we still have our own personal Egypts via with problems that we have like tests, quizzes, homework, personal things. Passover is a reminder that whatever then is facing us, we can overcome it, we can excel and improve based off of our experiences from going through it.”
Lemkin also revealed what Pesach means to him personally.
Lemkin said, “Celebrating Pesach to me means to remember that we all have things that we can work at in order to get out of our own personal versions of Egypt and that it’s never wrong to ask questions when you don’t understand something since to be alive is to be constantly learning.”
Professor Paulette Kofsky said what Passover meant to her.
“I also look at [Passover] as a time of family,” said Prof. Kofsky, reflecting on the event. “Maybe you get together with your family and friends. It’s really important to connect, you shut down your electronics, have time together, talk, and play games.”
Emily Ornberg, a sophomore Psychology major; Kendall Richardson, a sophomore Forensic Biology major; and Ijl Ejara, a sophomore Pharmacy major, attended the event together.
Richardson said, “I really liked it. The food was really good. And it was really cool to learn about the culture.”
“I had fun,” Ejara said. “It’s great connecting with the Jewish Student Association. They always put on a fun event.”
Emily Ornberg said, “When I was a kid, my family would put on a play for our guests before the Passover Sedar, where we would reenact the story of Passover, and when I was a little child with my sisters, I would play baby Moses and I would be sent down in the living room in a laundry basket to represent Moses going down the river in the basket arriving at Pharoah’s home.”
Akith Liyanage, an international student, thought Pesach was a “good” event.
“I grew up in another country,” Liyanage said, “In South Asian countries, we don’t have these types of opportunities to have self-run events. So, it’s like something new.”
If you would like to get involved in the Jewish community or need support, you can reach out to the Jewish Student Association leadership, Professor Kofsky, or Yosif Lemkin, or go to the Congregation B’nai Torah (which is located on Two Eunice Drive in Longmeadow), where students are welcome.
