Local Jewish Community Finds Renewed Meaning in Passover Amid Local Temple’s Ashes

As Passover 2025 approaches, Pasadena’s Jewish community is demonstrating remarkable resilience following the destruction of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center by the Eaton Fire.

Congregants are opening homes to displaced families while community organizations adapt traditions to ensure holiday celebrations continue amid the devastation.

“The Passover story is about resilience and about wandering in the desert. We are definitely wandering right now. And so I think it’s really important to provide the opportunities to be together and to pray together and to sing together and to eat together,” said Melissa Levy, Executive Director of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.

The fire has created a situation where a number of congregants lack basic necessities for the upcoming holiday, which begins at sundown on Saturday, April 12, and continues through April 20.

“We have many congregants that have no dining room to have their Seder in, no kitchen to cook their Passover meal in,” Levy explained. “Congregants who still have a place are opening up their homes so that those who do not have a place for first night Seder can be with other congregants and be together with other families and don’t have to worry about resupplying their kitchens or lack thereof.”

Despite losing their building, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center will maintain the tradition of hosting a community-wide Second Night Seder on April 13 at a new location.

“We are very grateful to be able to do that,” said Levy. “And we have a very generous donor in our congregation that is making it free for our congregants this year, which is unbelievable.”

Rabbi Chaim Hanoka, Executive Director of Chabad of Pasadena, described his organization’s efforts to distribute “hundreds and hundreds” of handmade matzah packages and “Seder to Go” kits containing all requirements necessary for the Passover Seder.

Chabad has waived fees for many programs, particularly for those who cannot afford Seder costs or who have lost possessions in the fire.

The wider Pasadena faith community has embraced the local Jewish community following the disaster.

First United Methodist Church now hosts Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center’s Shabbat services, Mayfield Senior School opened doors for religious school students, and the Unitarian Church hosted a community event with Representative Judy Chu regarding fire updates.

For Passover services that fall on Sundays, when their host church needs their space, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center will relocate to another local synagogue.

For many affected families, the Passover narrative of exile and liberation has taken on deeper significance.

“We persevered 3,300 years ago, having been enslaved in Egypt against impossible odds against Pharaoh,” said Rabbi Hanoka. “People are experiencing their own exile, so to speak, right now, particularly those who’ve lost their homes physically or have smoke damage.”

The timing of Passover 2025 presents additional challenges, as the holiday begins immediately after Shabbat.

This requires the searching and burning of chametz (leavened products) to have taken place Thursday night (April 10) and Friday morning (April 11) instead of the usual timing. Preparing for Passover involves a thorough cleaning of the home to remove all traces of chametz, with a ritual search conducted the night before Passover begins.

Throughout the eight-day festival, Jews abstain from eating chametz—any food made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, or spelt that has been allowed to ferment or rise.

The Passover Seder, a ritual meal held on the first two nights in the diaspora, follows a specific 15-step process outlined in the Haggadah.

Leo Baeck Temple recently held a “Judaica shop” where people impacted by both the Eaton and Palisade fires could replace lost Jewish ritual items. The LA Jewish community and LA Jewish Federation collaborated to ensure affected Jews throughout the LA area could obtain necessary ritual objects, including Seder plates essential for the holiday celebrations.

For those displaced by the fire, Levy noted how they’re “hopping from couch to couch and Airbnb to Airbnb,” comparing their situation to the Jews wandering in the desert in the Passover story. She explained how they’re seeking structure similar to the biblical portable sanctuary (mishkan), and how the familiar rituals of Passover provide stability during this uncertain time.

“God doesn’t give us a test that we can’t withstand,” Rabbi Hanoka offered. “So as difficult as it is for those people, somehow we dig deep and we have the ability to persevere and we at Chabad doing our utmost to try to help them endure.”

As the community prepares to celebrate this significant holiday amid challenging circumstances, Levy’s message remains one of hope: “That we are here and we’re in this together, and that we will help each other rebuild, whether it’s our homes or our sanctuaries or our spirits and our souls.”

Passover, one of the most significant festivals in the Jewish calendar, commemorates the biblical account of the Exodus, when the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. The name “Passover” derives from the Hebrew term “Pesach,” referring to how God “passed over” the houses of the Israelites during the final plague that killed the firstborn sons of Egypt.