Chabad helps Jewish inmates celebrate the holiday.
The Passover seder tells the story of freedom — how God enabled the Hebrews to escape from slavery in Egypt and journey to the Promised Land. For those Jewish individuals who are incarcerated during Passover, the holiday may be especially poignant.
But this small group of Jewish individuals is not forgotten during the holiday. Rabbi Schneur Silberberg, director of outreach and assistant rabbi at Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center in West Bloomfield, annually provides seder plates assembled with all of the appropriate foods, grape juice, boxes of matzah and a Haggadah to Jewish inmates at the Oakland County Jail in Pontiac.
According to Silberberg, usually there are three or four Jewish prisoners at the jail during Passover. He explains that because Oakland County Jail is not a long-term prison, the facility lacks the space and resources of state prisons and is a particularly grim place.
The seder foods and Haggadot provide a “lifeline or connection” for Jewish prisoners, he says. This outreach to prisoners is affiliated with the national Chabad organization’s Aleph Institute. Silberberg has also taught a class at the jail.
