‘Mitzvah Mobiles’ share the Passover message of hope and faith, as the conflict in Ukraine is on everyone’s mind.
(Courtesy of Chabad RCA) On March 31, 120 rabbinical students closed their books, packed up boxes of shmurah matzos and other Passover paraphernalia and loaded up onto 14 “Mitzvah Mobiles”—repurposed and decked-out RVs—departing the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown. They paraded through North Jersey bringing awareness about Passover before arriving at City Hall in Newark for a short event. After, each Mitzvah Mobile, with its cadre of young rabbis-to-be, traveled to cities and towns throughout North Jersey, including Jersey City, Hoboken and Newark, amongst many others, where they set anchor at shopping centers, in front of office buildings and in downtown metro areas to distribute Passover provisions, including handmade shmurah matzah, and to promote awareness and observance of Passover. They distributed over 1,000 matzos and hundreds of Passover guides to the eager passers-by.
The initiative is part of dozens of events and initiatives across New Jersey marking 120 years since the birth of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, the most influential rabbi in modern history—born in 1902 in Ukraine. The outreach is part of a Passover campaign launched by the Rebbe in 1954.
At the short event in Newark marking Education and Sharing Day U.S.A.—the day honoring the Rebbe’s transformative leadership and his promotion of moral education as the bedrock of a healthy society and marked annually on the Hebrew date of the Rebbe’s birth by each president since 1978—Associate Director of Chabad of New Jersey Rabbi Mendy Herson read the city’s proclamation marking the occasion. The crowd was also addressed by local restaurateur Mary Weber, who spoke about the Rebbe’s personal and global impact.
As Ukraine, the Rebbe’s country of birth, continues to be wracked by war and suffering, Chabad-Lubavitch of New Jersey—which includes educational, religious and social service institutions in more than 60 cities and towns across the state—dispatched the Mitzvah Mobiles across the state with a message of kindness and caring. The Mitzvah Mobiles offered handmade shmurah matzah for use at Passover Seders. In Kabbalistic teachings matzah is referred to as the “Bread of Faith” and the “Bread of Healing,” and with faith, hope and healing needed more than ever, the rabbinical students are working to ensure the message of the matzah will be shared far and wide across the state.
This local initiative comes as students of the Rabbinical College of America traveled to the border of Ukraine on a humanitarian mission to provide aid to Ukrainian refugees. They are also providing assistance to Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis—many of them alumni of the college—hosting thousands of refugees in their communities throughout Europe over Passover.
