Pesach, the holiday of spring and freedom, was celebrated in the South of Kazakhstan. In Shymkent, in cafe Dostyk we had a Passover Seder of the Jewish community. On the 6th of April, we had guests from Israel - a young rabbi with his wife, thus we conducted Seder according to all the rules. We had cozy homely atmosphere and tasty Pesach kosher food and wine, and understanding of the fact that we commemorate difficult parts of our history together with all Jewish people.

  We had been preparing for the holiday for several days. All Hesed employees took an active part in organizing Pesach. All dishes to be used in the celebration were koshered by the rabbi.

  On the 8th of April, 120 people came for the Seder, and on April 9th - 80. Both young and elder people came. The Seder started with lighting candles, which was done by women, while men were praying. According to the tradition, on the holiday table there was kiara with zroa, maror, karpas, haroset, beytzam, and hazeret in it. We put boiled vegetables in salted water and ate better herbs to commemorate what a difficult life Jewish people had in Egypt. We drank four glasses of wine leaning on the left elbow because we are free people! We sang Pesach songs. We learned and felt a lot.

  The holiday was very interesting. We would like to thank our guests from Israel and everybody who participated in the preparation of the holiday. Lena Atran told us about the Exodus from Israel and helped rabbis to hold Passover Seder. All community members recited Haggada and participated in 14 steps of Pesach. At the beginning of the Seder, we hid afikomen and then children cheerfully looked for the cherished piece of matza. The tables were laid according to holiday traditions and the food was very tasty. All food was prepared by women from the Jewish community and we are very grateful to them. We will remember this Pesach for a long time.

Bella Atran