Since 1974, Neil Harrow has spent the weekend before Passover delivering boxes filled with matzo, macaroons and bitter herbs to the homes of needy Jews in the borough so they can celebrate the holiday with the traditional seder dinner.
"I feel that the elderly and poor, as bad as their living conditions are, you want to see the holidays made a little easier for them," said Harrow, a volunteer at the B'nai B'rith's Project HOPE.
Harrow is just one among many Jews who see Passover as a time not only for religious reflection, but also for social, and even political, outreach.
The holiday commemorates the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Its images of liberation from bondage lend themselves easily to modern themes of social and political struggle.
The Jews for Racial and Economic Justice have used the symbols of the Passover story in an explicitly political way, holding an hour-long protest in front of City Hall last Wednesday, which included a short play portraying budget-cutting Republicans as the oppressors of old.
"Especially at this time of Passover, I can identify with the persecution and discrimination people are suffering throughout this city and country," said Abigail Levine, a high school senior who attended the rally.
According to Susan Shapiro, a Jewish philosophy professor at Columbia University, Passover rituals are designed to encourage participants to identify with the struggles of their ancestors. During the seder, the ritual meal of Passover, the Haggadah is read aloud, guiding those around the table through the Exodus story.
"This is a holiday that recreates a nation through memory," said Shapiro. "And the ritual use of foods help those who are sitting together at the table remember, as if it were themselves, what it was like to go through the experience of liberation from slavery."
Food is central to Passover's observance. Matzo, unleavened bread, symbolizes the haste with which the Jews fled Egypt, leaving no time for the dough they brought with them to rise. The bitter herbs, or moror, are usually fresh horseradish or romaine lettuce, which remind Jews of the bitterness of slavery. The moror are dipped in a sweet mixture of chopped fruit and nuts, wine, cinnamon and honey to take the edge off their sharp flavor.
To help struggling families buy expensive kosher-for-Passover seder foods, there are two major food drives in the borough.
The longest-running is Project HOPE (Help Our People Everywhere), based in Co-op City, which delivered 900 packages around the borough this year -- roughly a third of which go to residents of the South Bronx. The other, newer, drive is organized by the Graenum Berger Bronx Jewish Federation Service Center in partnership with the Jewish Community Council of Pelham Parkway, which delivers frozen seder meals -- and tiny copies of the Haggadah -- to more than 1,500 Jews boroughwide.